The Rogue Prince of Persia Critic Reviews

Evil Empire has come up with an absolute banger of a roguelite that is not afraid to show where its inspirations lie, so much so that The Rogue Prince of Persia could be interpreted as some sort of Dead Cells 2 set in The Prince of Persia universe. If this is what the devs are really capable of, let's hope they keep finding video games that inspire the entire team.

The Rogue Prince of Persia enters its Early Access stage with a little less punch than you might expect but Evil Empire’s pedigree means the foundation is rock solid. Thanks to fluid and responsive movement and an overarching commitment to vibe, this is a prince with eyes set firmly on the crown.

The Rogue Prince of Persia is a roguelite that's currently a little too light and not roguish enough, playing it too safe to stand out. Still, a fun core combat engine and attractive animation provide a strong foundation to be built on during its time in Early Access.

Even in its early state, The Rogue Prince of Persia masterfully blends the best of Prince of Persia and Dead Cells in a solid package offering a more involved narrative, excellent platforming, dynamic combat and a lot of death, as is tradition for a proper roguelite. While there's still a lot of work to be done, regarding content and balance, the game's strong core mechanics have the potential to make it one of the best Metroidvania roguelites ever made.

The movement and combat feels fluid, the feedback is sublime, and the simplistic art style is super effective. Oh, and the music… My word, does this game have some incredible scores. The music in the Academy stage is so good I stood still and listened to it for a while, just because. Despite a few minor issues with balancing, there’s no doubt in my mind that, given time, The Rogue Prince of Persia will become a worthy addition to its vaunted franchise.

The Rogue Prince of Persia is off to a great start. While it doesn’t have a ton of variation in its weapon or medallion systems, the 6 biomes and 2 bosses offer plenty of challenge and fun. The gameplay is tight and fluid, nailing that one-more-run feeling of a good roguelike. The developers plan to double the amount of content by 1.0, so there’s plenty to look forward to.

The Rogue Prince of Persia might not be quite enough to pull you away from Hades 2 just yet, but if you’re a fan of the genre, it’s one you definitely should keep an eye on as it makes its way through early access.

The Rogue Prince of Persia is an interesting-looking title. It’s an extremely simplistic and brightly colored look that turned me off a bit at first. There is an opening cutscene that was shown to us during a preview event where things had more detail. The game itself though relies on sharp black lines to pull off an almost cell-shaded look. Humans have colorful skin tones and enemies are all manner of creatures. I love the way it looks, and it averaged roughly 400 fps on my PC so I’m guessing consoles and handhelds will not have a hard time running it.

In its current early access state, the Rogue Prince of Persia is a fine action platformer with a unique graphical style and a solid gameplay loop, which does need a bit more polishing and content to be entirely recommended, especially to casual fans of the genre who have been spoiled lately. A less confusing combat system, better enemy AI, and more balanced difficulty might make this a great game in the future. For now, this is one for the hardcore roguelite and Prince of Persia fans.

The Rogue Prince of Persia combines a non-linear narrative and rogue-like structure with the excellent combat and movement that Evil Empire is known for. Though some rough edges remain, it's a great start to early access.

The Rogue Prince of Persia is undeniably a game of solid quality, but its current content is lacking. The innovative parkour mechanics bring a lot of fresh experience to the game, but they also require higher platforming skills from the player. The combat system is simplified compared to Dead Cells, but many aspects still need to be improved in terms of practicality. The game's biggest problem at the moment is the lack of roguelike progression elements.

While it's still in early access, there's already a fantastic foundation for Evil Empire to build upon with The Rogue Prince of Persia. If the team can build on the loot available, it could be the finest roguelike Metroidvania since Dead Cells.

If there’s anything I would like to see in the final release version of The Rogue Prince of Persia, it’s this: More weapon variety (at launch, there are only a handful, though they feel impactful and unique.) More powerups with more exciting effects, maybe a slight nerf to boss battles, and even more dialogue and story moments to experience throughout the game...That being said, The Rogue Prince of Persia is already on pretty solid ground in its current Early Access state and is definitely worth checking out, even if you’re skeptical about pre-release titles in general.

After my short time with its new roguelite, however, I still can’t wait to see where Rogue goes from here. I’m intrigued to see how its promising ideas are developed, regardless of how many more of its genre come out prior to the release of its 1.0 version.

I’ll be checking out all the major updates The Rogue Prince of Persia gets, but I have very few complaints with the game right now. Outside some performance issues, it plays great on Steam Deck, and I can’t wait to see how it evolves over time. If you enjoy roguelites and like platforming, The Rogue Prince of Persia is worth your time right now. Hopefully the few issues can be ironed out soon so the developers can focus on bringing in more content to the release.

Due to its place in early access, the game does feel like a very early version. I can imagine that once Evil Empire and Ubisoft get going and can bring us a solid roadmap of additions, we’re likely to see a much more fleshed-out experience and one with a lot of options. As it stands right now, it’s a brilliant foundation for what’s to come. It definitely deserves more players, but such is the life of an early access title - a lot of players could be waiting for more content before buying. What you’ll find here is a competent, gorgeous roguelike that can only go up, and what’s included will keep you going for plenty of hours.

The Rogue Prince of Persia already offers a good, but far from mature, gaming experience in Early Access. With further updates, a real gem could emerge here. Especially if the technology on the Steam Deck improves and more content is added. At the moment, the prince's adventure is only suitable for players who have no problems with EA content.

The Early Access of The Rogue Prince of Persia shows a lot of things that makes us think this could be one of the finest adventures by the Prince. The movement is amazing, combat is really fun, all the options of personalization of weapons are great and fun to discover and use and the gameplay in general helps a lot to avoid any kind of boredom. We see a lot of potential.

The Rogue Prince of Persia brings an interesting twist to the classic formula of the saga, combining fluid gameplay with time travel. But it urgently needs more content.

In a way, it is very frustrating to only be able to enjoy The Rogue Prince of Persia in early access, because we would love to be able to chew some more right away. Thanks to its particularly enjoyable path system and its magnificent visual and audio universe, Evil Empire's first game has the potential to join the sacred league of “must-have roguelikes”. Unfortunately, it is sorely lacking in content, but this problem will obviously be ironed out in the coming months. We can also keep our fingers crossed for that early access, which will enable the developers to move in the right direction thanks to valuable feedback from players. One thing's for sure, though, and that is that we will be coming back regularly for a few runs to find out what new features the studio has implemented!