Playstation 2 - Prince of Persia: Sands of Time

Format
Playstation 2
Publisher
Ubisoft
Developer
Ubisoft Montreal
Country of origin
US
Release date
November 2003
Genre
3rd person adventure

Prince of Persia : Sands of Time

By David Rasmussen
14th Apr 05

Ever heard of this franchise? It’s one of the classics, you know!
One of UbiSoft’s big gun titles, Prince of Persia, has been really making a big impression these days with these two releases. One being the above mentioned “Sands of Time”, the other being last year’s “Warrior Within” which brought out a darker and more edgier Prince.
Somehow, though, I kind of like this Prince and I’ll explain more about that later on.

Sit back, oh readers, and listen to this tale, as told by the Prince of Persia himself (during the game).
It all started way back in ancient times, when the Kingdom of Persia (led by the Prince’s father) attacked India and stole from it an ancient treasure known as the Hourglass of Time... and a dozen women to be turned into sex slaves, including the daughter of the Indian ruler the Prince’s father murdered.
Anyway it seems the father should have done a better background check on the guy who was his Vizier because, like in previous Prince of Persia games, the Vizier is the first person you check for villainy... same here. Looks like this Vizier is on his last camel and tricking the Prince to release the sands of time within the Sultan of Persia’s fortress of a palace is the means to a greater end... probably immortality or something like that since he looks just about ready to keel over at any moment.

It’s up to the Prince, and Farah (the kidnapped daughter in question) who are the only survivors of the sands of time, to stop the sands and derail the Vizier’s plot. Too bad the “palace” they’re in is HUGE, and a living breathing death trap... especially after the Prince is “convinced” to help activate the palace’s auto defense systems! It’s a long, hard “road” to where the Sands of Time are spewing out of, the Hourglass, but it’s not as difficult as you think.... Which is probably one of the reasons why I think this game didn’t do so well in sales, which in turn led UbiSoft to revitalize the game to make it more “edgy” after it’s not so good sales.

Look, when I first thought of Prince of Persia games I thought “extremely difficult” and lord knows I don’t want to buy a game that would be more frustrating than fun. Yet as I played the game I found that it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be, and the fun was more than the difficulty which was set just right!

Like I said above, it’s a long road to your destination, but that’s OK since the Prince has a large amount of moves to bust on both enemies and the environment in a vast amount of ways.
His combat skills are great, but his acrobatic skills are even greater. Light on his feet, he’s as agile and graceful as Sinatra and Jackie Chan combined! Especially Jackie Chan since he seems to get injured or dies if he falls from so-so heights... which means he really DOES feel like Jackie Chan at times!

The thing that really makes it cool, besides the wall running, high jumping, men’s gymnast prowess with swinging and jumping and running and floor work that’d win him a Gold Medal everytime, is the tricks you can perform with time itself! Because of the Dagger of Time, which you used to unleash the sands of time, you can perform things like slow-motion (to slow enemies), freeze (to freeze enemies for quick dispatches), rewind time (mostly to rewind “mistakes” you made while playing) and fast forward... which really isn’t a good thing since it taps out your sand meter on the dagger.

Oh, yes, the sand “vessels” in your dagger. You can replenish them as you tap off enemies (using the dagger as a “finishing move”, stealing the sand in enemies to replenish the sand in your dagger) or find sand clouds to drain (full replenish). And as you find sand clouds you will slowly build up enough sand to add a new “canister” to your sand meter, which allows you to hold more sand as you use it.

Split into many “levels”, the road to the hourglass is long and filled with lots of things to keep you thinking on your feet, luckily save points are numerous and easy to reach which is also a way to scope our your path ahead at the same time! The save points, pillars of light which sometimes won‘t appear until you defeated a large legion of sand creatures, trigger future sight visions in the Prince which shows you what is to come (and sometimes things that won’t come, like your death which never happens).
Watching these future sights carefully will show you where you need to go, and how to make it past certain areas of the game (where to go, how to go, etc). Yet another wondrous trick with time this game offers.

The action is flawless, and the fighting is perfect. You have a ton of moves to dish out on enemies, yet combat is easy to learn and master! Being the acrobatic kind of guy the Prince is, he can use his speed and agility to outwit some of his enemies! Others, however, you’ll need to work on a grounded strategy (their weapons can knock you out of the air for instance if you try to cartwheel over them for a back attack) to defeat some of the larger foes. Also you can use the dagger of time to help dispatch your foes (slowing or speeding up time, as well as the “finishing move” of using the dagger to “drain” downed sand creatures removing them permanently from battle.

The story is solid, the animation and gameplay is solid, there just isn’t anything bad to say about this game!
Yes, it did not sell well despite the fact it’s a solidly done game, and that’s abit disappointing! The game is good, yet it didn’t receive the reception it deserved and thus UbiSoft remade the game despite the fact it didn’t need such a remake for “Warrior Within”.
I have no qualms about the Prince of this game, and kind of dread the thought of finally sitting down to play the “edgier” Prince... still, I also look forward to it since it got as great a score as this game from the people of X-Play (a perfect 5 out of 5)!

Breakdown time.
What’s Hot? - The game is solid, and quite hot! From stem to stern you can’t find a better game like Prince of Persia : Sands of Time. And with a sequel game (“Warrior Within”) to hype that’ll mean there’s lots here in these games for fans of Prince of Persia, or just a fan of a good solid platformer, which this game is.
I can’t think of a negative thing to say about this game at all!
And it even offers up a great bonus in an unlockable playable 3D version of the original Prince of Persia game! How good is that!!

What’s Not? - Sorry, I don’t have a negative thing to say. It’s all good.

Moments to Remember? - After awhile of all this wandering about and fighting it’ll wear on the Prince abit... to the point that he begins talking to “himself”... or to us... one or the other.
That’s where the beginning of the occasional bouts of weirdness begins! Joy! And memorable!

What to Ignore? - Hmm... can’t think of a thing again. Maybe something will refresh my memory.

Overall? - This game is just plain good. Period. And I can see why it got the solid marks it has on reviews!
As a platformer this game rocks! Looking forward to reviewing Warrior Within, oh yeah!

-- David Rasmussen 14th Apr 05

Playstation 2 Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Images