Review By: Jared Black
Developer:	Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher:	Ubisoft
# Of Players:	1
Genre:	Platform
ESRB:	Teen
Online:	No
Accessories:	Memory Card, Dolby Surround Pro Logic II
Date Posted:	1-28-04

Although never a big fan of the Prince of Persia series, the great deal of positive buzz surrounding this title convinced me to give it a try.  I’m glad I did, because Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is one of the few games in this hardware generation to successfully combine old school gameplay and challenge while at the same time utilizing new hardware in innovative ways.

The storyline is a simple one.  The prince accidentally unleashes the Sands of Time curse on the Sultan’s kingdom, and must journey to fix it or else suffer at the hands of the monsters the curse has created.  To do this he must venture forth through a vast castle filled with monsters, traps, ledges, ropes, ladders, and other obstacles.  Ah, but this prince is no ordinary fellow…he’s as acrobatic as gymnast in Olympic history.  The prince can run up walls, run horizontally along walls, hang from ledges, shimmy across ledges, climb ladders, balance on wooden beams, jump great distances, and much more.

Along the way he’ll also meet a gorgeous young lady, who ends up working with him as he moves through the castle.  But is her motive pure, or does she have her own agenda?  Told through a variety of cutscenes and in-game dialogue, this simple storyline is effective because it really lets each character’s personality shine.  Not only will the two exchange words as the player plays, but the prince will also talk to himself frequently and relay his feelings to the player.

Just as important as his acrobatic skills, by using the Dagger of Time the prince can control time itself.  Of course it must contain sand first, which can be retrieved from sand clouds scattered throughout the castle or from defeated sand creatures.  This will most commonly be used to rewind time (up to 10 seconds worth), undoing a deadly fall from a ledge or swing from a monster’s blade.  The prince can also slow down time for everyone (giving him a distinct advantage in combat), freeze enemies, and fast forward through time to dispatch enemies in record time (no pun intended).  This ability to control time gives the player a great sense of liberty, allowing him to explore the game’s massive environments and take risks that otherwise would not have been taken.  The dagger also has one other power, which is used at each save point.  That is, the power of visions.  This power gives the player a glimpse into the prince’s near future, offering hints on how to take on the next set of obstacles and enemies.  It really is an excellent feature.

Amazingly, even with all of the abilities the prince possesses Ubisoft somehow managed to maintain a great deal of challenge in the game.  Rewinding isn’t always the answer to failure in combat or a fall off a ledge, because after repeated use it becomes useless (either due to a lack of sand or frequent use resulting in little time to rewind).  Challenge is also found in the game’s many puzzles, which are similar to those found in other adventure games.  In one room the prince may be asked to position mirrors to light a particular emblem, and in another he must hit a number of switches in succession to advance.  Unlike nonsensical adventure games such as Myst, the player can always solve the puzzles simply thinking through them logically.  What a novel concept.

Combat is really this game’s only weakness, although it’s still ahead of most other adventure games.  Although the prince has a number of cool moves to dispatch foes with, his move set is pretty much the same for the entire adventure.  As a result, towards the latter third of the game combat becomes more of a chore than a joy.  It also hurts that the variety of enemies isn’t that great, and no one likes killing the same guy over and over.  Zooming in to see the prince stab a bad guy up close the first time is cool, but by the fiftieth time the player is left wishing the game would just leave the camera alone.  Speaking of which, while perfectly fine in exploration the camera has trouble keeping up in combat.  It’ll frequently get stuck on walls and objects in the environment, and requires constant adjusting by the player throughout each round of combat.  Make no mistake about it; the combat system is overall a joy for the majority of the game.  Faults like these stand out though when the rest of the game is so polished.

The graphics make full use of the PS2 hardware.  Environments stretch on and on, truly making the player feel small and feats as simple as making it to the top of a tower seem important.  They aren’t bare either, as plenty of benches, water troughs, fences, vases, and other objects abound.  There’s plenty going on too, with crumbling walls, falling lanterns, very nice looking torches, and swaying curtains using the “Splinter Cell” effect.  Character models are a little lacking in polygons, but make up for it with excellent use of texture mapping and sheer style.  Animation is top-notch, as the prince displays total fluidness of movement and everything else moves believably enough.

In addition to the previously mentioned dialogue, sound effects also add a lot to the game’s atmosphere.  Although I wish there were a bit more variety (for example, a crumbling wall wouldn’t sound exactly the same every time), each sound effect is done well and sounds realistic enough.  The music score is excellent, with an Arabic score accented with a bit of Rock ‘n Roll.  Both styles are blended together really well, and gives the music the hard edge needed to complement the prince’s mad skillz. 

HIGHS:

LOWS:

• The quality of combat doesn’t quite match the exploratory parts.  It’s a bit one-dimensional, with only a few types of enemies and the same (albeit cool) moves over and over again. The camera also has trouble keeping up.
• A little on the short side, although perhaps that’s for the better since the combat doesn’t have a chance to grow stale.
• Occasional framerate stutters.

Overall Score: 9.2

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