"No, no, no. I didn’t fall. Let me begin again."

A prince's work is never done. He has to do everything his royal father commands of him. He must also find a suitable companion that his people will cherish as a queen in the years to come. He toils away keeping himself fit as an image of beauty and an icon of virile strength. He follows his father on the frontlines and witnesses the spectacle of war. He unleashes the wrath of time. He turns entire kingdoms into sand. He must battle creatures far stronger than he and overcome deadly obstacles. He can barely survive. Yes sir, a prince's work is never done.

Ubisoft's beautiful action-platformer Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time takes you on wondrous journey that's sure to please and bedazzle you. The game begins with the narration from our humble protagonist, the prince. He explains how his father, a great Persian king, ransacked a territory of India taking many valuables such as the fabled Sands of Time kept in an immense hourglass so heavy that it required several muscle-bound guards to move it. The prince's parting gift however was a much smaller and compact one: the Dagger of Time. Unfortunately while your father delivers the sands to another kingly friend of his, the treacherous Vizier tricks the prince into using the dagger to unlock the sands causing utter chaos as the inhabitants of the palace morph into grotesque sand abominations.

But three survived.

The Vizier knew what he was doing when he tricked the prince, and now he wants the dagger. But since the prince is still in possession of the ancient artifact, he too was saved from the sands. Also a girl named Farah survived, who the prince quickly learns is the daughter of the Maharajah that was recently ransacked. She knows much about both the sands and the dagger and explains that they must stop the Vizier's wicked plan (whatever it may be) by sealing the Sands of Time once again in their hourglass.

Although the aging Vizier has unmasked himself as the game's main antagonist, he is definitely not the prince's greatest foe. Instead you'll be stuck in a constant struggle with castle itself. Crumbling walls, broken bridges, and a plethora of deadly traps are easily found throughout the entire palace, and the prince will need to deal with them anyway he can. Luckily for you, our boy here has trained his body well. The prince's agile and lithe body allow for him to perform exquisite acrobatics including running across walls, flipping off of poles, and much more.

Very early on in Sands of Time, you'll arrive at the palace's many perilous rooms, which will require using many of your skills. The prince will have to execute feats such running across a wall at the right time in order to dash past two giant saw-blades that move up and down. Or sometimes the prince must leap off the wall at the correct moment to grab hold of an object suspended in mid-air like a ladder or a rope. At times the prince will find himself in a tight enclosed space with an exit just out of reach. By running up the wall and proceeding to kick himself to the other wall repeatedly, the prince can propel himself up through mere jumping. Other rooms are filled with deadlier traps such as blades that shoot out from the walls, spikes that rise from the ground and odd contraptions that spring from the floor and swing scimitars in a horizontal circle. This title also has its fair share of puzzles in the form of moving blocks onto pressure plates and correctly operating levers.

This adventure, however, is at its best when you find all these platforming aspects through together all at once with little room for breathing. For example in one extremely large and wide-open room the prince must make his way down to the floor. You'll have to run across walls, grab onto columns, and edge your away along ledges to finally reach ground. Another room has you making your way past a gauntlet of traps before an iron gate shuts itself. The prince must roll under blades and jump over spikes only to find a large pit leaving him just out of reach of the door. The pit is equipped with an uncomfortable bed of spikes and is obviously too large to leap across. The left wall is missing a rather large piece of stone making running across it out of question. That just leaves the right wall. Now this will require some clever planning because the right wall has two parallel saw blades crawling along horizontally only to be separated by a narrow ledge. Fortunately the paths of each trap aren't equal in length thus making it an oddity for the two blades to be right under each other. So just grab onto the ledge to make your way across. If the bottom blade is nearing your body, climb up and side-step. If the top blade is a little too close for comfort, hang from the ledge and use your hands to get across. Watch out though and don't get hit or you'll fall into the pit and find a spot of cold steel in your right lung. But don't worry too much. The game's smooth controls make getting through these treacherous obstacles a breeze and you also have your chum the Dagger of Time to rely on.

The prince was quite the clever boy when he chose to steal the Dagger of Time. The dagger's power to control time will save you quite a few times throughout the decrepit palace. With a quick press of the left shoulder button, you'll turn back time for up to ten seconds. Think of all the frustration and rage that the dagger will suppress. If you take a rather nasty slice from a bladed trap, rewind time and act as if it never happened. Should you goof up a jump and plummet into a bottomless pit, activate the dagger to instantly retry. But remember; you're dagger can only use this power a finite amount of times. Each backward movement through time consumes one of the prince's Sand Tanks, which can only be replenished through combat or sucking up globs of sand located throughout the palace.

