Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Review
I didn't start out liking this game. It took me quite a while to get into the game. I was put off by the lack of fighting. Yeah, there are monsters to fight, but they seem mostly an afterthought to add more challenge to getting sand refills for your dagger.
Speaking of your dagger, that is the hook to this game. Short version, you get tricked into stealing it and unleashing the Sands of Time which destroy everybody except the main villain, and a princess who helps you named Farah. You get the ability to turn back time briefly. You might not think how just reversing an event might help in a fight at first, but it is incredibly useful. Picture just getting hit by a nasty combo from a guard, whoops now you've reversed time and are able to dodge at the beginning of the combo and avoid taking damage. Nice.
Even better though, the time reversing powers are invaluable for the jumping puzzles. The ultimate problem with games that give you lots of ability to interact with the environment are that some things will inevitably look like you can interact with them, but end up just being part of the scenery. The classic example might be in a first person shooter where the wooden door you blast with your bazooka just gets some scorch marks but won't break. Reversing time allows you to try different options without the pain of starting all the way over on a long sequence. With few exceptions, the game really doesn't make you replay huge chunks of the game out of spite. It may not always let you save, but it will often do checkpoints on particularly long runs so as long as you don't quit, you don't have to go all the way back to the save point.
The puzzles sometimes require some thought, but mostly just require looking around. There's generally only one thing you can do things. Things are also fairly automatic once you start them. For example, once you're walking along a narrow ledge, it's very difficult for you to actually fall to your death. Much like God of War, you can pull yourself back up. Real annoyance comes late game in the form of birds/bats that will attack you and make you fall, but generally you're safe unless you really jerk the control stick around. Still, they're mostly very fun and it's really cool to swing around on poles and jump over large chasms.
I would rate this game down a bit because there is a game ending bug fairly late in the game. You meet up with Farah and she's off screen and supposed to activate a switch to raise the platform. If you revert from that save, you'll yell to her to do it, but she'll not raise the platform. No platform raise, no possibility of progress. Keep at least two saves and switch between them!
The reason it goes back up to 5 stars is because they had the brilliant idea to add visions to the game. When you hit a save point, you get a brief vision of what is coming next. It's not a play through like the shadow training in Disney's Kim Possible: What's the Switch, you get more of a brief jumble of what will happen later. Often it's just some views of puzzles, but sometimes a view of something important that will happen later in the game. This simple addition makes figuring out puzzles much less painful. You don't get handed the answer, but you do get sort of hints. The visions will save you a lot of frustration at points in the game. If you get really lost though, you can usually find uploaded videos of the game to help you along. I'd tend to suggest that for bits where you cannot reverse time near the end. It can be pretty brutal otherwise.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Feature
- restore order to ancient Persia
- the complete original Prince of Persia game as well as a level from the original game redesigned in 3D
- Wield several different powerful swords
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Overview
An unmatch hero wielding powers of mythic proportions, the prince returns to action adventure gaming with gravity-defying acrobatics, ferocious fighting skills and the ability to bend time to fulfill his destiny. Ubisoft's montreal studio presents THE SANDS OF TIME, a technological breakthrough that will change the face of action adventure gaming forever. Erase the past, behold the future and freeze the present in real time for unlimited gameplay variations; exotic worlds and vast kingdoms uncover the mysteries of a world never before explored in action adventure gaming medieval persia mythical and deadly holds a staggering array of landscapes and kingdoms to explore and conquer. A sweeping adventure of betrayal and triumph, the epic legends and deadly creatures of mythic persia burn to life in this suspense filled tale featuring more twists and turns than the labyrinthine palace itself.
more>>>
*** Product Information and Prices Stored: May 31, 2010 03:00:05
