The Forgotten Sands has FMV cutscenes and high-res textures. Even FitGirl’s repack usually lands at ~2.5 GB (not 500 MB). If a site promises 700 MB, they’ve likely:
Such versions may not be worth it—the story and atmosphere suffer.
A highly compressed version does not change the hardware requirements – only the installer size. Your PC still needs to run the full game after extraction.
| Component | Minimum | Recommended | |-----------|---------|--------------| | OS | Windows XP / Vista / 7 | Windows 7 / 8 / 10 (32/64-bit) | | CPU | 2.6 GHz Dual Core | 3.0 GHz Dual Core or better | | RAM | 1 GB (XP) / 2 GB (Vista/7) | 4 GB | | GPU | 256 MB VRAM (SM3.0) NVIDIA 7600 / ATI X1800 | 512 MB VRAM NVIDIA 8800 / ATI HD 3850 | | DirectX | 9.0c | 9.0c or newer | | Storage | 4.5 GB free after install | 4.5 GB free |
Note: If the compressed repack removes videos, final install size may be ~3.8 GB, but gameplay remains identical. The Forgotten Sands has FMV cutscenes and high-res textures
Good news: The Forgotten Sands is not demanding. A highly compressed version runs exactly the same.
To understand the phenomenon, you have to remember the landscape of 2010. Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands arrived as a return to the "Sands of Time" continuity, bridging the gap between the first game and Warrior Within. On PC, the game was a decent port, but it required a chunky download (roughly 6GB to 8GB installed) at a time when SSDs were expensive luxuries and terabytes were unheard of for the average user.
Enter the "Highly Compressed" trend. Uploaders on forums and torrent sites promised the impossible: aggressive compression algorithms (often labeled as "Black Box," "KaOs," or "Repacks") that squeezed the game down to a fraction of its size. For a student with a slow connection or a gamer with a tiny laptop drive, this was the holy grail.
In the age of high-speed fiber internet and 2TB SSDs, the need for a "highly compressed" version of a 14-year-old game is largely obsolete. The legitimate file size is manageable by modern standards. Such versions may not be worth it—the story
For the retro enthusiast looking to revisit this chapter of the Prince's journey, the advice is simple: Avoid the "Highly Compressed" trap.
The era of the "Black Box" rip is over. The files lingering on file-hosting sites are remnants of a bygone era—often corrupted, incomplete, or dangerous. If you wish to walk the walls of the palace once more, do it safely. The "Forgotten Sands" are best remembered through legitimate means, rather than risking your PC's health for a 500MB file that promises the world but delivers only dust.
Before diving into downloads, let’s recall why this game is worth your time.
Plot: Set between The Sands of Time and Warrior Within, the Prince visits his brother’s kingdom to learn leadership. When Solomon’s army—ancient supernatural forces—is released, the Prince must master new elemental powers (water, fire, earth, air) alongside classic time rewinding. A highly compressed version does not change the
Key Features:
Metacritic Score: ~75 (solid for an action game, praised for platforming, criticized for short length).
Inside the extracted folder, you will find Setup.exe or Installer.exe. Run as Administrator.