All this intricate platforming and thinking about when to use the dagger or how to solve a puzzle can really work up an appetite for good-ole fashioned button-mashing action, and Sands of Time delivers. Working as a nice diversion from the main staple of the game, this title houses a simple yet highly enjoyable combat system. I mean, just don't go expecting something along the lines of Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden. With a few taps of the attack button, the prince can execute flashy slice and dice combos to quickly knock out the numerous sand zombies. You can also have the prince vault over an enemy to create a nifty two-hit combo right into the back of a beast, perform tricky counter-attacks, and launch himself off of a wall with his blade extended for devastating thrusting action.

But simply hacking away at these creatures' grey flesh isn't enough to kill them. After these monsters fall to the ground, the prince must thrust the Dagger of Time into their glowing yellow bellies to absorb them and leave them forever erased from time. All of this is fairly easy when against one or two enemies, but it becomes tricky once you're surrounded by four fearsome foes (which is pretty much most of the time). They'll gang up on the prince while making sure to counter-attack and block your impending blows. That's when your dagger comes in handy once again.

Obviously you'll still have the ability to rewind time, which can fix any nasty goof-ups or even revive a dead prince (how he utilizes the dagger during death I'll never know). But once you've killed and absorbed enough sand zombies, the prince can earn Power Tanks. These work exactly like Sand Tanks except that they're for different abilities. The prince can use the power to freeze time on a single enemy by poking them with his dagger. While your foe is in this state of limbo, just attack twice to cut them in two and wipe the creature from existent. Needless to say this is a very helpful move against the tougher enemies of the game. There's also the disappointingly worthless ability to slow time for ten seconds. The problem is that the prince is also slowed down as well making it a waste of a perfectly good Power Tank. But then coming in the rear is the ability labeled as Mega-Freeze. It'll eat up all of your Power and Sand Tanks, but this awesome power freezes every sand zombie for ten seconds allowing you to zip at light speed slaughtering each foe with optimal speed. Needless to say, Mega-Freeze makes clearing a roomful of monsters a piece of cake. Now that's one sick dagger.

Unfortunately the graphics won't impress you as much as the prince's magically dagger. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the game was more than likely developed with the weaker PlayStation 2 in mind. The character models aren't the best you're going to find on the console. The menacing sand zombies may appear interesting from afar, but close up you'll notice how flat and boring the textures are. Human character faces such as Farah's look too dead and unemotional at key moments of the plot. The prince isn't all that great either with jerky animation for his puffy pants and poor textures when he takes off his shirt to showcase his buff chest. Fortunately the prince is brought to life with exquisite animation during both platforming and combat. In addition even the most intense moments are without a hint of slowdown or drop in frame rate.

While the character models leave a lot to be desired, the environments are truly gorgeous and are the graphical highlight of Sands of Time. You'll be in awe by the story-book atmosphere and the current state of the palace. The entire place looks as if it's been hit by a storm. Paths have crumbled, stone and rubble lay everywhere, warm beams of sunlight filter through cracks, and even wisps of sand linger as if it were fog. The lonesome area appears abandoned, which is just the right mood considering the plotline.

The feel of solitude continues with this title's sound. While exploring and playing through the platforming aspects of the game, there isn't any music to hear. Instead only sounds will play such as wind, droplets of water, and heavy footsteps echoing in the vast nothingness. But as soon as you encounter a sand creature that's when the music pumps up for sheer awesomeness. The soundtrack is an amazing mix of traditional Persian themes, modern day guitar work, and sexy vocals. The absolute genius of it is commendable, and so are the voice actors for their fine job. Through his narrations, the prince seems arrogance and refined, but eventually you won't be able to dislike him. He becomes a lovable protagonist through his witty lines and emotional performance. Farah is always quick to berate the prince giving you a quick chuckle between the two bickering. The Vizier's throaty voice is absolutely perfect for his antagonistic role, and the grunts, growls, and howls of the sand creatures add more to the experience.

This experience I'm talking about is one hell of a ride. I took a risk just randomly buying Sands of Time, but I'm glad I did. Nearly everything about this game is a hidden gem waiting to be revealed. The only true problem is the 8 hour length (4 for any additional playthrough) feels far too short, and the developers put nothing in to extend the main title's lifespan. The only unlockable you'll find is the original Prince of Persia (I think it's the Amiga version), which most gamers today will dislike thanks to the floaty controls. If it were longer or had some actual new content for replay, then this would have been an easy 10.

9.0

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/20/04