Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown has a free demo you can play right now

YouTube

There was a time when game demos were standard. Developers gave away a chunk of their game and if you liked it, you handed over some cash for the rest of it. In fact, the original Prince of Persia was available in a "shareware" version that gave players the first two levels of the game, after which they could pay for the remaining 11 if they wanted to keep going.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown isn't set to release in full until January 18, but reviews are out now and it's quite good. We gave it a 72% score (as defined by our review policy, that's "a good game that's definitely worth playing"), saying that while it starts far too slowly, "its second half does a fantastic job of leaning into its strengths," with the net result being "a solid attempt at a metroidvania."

If you're uncertain whether it's quite solid enough for your interest, the demo's "carefully selected sections from the game, with early unlocks of time powers and amulets, to show the main gameplay features while not spoiling the story" is an ideal way to get a feel for it without having to watch the clock on the refund policy. You can take your time to decide if you dig it, and if not, hey, it's basically a free (if abbreviated) game.

The Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown demo is an 11GB download, which according to my quick math makes it about 41,200 times the size of the shareware demo of the original Prince of Persia. You can get it now from Ubisoft and the Epic Games Store.

TOPICS

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.