ic-games Review - Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time - Reviews, Previews and Interviews for PC, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3 and Wii

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Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Information
Reviewer: Travis Hindley
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher: Ubisoft
Reviewed: Xbox
Genre: Platform
UK Release: 18th Nov 2003
Article Date: 17th Dec 2003
Difficulty: Medium
Retail Price:
Price Comparison:
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Score Breakdown

Experience:
Game Play:
Graphics:
Sound:
Overall Score: 96%

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Pros

Mind-Blowing Visuals

The Ultimate Platformer

Replayability

Gameplay, Gameplay, Gameplay!

Cons

A tad on the short side

Enemies DO gang up, but thats what the dagger is for!

Screenshots

13 of 16

My childhood could be described as a journey from one segment to another, with each a different idol or aspiration in mind. I went through a phase where I wanted to be Indiana Jones and I was hell-bent on becoming an archeologist, and no snakes had better stop me. I also went through a phase where Chuck Norris was my hero and I signed up for Karate so I could beat up on all my little friends on the playground. At one point, I wanted to be any one of the ninja turtles, and I was the most righteous dude with the gnarliest, most excellent half-shell around. I even went through a pirate phase where I swayed like Johnny Depp and fawned over Kiera Knightly. In any event, sometimes these events still take control of my life. I would have to say that Jack Bauer is currently my personal hero and demi-god, but his pedestal was recently threatened by a certain Persian prince.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a platformer. And some of you might stop reading there, but I encourage you to read on.

“He mostly runs and jumps. This in and of itself wouldn't be noteworthy if it weren't some of the finest running and jumping that ever occurred on a television screen.”

I have no words that could say this any better. I honestly am a slight bit racist when it comes to platformers in the sense that often times I will discriminate before I have even given it a chance to explain itself. However, Prince of Persia does not even give you a chance to form a negative opinion. Before I played this game, I would probably have said that Splinter Cell was my favorite game of the year. But it appears that Ubisoft has been knocked out of the number one spot by . . . Ubisoft. Now of course, this is only my opinion, but they have had one stellar year. And frankly it has all been topped off by this little Persian gem.

My first impression of this game was utter shock. Platformers such as Wallace and Gromit had left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth, but the new Prince of Persia was so finely executed and controllable that I was literally unable to put the controller down. I guess the thing is, after the initial surprise once you start to play, it just keeps getting better. It’s literally like receiving this huge wonderful cake with vanilla frosting and having pop out and sing you happy birthday. In the very beginning tutorial portions of the game, you learn that you can stylistically run up enemies and slash them from behind. You then find that you can run for short distances along the side of a wall. You then learn that you can jump from opposing walls until you reach a much higher point. The list literally goes on and on. Despite all of the delicious goodness found in other aspects of the game, if I was forced to focus on one area, it would without a doubt have to be gameplay. But we will get to that later . . .

The premise of the game starts with your father’s (the King of Persia, I presume?) invasion of a palace of a neighboring country. Upon looting and plundering, the prince finds himself a dagger that will allow him to rewind time and keep him out of trouble. But a troublesome advisor causes the prince to unleash the sands of time and therefore the prince must undo what he has just done. The plot is not too difficult to grasp, but it is certainly entertaining and worthwhile. Things get especially exciting towards the end with cg movies aplenty to please the eye. But the real gold with this title is still elsewhere.

Graphics: Not as important as folks would like to admit, but more important than they would like to believe. Unfortunately, the PS2 really starts to show its age with this title. The difference in graphics especially between the PS2 and the Xbox are staggering. But then again, no one will disagree that Xbox takes the cake as far as hardware is concerned. It’s just nice to see someone taking advantage of it. While nothing sticks out definitively, like the lighting in Splinter Cell, every polygon and every background is beautiful. The character modeling is seamless and the interaction with the environment works smoothly. There is a good bit of things that are added for style, but they all add to the visuals of the game. For instance, when the prince runs along the wall across several banners, it looks incredible as they sway and move out of the prince’s way.

The sounds in the Sands of Time really add to the experience of the game. Because the main enemies are undead (or something similar), this provides enemy noises similar to the normal sorts of hisses, groans, and snarls that you might expect. The other sound effects make for a very pleasant surprise. Whether the prince is skittering across a wall or walking through water, the realism is the key. In addition, the musical elements make you feel like some sort of super-hero or something. Picture this:

The battle hardened prince walks into a room. Those tortured by the sands of time lurk over to feast upon a new treat. The prince crouches down to prepare to send them spinning to their doom.

Cue music here

And it’s really like that. The music is integrated so flawlessly that depending upon the mood of the fight, you might here mystical Persian to grinding guitar. As far as music is concerned with this game, music was done right.

I can probably talk about the gameplay here for several hours. I still haven’t decided if I will or not, but ultimately, it’s the best platformer ever made. And that’s a bold statement, but it’s true. Ubisoft has basically achieved a vast amount with very little. The basic controls consist of slashing with your sword, rolling/jumping/back-flipping, and jabbing with your dagger. On top of this, the one of the two triggers allow the gamer to utilize their dagger of time to rewind events. The other trigger is used as sort of a jack of all trades button. It allows the prince to swing, run up or across walls, or push and pull objects. Now there might seem like there is only a varied assortment of things to do, but believe me, there are new combinations of things that pop up all the time. One of the favorite things to do is running along the wall. It allows the prince to reach places that he normally could not and it looks like just about the coolest thing ever. In addition, he can run straight up the wall for a short ways. This is particularly important when the prince needs to jump back and forth from wall to wall. As I mentioned before, the dagger of time has the ability to rewind time. However, it also has the ability to freeze an enemy for a short period of time. If there was a downfall to the game, it would have to be that quite frequently too many enemies will surround you and have a good old fashioned beat down. However, when this situation arises, the freeze ability is priceless because it allows the game to focus their attentions elsewhere. Unfortunately, it only lasts for a few seconds, but they don’t want to make it TOO easy. I guess that is basically the really great thing about this so-called dagger. Some people might say, “It makes the game too easy”. But in fact, the developers made it a good bit harder to where it would be very nearly impossible without it. It is not a crutch that keeps the gamer from getting better but rather more of a necessity.

One of the other great stylistic appeals to this game is the “run-up-enemy-and-jump-over-them-and-slash-them-from-behind” move. This is achieved by pointing in the direction of an enemy and tapping the A button followed by the slash button. It looks very cool and often time slows down for just a bit so you can ogle just how cool the prince really is. It’s a great move, and unfortunately, it is not an option for a large part of the game because there are a good number of enemies which can deflect these attacks. But it’s fun while it lasts. There are other touches here and there that really make the gamer appreciate what is being done. It seems that much of the improvements over other platformers come from the developers ridding the game of routines of the genre that make most people groan. I will go ahead and wrap up gameplay there, but there really are not words that can describe everything that has been achieved with this game. That will have to be left up for you to experience.

There is so much more that can be talked about with this game, but I don’t want to spoil it. The graphics and the sound alone are enough to rack this one up as a must-buy. It’s the gameplay that will keep you playing. Throughout the course of this write-up, all I could think about was how badly I wanted to play Prince of Persia again. I hope by the time this is over, you are asking yourself “Golly-gee willakers! Is it really THAT good?” The answer is most certainly and without a doubt “YES!” Honestly, if you don’t have it already, do yourself a favor and go pick it up. If it’s not THE game of the year, it’s certainly tied for first.

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