Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

"The Prince is Amazing"

The Prince of Persia series can be dated from all the way back to the days of the first Nintendo console. It's had its share of sequels, and a modern 3-D flop for the PC, but the Prince of Persia is back for the first time in a long while, in a 3D action/adventure game. The Sands of Time is a remarkable game that shouldn't be passed up by anyone who is a fan of the series or the genre.

Story: 8/10

The Prince is tricked by the devious Vizier into unleashing the Sands of Time onto the palace. The Sands turn all of the citizens, except for 3 distinct individuals, into ravenous sand-monsters. The Prince must use his incredible acrobatic skills, uncanny martial arts, and his dagger of time to stop these monsters, as well as defeat the traitorous Vizier. The Prince must also put his trust in a slave girl that has no reason to trust him, named Farah, who will assist you throughout the game. Also, the Prince is not your typical hero - he's conceited and arrogant, and because of his ignorance in unleashing the sands he must now fight for survival.

The story of PoP is pretty good, and told in a unique way as if the Prince were right there next to you telling a story. Even when you pause the game, the Prince says comments like ''Shall I go on?'' or when you die he'll jokingly state ''No, no, that's not what happened. Let me explain it again.'' This type of element to telling the story is done really well. Also, the development of the relationship between the Prince and Farah is done remarkably well through in game voice overs. These two will get into petty, yet flirtatious, arguments through the course of the game while you try to solve puzzles. It's actually quite funny to hear the Prince talk to himself about Farah, and then catch himself in the act.

One small disappointment I had in the story is that there really was no development of the villain in the game. In fact he isn't really in the game as much as he probably could have been.

Gameplay: 10/10

This game is definitely one of the funnest games I've played. PoP's primary focus is on the puzzles, and then combat.

The puzzles in this game are by far the greatest I've seen in a long while. They never get old or tedious and always seem very, very fun to pull off. The Prince can do so many things it's almost unbelievable. He can run along walls, flip over bars, swing on ropes and poles, jump from wall to wall, walk across beams....in fact there's hardly anything the Prince can't do as far as acrobatics go. The puzzles usually consist of using your intense acrobatic skills to reach a new place, or find a switch, or something else. There will also be booby traps, like spikes and buzz saws running along the walls to try and hinder your progress. Some of the puzzles are even timed and you must use your skills quickly and wisely. The puzzles are very fun and extremely well implemented into the game.

The fighting is also a great element in PoP. There are so many different moves that you can do with the Prince. There's the typical slashing with your sword, but you can also flip over enemies for a surprise attack, or use a counter attack, or you can even use a wall to jump off of to launch over your enemies for a quick pounce. If you get knocked down, no worries, for you can block even while you're on the ground.

The fighting is further enhanced with the Prince's Dagger of Time. He can stab an unconscious enemy and zap the sands out of him to power up the dagger. With the dagger, you can freeze time and fight in slow motion, ala Matrix style. With a fully loaded dagger you can also ''Fast forward'' time and kill enemies with the blink of an eye for a short while. And if you happen to fall off of a cliff, you can reverse time to where you goofed up at using the Daggers reverse time ability.

Helping you on your way is your companion Farah. She uses her bow and arrows to aid you in your fights, but you also must watch her back.

The only downside some might find with the fighting is that it may get a bit repetitive by the time the game comes to an end. Regardless though, the fighting in PoP is really awesome.

Graphics: 10/10

Simply put, Prince of Persia is a beautiful looking game. The graphics are astounding to look at on all platform versions. The scenery is breathtaking, and the character models are wonderful as well. One thing to note about the graphics is how realistic and vibrant everything in the environment is. Things like curtains blowing in the wind that will move with the Prince if he runs into them and just a lot of really small detailed things like that really bring this game to life. The Prince's animations are magnificent as well. The framerate is wonderful, I experienced no problems with it, nor did I find any glitches in this game. Simply put, it's fantastic!

Sound/Audio: 9/10

The music in the game really does set the tone with an Arabian style. The voice acting is pretty good also for the most part. The game doesn't exactly have any ''catchy'' tunes, but that doesn't mean that the music isn't great as it is. One particular song I enjoyed is the one played during the credits. The sound effects are also appropriate and done well.

Camera and Controls: 9/10

The camera, for the most part, works very very well. It transitions when it needs to very nicely and rarely do you ever have to ''babysit'' it. The controls for everything are also very wonderfully done and had very little problems getting used to them.

Replayability: 7/10

Each version of PoP has different unlockable things. For the PS2 version of PoP, you can unlock the very first Prince of Persia game. To unlock this, you must find a secret area somewhere within the game though. The Xbox and Gamecube versions have more unlockables, but for PS2, all you can unlock is the old PoP1. Other than that though, once you play Sands of Time till the very end, you probably won't be picking the game up to play again soon.

Final Thoughts:

While the game is definitely outstanding to say the least, I couldn't help but feel it was entirely too overhyped by major game corporations. My main problem I have with PoP is it's incredibly short length. On average it's probably only about 10 to 12 hours, maybe more maybe less, depending on how you play. With such a short time frame, many gamers will prefer to only rent this game rather than buy. But to be honest, that's really the only ''downside'' to PoP that I can really say. If you are a fan of either the PoP series or even action/adventure games in general, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is an amazing game that shouldn't go unnoticed.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/29/03