Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

"The greatest remake in history?"

Back in the early 90s, I had the original Prince of Persia for the PC. Being a fan of adventurous puzzle games, it was a game that stuck in my mind for quite a while. A second PoP game was released on the PC, but it wasn't much different than the first. 10 years later, I hear that a new PoP is being released on the next gen consoles. I was fairly interested, but never got around to checking out the previews. The day of the game's release, my friend, who had apparently been following the game since it was announced, picked up a copy. From that point on, I couldn't talk to him for 2 seconds without him raving about the game. So, I decided to ask for it for Christmas. And I'm glad I did...

Graphics: 10 Stunning. Simply stunning. Everything from cutscenes to character models are very well done. Environments, enemies, objects... everything looks beautiful. The characters also have a wide range of movements, all which are executed nicely. Various effects such as pebbles and dust are also often used.

Sound: 7 The sound effects are pretty good. There's not really much music in the game. The dialogue is nice in the cutscenes, but my favorite part is the random dialogue between the characters as you play. If you put your sword away during a battle, the Princess will yell at you. She gets pretty peeved if you attack her as well. Sometimes the Prince mocks the Princess behind her back. Very amusing.

Gameplay: 10 As good as the graphics are, this is where the game strikes it big. First of all, the puzzles in the game are challenging and fun. Solving the riddles and accomplishing goals gives you a true sense of accomplishment. Secondly, the abilities gained by your dagger make the game amazingly interesting. You can put your enemies in slow motion, you can do matrix style moves, you can rewind time if you make a mistake... Effects like these have never been used like this in a game before. It's wild. And I'll never get tired of seeing the Prince's wall walking ability. For a short period of time you can run up along the side of a wall. I can go on and on, but the bottom line is, this game is packed full of quality gameplay.

Story: 9 You'd think with a game this cool they could just throw in a crappy storyline, but they didn't. The Prince is tricked into releasing the sands of time, and the only chance he has to undo what he has done is to trust someone he has every reason to distrust. The characters' relationships are so well developed that it makes you want to know exactly what happens to them. It's not just an intro and then a scene at the end. The story progresses as you solve riddles.

Replay Value: 9 The game takes about 10 hours to beat on average. You can unlock a copy of the original PoP game. What surprised me though is that whereas most games have poor replay value, I wouldn't mind playing PoP:SoT over and over, even after I know what to do. Controlling time and walking on walls is just too much fun.

Overall: 10 I had so much fun with this game. A few times I got stuck on some of the riddles and really had to think. But they were never so hard that I felt I needed to throw the controller. Doing somersaults over bad guys in slow motion and hacking them up from behind is so awesome. Watching yourself jump out of a pit when you rewind time is pretty wild too. Running on walls is sic. And with such beautiful graphics, there's always something nice to look at. If you get one game this season, let it be PoP:SoT.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 12/28/03