Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

"I might have a new favoirite studio"

With all the remakes of classic titles these day, i was very reluctant when I initially herd of this game. In fact when the game shipped and I saw reviews popping up on mainstream game sites such as Gamespot, IGN, Gamepro, I didn't think twice about it. Usually, I'll read, or at least look over, reviews of big release titles. I have felt there has been a trend in the industry to remake or continue legacy franchises in an attempt to cash-in on (or exploit) a built in fan base. Because of this, and due to some lack luster re-invisionments of some classes, I was in a very defensive mode when I heard about this game. It as not until I was over a my friends house, where he told me that I must try this new game he had for the Xbox, when I actually gave this game a try. From the very first instance, was blown away by the graphics, sound, animation, and game play. Despite not staying completely faithful to the original game (more or less its really just inspired by it), It is my opinion that Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is one of the greatest 3rd-person action adventure games ever made.

Having said this, I will now focus on some of the major draw backs of the game. First, the major problem I have with the game is the 3rd person camera. It tries to be intelligent but it fails in some instances when the camera needs to move around an obstruction. Another problem with the camera is the transition between rooms when, the camera is set in ''Birds-eye-View''. Often the transition isn't smooth and causes the loss of orientation. It also reverts from ''Birds-eye-view'' to standard 3rd person view. There are some problem with controls as well; the direction keys are oriented with the camera so, when the camera's view changes then so do the direction keys. Another problem with the controls is when you use the dagger of time, sometime when in the heat of a battle you want to use the dagger on a fallen foe, but because there is a cluster of enemies it uses the dagger on the wrong opponent (thus allowing the fallen foe to rejuvenate). It also wastes half of a precious sand tanks when using the dagger on a live enemy. These technical issues are minor and really don't hurt the game too much. In terms of game play, I would have liked to see a bit more advanced battle system; the system they employ is fun and the various attack moves look really, really cool, but it's not the most captivating. Maybe a combo system or increasing the difficulty to do those wicked flip/wall spring attacks wall would have lead to a deeper battle system (similar to Jedi Knight/Academy saber attacks).

There are many good things about this game. For the sake of keeping this review short, I'll only mention a few. I'd like to note that graphics, animation, and sound are top notch. The animation is smooth and transitions between different animation loops are seamless. The ''rewinding time'' game play feature is amazing. I've been thinking in the past how games could incorporate save-and-loading as part of the gameplay. Since games that have the user make precise timed jumps require lots of saving and loading. This interrupts the flow of game play and story. It also makes the user frustrated and causes them to looses immersion into the virtual world. Imagine how the Tomb Raider 2 would have played if something like this was a feature. Every time I missed a jump and fell off a cliff i would want to throw my computer monitor out the window, but now Ubisoft has found a way to make falling to your doom cool. Every time I miss a ledge I rewind time and think to myself: ''wow that was so cool''. In fact when I have friends over that have never seen the game, I'll jump off a cliff or get killed in a battle on purpose just so I can rewind time. There are several other things that make this game really stand out. I mentioned the camera system as having several technical flaws, but the ability to change from a traditional 3rd person camera to ''birds-eye-view'' camera (devil may cry style) is a nice touch. The game does a lot of the little things well. Since the game is from the narrator's point-of-view, when you die, he says: ''no wait, that's not how it happens'' or when you quit the game, he says that ''do you want to leave before i finish my story''. These little things add to the players immersive experience. I could go on with other great aspects of the game, but i could be writing all day.

Ubisoft Montreal has been responsible for Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six 3 and now Prince Of Persia: The Sands of Time. I might have a new favoirite Development Studio. (9/10)

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/05/03