The Prince of Persia series has always been tied to difficulty, with even the first game having a brutally uncompromising time limit and some dastardly hard levels – I’m looking at you, level seven. New roguelike The Rogue Prince of Persia continues in that tradition and was already the opposite of a cakewalk, but the most recent update for the game has just made it so much tougher.
New challenges for The Rogue Prince of Persia players looking for a step up in difficulty come in the form of a mysterious altar which unlocks after completing a run. Once you return back to the oasis, your home away from home in the roguelike game, you’ll be able to choose from a selection of stones which will apply to your next run. These stones each come with modifiers that will make the game much more difficult, with the ability to take more and more stones should you be able to complete certain requirements. This means you can choose how tough you want things to be, with absolute depths of difficulty awaiting those who really want to be punished.
If you do choose to dip into this new system you’ll start earning a currency called Corrupted Blood, which you can use to unlock abilities in separate skill trees that have also been added with this update. Some of these trees also require use of Spirit Glimmers, so you’ll have to head out and do plenty of more runs in order to fuel your new skills.
While obviously all of that is great and adds to the game in a really nice way, there’s one addition in this patch that, personally, I think stands head and shoulders above everything else. Kicks are much more powerful now, with a revamped animation that means you’re really going to feel it when you plant your boot in the face of a foe. As well as that, you’ll also be able to reflect knives and arrows back at the person who threw them at you with a well timed kick, as is entirely correct.
The Warrior’s Ascension update for The Rogue Prince of Persia is out now and you can learn more about what’s in this patch over on Steam. There’ll also be a roadmap released soon that should give fans a look at what to expect in the upcoming months – so keep an eye out for that.
Alternatively, take a look at our list of the absolute best platform games on PC for a taste of something different, as well as our full guide of the best indie games you can play right now to find your next favorite obsession.
You can also follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides, or grab our PCGN deals tracker to net yourself some bargains.