- Gameplay that cannot be improved
upon
- Music that will have your head nodding
- Ability to slow, speed-up, and freeze the laws of time
- Graphics are very sharp
- Culturally intriguing
- Decent voice acting
- Some camera issues
- Comes to an end too quickly
- Enemies are only dangerous in groups
- Final level should’ve offered a greater challenge
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Prince
of Persia: The Sands of Time
Score: 9.7 / 10
Remember asking that one hot girl from
class to go with you. Yeah, those times were fun…except the inevitable
rejection part. It always seems that guys say the wrong words at the
wrong time more than occasionally. Trying to change those words is,
let’s face it, difficult. That is unless of course you weld in your
hands the dagger containing the sands of time. With it, you always say
the right thing, get her everything she needs, and fast-forward time
during her endless hours of pointless “yakking”. Prince of Persia: Sands
of Time (PoP) lets the player control the laws of time…only substitute
the hot girl with raging mutated soldiers out to slice your head off.
PoP begins during the height of the Persian Empire. The King and his
son, who is never given a name, are in the process of destroying the
Indian Empire, by raiding
their castles and slaughtering their
people. During a chaotic series of events, the prince becomes separated
from his father and is forced to find an alternate route back through
the depths of a cave. Inside he finds an hourglass and dagger hidden
behind a “puzzling” wall. After a few tries he takes the dagger for
himself, as a symbol of victory. When presenting it to his father, he is
tricked into sticking it in the
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hourglass, therefore unleashing the “sands of time”.
Imagine being surrounded by five mutated soldiers holding double-bladed
swords, armor on their forearms, and the only way out is by killing
every single one. Oh yeah, they have the ability to transport from
locations and re-spawn after being slain. Sounds like a pretty tight
situation, doesn’t it? Not if you’re the Prince. The gameplay of PoP is
simple, complex, and comfortable at the same time. Switching between
enemies (like the situation explained above) to fight is done
seamlessly, without ever slowing down the game. Just point the analog
stick in the direction of an enemy and watch the Prince fly over using
one of his numerous acrobatic moves, than cutting them down with either
his sword or dagger. The speed and precision of fighting multiple
enemies is, in itself, the reason to have this game on your shelf.
Some enemies can easily be killed by bolting yourself over their back
and cutting their throats. Nevertheless, progressing through the game,
some enemies will learn to counter those acrobatic moves, causing you to
think before making your next move. This causes you to take control of
some nifty tools of time, brought to you solely by the dagger of time.
As the enemies begin to grow stronger and smarter, the Prince must learn
to use the sands of time meticulously. The dagger contains a certain
amount of sand. Rewinding, freezing, and fast-forwarding time can drain
the sand. In order to gain more sand you must pit the enemy on the
ground, and stick the dagger directly into its heart, extracting the
sand within. With that in mind, the battles become much more
interesting. If you expect to find the same repetitive, slashing and
killing in PoP, look elsewhere. The abilities of time create an entirely
new dimension to its gameplay, setting a precedent for other
action/adventure games to follow. During a battle, you can freeze one
enemy in time, and fight off the others whichever way you choose. If you
are surrounded by ten or more enemies, fast-forwarding quickly through
all can achieve quick victory on your part. All the abilities of time
will be essential to finishing the game.
After more then two and a half years of development, PoP is among the
top, graphically, on the powerful Xbox. Though all three versions of the
game are identical from afar, minor discrepancies between the three are
noticeable. Some of the Prince’s features are outlined well on the Xbox,
as well as having all of his fingers individually crafted, instead of it
being one huge clump. The architecture of the Persian palaces look
magnificent and vertigo-inducing due to their immense size and beauty.
The developers tried to make the rooms and palaces much larger than
normal, in order to commit to an atmosphere of fantasy, darkness, and
“tale” like features. After playing through every setting in the game, I
am convinced that the two and a half years were not spent copying over
someone else’s work.
If you’ve noticed already from the commercial, music is a huge factor to
the Prince of Persia series. Persian music has been transferred into
this game using the same authentic instruments, though mixing them with
modern techno to make a killer soundtrack. It comes as a surprise that
the music is heard so rarely throughout the game, only heard during and
shortly after battles. The music is vital to the experience of Prince of
Persia. When you hear the rhythm of the guitar playing faster as you
fight through a wall of enemies, then you’ll understand the importance
and stress on music. Another cool effect of the music plays alongside
the powers of time. If you decide to use slow-motion, then the music
slows down accordingly to that power, and speeds up seamlessly as the
power runs out.
The holiday season is creeping up from around the corner, and is
technically already here. Prince of Persia is among the few games to be
released this holiday season to be considered as a “must buy”. With
around 10-15 hours of play, outstanding music, the best gameplay system
ever conceived, and the two original Prince of Persia’s included…you
will certainly get your money’s worth with the Prince. If you consider
yourself a die-hard action gamer, or even an occasional gamer, there is
no reason why Prince of Persia shouldn’t be in your collection.
