Review #517: Prince of Persia - The Sands of Time

 As if time hadn't passed at all....

The Prince's shirt gets torn to shred as the story advances.

 The original Prince of Persia was a bit of a landmark as far as videogames are concerned, yet its first jump to 3D was pretty much terrible. A few years later Ubisoft would acquire the IP and deliver The Sands of Time, a game that continues to influence other games to this day with its then-unique blend of combat and parkour.

 You play as the Prince, victim of the Vizier's treachery, having unleashed the Sands of Time on the Sultan's abode. The sands have turned everyone but him, the Vizier and the captive Farah into sand demons, so now he and Farah team up to stop the Vizier. Luckily, he is armed with the Dagger of Time, a weapon that allows him to manipulate time to his will... as long as he has enough sand stored. The story is pretty cookie-cutter, but the interactions between the Prince and Farah are pretty adorable. Plus, even though the story is nothing special, it's still well told and it's an enjoyable trip. The story is told to us by the Prince, so every time you die he'll exclaim that 'that's not what happened!', which surprisingly doesn't grow old. A simple, but enjoyable tale that runs about 6 hours long... which would be an acceptable length if only the game wasn't so good that you just want more.

Heavy enemies require block-and-counterattacking to be defeated.

 Prince of Persia is the precursor to Assassin's Creed, as a matter of fact, the first Assassin's Creed began life as Prince of Persia: Assassins. But I digress, what I meant to tell was that this game did the parkour thing before any other game. This is a linear game, so you'll constantly be moving forwards and only forwards, although it's in your best interest to explore a little so that you can increase the maximum amount of health and sand you can have. Heck, you can also unlock the very dated first Prince of Persia game, although you'll need a guide to do that, since the wall you must break is pretty well hidden.

 The platforming in this game is pretty much fantastic, the Prince remains one of the most nimble characters out there, he can run on walls as long as momentum allows him, jump from wall to wall, cling to ledges, spin on bars and a few other nifty tricks. The game puzzles come in the form of figuring out how to traverse the environment, as you pull trick after trick to get to where you need to go. If you mess up, which you will every now and then, you can spend a sand tank to rewind time with L2 to before you screwed up that jump and save yourself. The game is pretty lenient with this mechanic, if you die there's ample time to press L2 before the retry screen pops up. Word of warning, as great as the time rewind is, don't grow to dependent on it, as the last few stretches of the game part the Prince with said ability.

The game could've used less enemies and more jumping instead.

 And then comes the game's weakest link: Combat. You use square to slash with your sword, R1 to block, X to vault over enemies(Or roll around) and triangle to use the dagger, and you can spend a secondary sand gauge to turn enemies into sand and do quick work of them. The combat is very simple and rather dull, the game throws waves upon waves upon waves of enemies and combat never gets too interesting. Enemies must be hit with the dagger when they are downed in order to finish them off completely, which also refills a sand tank in the process. The thing is... the vault move is so good that it downs pretty much any enemy that can't counter it instantly, so there's no reason not to use it... unless you want to slowly hit an enemy's guard until they decide to counterattack so that you can block their move and counterattack yourself. Heavy enemies later in the game grow immune to your vault so you'll have to resort to counterattacks to win. You've also got the Mega Freeze move, called Haste in the instruction booklet, which requires your full sand reservoir to use, as well as the secondary sand gauge, and turns every enemy into sand for a short while, so you just mash square and easily wipe them out. Mind you, the combat can get a bit dull, but it's not bad by any stretch of the imagination.

 Prince of Persia - The Sands of Time hasn't aged a single day, it's every bit as good as it once was. The combat can grow a bit stale, but the parkour is fantastic, and exploring the palace while the Prince and Farah banter is great. This game is one of the finest adventure games out there, and it won't be going obsolete any time soon.
 9.0 out of 10