Developer: Ubisoft Montpellier
Publisher: Ubisoft
Platform: PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Amazon Luna
Tested on: PC
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown – Mask of Darkness DLC – Review
It wasn’t all that long ago that the Prince of Persia series was seemingly dead in the water, but that changed when The Lost Crown saw release. With Sargon’s adventure, Ubisoft single-handedly brought back the legendary parkour-platformer franchise to the consciousness of the public. Since then, we’ve gotten a Prince of Persia spin-off title (currently in Early Access) from Evil Empire, and now Ubisoft themselves are stepping up again, with a new DLC expansion for The Lost Crown. Is Mask of Darkness worth a return trip to Mount Qaf?
We won’t be covering Mask of Darkness’ visuals and audio in depth, because anything that we’d have to say about those was already covered in our review of the base game. You could argue that the same applies to Mask of Darkness’ gameplay, but there are enough shakeups here to set the expansion apart from The Lost Crown. Granted, Mask of Darkness isn’t entirely self-contained: you need to have progressed fairly far in Sargon’s adventure before you can access this side-story. Mask of Darkness ties up an unresolved plotline from the base game: that of Radjen. You may remember her as the mask-wearing assassin who vowed to kill Sargon early on in the main story, upon entering Mount Qaf. What appeared to be a throwaway threat finally comes to fruition here, as Radjen manages to literally pull our hero into her mask, revealing an alternate dimension inside. Suddenly, it becomes a lot clearer why Radjen appears insane.
This unfortunate situation also strips Sargon of most of his amulets and powers, meaning you can’t breeze your way through Mask of Darkness. You can still dash and you have your bow, but essential powers like double jumping are gone. This back-to-basics approach is reflected in the way Mask of Darkness’ platforming stages were designed. You might find that the expansion’s opening stages feel familiar initially, as they re-thread the opening stages of The Lost Crown, up until the first boss fight even. However, things are decidedly different in Radjen’s twisted mind palace version. The focus here is more on platforming and less on combat compared to the base game. New elements like vanishing platforms and portals that you manipulate with your bow add a fresh twist to The Lost Crown’s already outstanding platforming. The focal shift to mainly platforming makes Mask of Darkness’ pace feel like it kicks things up more than a few notches, as you’ll move at a breakneck speed through the stages, with only a razor-thin margin of error. That’s without getting into the expansion’s final boss fight, which sets itself apart as the biggest challenge in the entire game, more so even than The Lost Crown’s climax.
It stands to reason then that Mask of Darkness gets a lot right, but there are a handful of things that don’t land as well. For one, Mask of Darkness strips away most of the Metroidvania elements. It’s a straightforward affair, with almost no backtracking and very little in the way of exploration. Radjen’s story is interesting as a standalone fleshing out of the character, but it doesn’t have any meaningful ties to The Lost Crown’s overarching narrative. In fact, Sargon’s journey through Radjen’s mind palace feels inconsequential. Upon your return to the real world, it’s as if you had never left in the first place. We weren’t expecting seamless integration of Mask of Darkness into The Lost Crown’s story per se, but it would have been fantastic if this felt like a natural expansion of the game’s lore instead.
Clocking in at around 5 hours, Mask of Darkness is a fairly substantial expansion, but here’s the kicker: It only costs €5. If you’re an owner of the base game, then picking up Mask of Darkness should be a no-brainer, provided you are looking for a more challenging twist on The Lost Crown’s formula. We should add that although you can play Mask of Darkness without having completed Sargon’s main journey, it’s still best reserved for after you complete the base game. Mask of Darkness won’t reward you with any all-powerful weapons or gear, so there is no advantage to completing it as quickly as possible. In fact, the increased platforming difficulty makes this an expansion for those wanting to test their skills even further instead of players who are just looking to get more of the same.
Conclusion
The biggest strength of Mask of Darkness is in how it pushes The Lost Crown’s platforming gameplay to the next level. There is more focus on gauntlet-like platforming than there is on exploration and combat this time around, although these elements are still present. It makes for an excellent blend of new challenges and familiar elements, for the price of a fancy coffee. We’d loved to have seen Mask of Darkness’ story better incorporated in The Lost Crown’s overarching narrative, but apart from that, this is a fantastic addition to an already outstanding game.
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