xenoranger's Full Review: Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time for Windows
After a friend of mine gave me a copy of UBI Soft’s Ghost Recon and playing Beyond Good and Evil, I came to the conclusion that UBI Soft might have something there. Well, I got bored one weekend and rented Prince of Persia: The Warrior Within for Xbox. I loved it so much that I just bought a copy of Sands of Time for my PC. Lets just say that I haven’t regretted the purchase.
The story is pretty straight forward. The Prince (they never really give him a name) returns from a great battle. With him are the royal Vizier, Farah (a prisoner), and the Sands of Time. The Vizier suggests that the Prince insert a sacred dagger into the Sands of Time to show the king its power. Upon doing this, everyone in the room is killed except the Prince. Lucky for Farah and the Vizier, they managed to escape before the Sands of Time wiped out all living beings. So, the Prince is now in a palace that is filled with (what seems like) undead minions. In addition to this, Farah appears to be helping the Prince. The question becomes a matter of the Prince escaping and if there’s a way to turn back the Sands of Time. Well, the story isn’t that interesting. What really gets the game going is the presentation. Through cutting edge (for its time) graphics and in-game cinematics. It doesn’t feel like you’re playing a game as much as enjoying an interactive movie. The dialog is well written and the placement and facial features make this look like no other action game prior.
UBI Soft is REALLY good with using the mouse and keyboard comfortably to play. At first, I was looking for a gamepad option (as I have a 4 port USB game adaptor). Surprisingly, the game used the WASD keys and mouse to control the action. The game controls very well. I’ve only had a few issues with the control, but this was due to bad camera angles. Thankfully, there are 3 possible cameras you can use. There is a third person, zoom out, and first person. Now, first person is only used when standing still and examining a puzzle or just getting a look at the layout. Third person is the standard. This is best for fighting and the majority of your movement. The zoom out view is actually an innovation. This allows you to see a huge section of the area. I use this mainly for the platforming puzzles that the game presents. All three views get usage through out the game. The first person is especially useful if you’re having difficulty getting the camera to face the same direction you want to go. As such, a quick swap between first and third will cure your camera issues (which rarely happen).
Now, since you’re in a castle full of undead creatures, there are going to be a few fights. Fighting is another intuitive and innovative experience. You can choose to simply hack on your opponents or you can use more finesse to your fights. When simply hacking won’t work, you can use acrobatics to hop, swing, or slide around your enemies. The Prince fights just like a monkey (it seems), but the control makes combat a joy and not a pain. He can easily hurdle an opponent, then slash them in the back for added damage. When surrounded, he can flip his way to safety by using an opponent. Despite the acrobatics, the Prince lacks the ability to easily throw an opponent. Even so, fighting should come as second nature to players within the first 5-10 minutes of play.
Despite the ease of fighting, the Prince can’t just slash his opponents to death. Most enemies will get back up after being knocked down, so you need to figure a way to keep them down for good. That’s where the dagger comes in. The Prince has a mystical dagger that’s imbued with power over time. When you knock an enemy down (after repeated slashes), simply stand over the enemy and plunge the dagger into their body. This absorbs the power of time that is keeping them animated. A nice visual effect accompanies their turning to sand and energy absorption into the dagger. As you progress, the Prince will learn new techniques like the ability to stab and enemy and stop time for them. When fighting hordes (and it does happen), simple acrobatics isn’t enough to keep you alive. As such, you must freeze key enemies to give you enough time to stab downed foes with the dagger to absorb their power. Although this sounds more complicated, it’s not too difficult a task.
So, if you’re anything like me, you probably hate starting over. Yes, I died, now I need to start back at the last check point, right? WRONG. The Prince of Persia introduces the ability to control time. As such, the Prince can use his dagger to even cheat death. If you die or make a mistake on something, you can rewind time to correct the mistake or at least get a second chance. This is a life saver and frustration prevention. I hate having to restart my game at the last save point when I fall just inches from a ledge. Instead, I just rewind time and better time my jump.
Well, the Prince has more up his sleeve than simple fighting. The game requires you to solve some crazy platforming puzzles. Although somewhat simple, the execution can be fun or frustrating. To meet the challenge, the Prince is equipped with a slue of acrobatics. He can run along walls, climb, flip, and do stuff that puts most ninjas to shame. To perform most of his acrobatics, you’ll need a combination of the space bar and the right mouse button. If you’re finding you’re having issues with some of the acrobatic, platforming puzzles, you may find the rewind function useful. Otherwise, I didn’t find many times I had to use rewind. Plus, if you’re having difficulty figuring out what to do next, simply choose a different view. Sometimes the zoom out is the best view for an area, while first person may be the easiest to spot a ledge you may have missed.
The visuals on this game aren’t stunning, but they are pretty good. The characters are well rendered and the environments have that authentic Middle Eastern feeling. What really impresses me is how they give the feeling of being this small Prince in a grand structure. This works very well for most of the platforming puzzles. There isn’t much in the line of dynamic lighting, but they do use some good blur effects when the Prince is manipulating time. Essentially, the game does what it needs to in the visual department well.
All together, I can’t find anything to really complain about in this game. Prince of Persia: Sands of Time is one of the many great titles by UBI Soft. Although it may not be for everyone, it takes platforming to a new level and blows away the cliché control and antiquated concepts of other games. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this game. If you’re not up to running it on your PC, get it on Game Cube, Playstation 2, or Xbox. Although, with the low system requirements, I can’t see many modern PC’s unable to run this title.
PLEASE NOTE: This game was reviewed using the following configurations. Deviation from these may alter your experience.
System 1:
Build: Custom Built PC
Operating System: WinXP Home
Processor: Celeron 2.2 Ghz
System Memory: 1GB DDR
Video: NVidia GeForce 6600 (256MB)
System 2:
Build: Custom Built PC
Operating System: Win2000 Pro
Processor: Pentium 4 1.6 Ghz
System Memory: 384MB SD Ram
Video: ATI Radeon 9600 (128MB)
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