PlayStation 5 Critic Reviews

It’s simple: did you enjoy Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown and would you like to enjoy another helping of beautifully designed platforming sections and boss fights that are some of the best ever seen in a 2D game? Well, don’t think twice: the Mask of Darkness DLC is a must-have.

Mask of Darkness presents a good reason to return to Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, offering a new area to explore filled with intense platforming challenges and some fun boss fights, all at a budget price.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown - Mask of Darkness is what every expansion should aspire to. It introduces an interesting new story, new challenging environments and enemies, but doesn't stray too far from what made fans love the original. It's a few more hours of what can be described as more of the same, but that's meant in a complimentary way. The platforming challenges, nonlinear exploration and epic boss battles are why Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is such a great game, and fans can expect to see more of that in Mask of Darkness. Most fans will be able to finish it in around five hours or so, but the quality of that time is well worth the price of admission.

Although it fulfills the desires of those who wanted more Prince of Persia, Mask of Darkness is not an essential chapter to the base game. The difficulty spike shows that the expansion's intended audience is made of the players who enjoyed the precision platform segments, but the expansion doesn't add much beyond that, not even in terms of story and art direction. In the end, it's a good piece of content to play, but relatively unnecessary, recommended only to enthusiasts.

For under a fiver and with around five to six hours of content, the Mask of Darkness is practically an essential addition for fans of The Lost Crown. Offering an intense experience; as well as a surprisingly compelling story that fills in many of the blanks from the original game. Recommended.