flash-hammer's Full Review: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time for Xbox
The recent trend of remaking old school videogames for the modern age is generally looked down upon by fans due to the remade games doing nothing but tarnishing the name of their source material. However, sometimes it works in a negative fashion for a completely different reason, as was the case with Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and I. despite being around since the Amiga days, my only experience with the original ‘classic’ was it’s Mega-CD incarnation and, to be blunt, I hated it. I thought the controls were horrifically awkward and quickly retreated to the other platform titles of the day, with the Prince being punted right back to end of the pecking order of plat forming heroes, alongside Aero The Acrobat and Bubsy The Bobcat. A 3D remake of the game for the Dreamcast caught my attention enough for me to remember it’s existence, even if I never played it, and naturally, upon The Sands of Time‘s release across the 3 major systems of the day, I didn’t pay much attention, even as reviewers lavished it with ridiculously positive scores. Indeed, it took until 2007, and some pressure from an acquaintance, who insisted I simply had to play it, especially at it’s current fiver price-tag. Reluctantly I stepped in, I stepped out after relishing a thoroughly enjoyable adventure, regretting taking so long to play it.
The game follows the titular Persian Prince, tricked into unleashing the mystical Sands of time by an evil Vizier who seeks the power of the Sands for his own twisted desires. After the sands are unleashed, only the Prince, the Vizier and a captured Princess named Farah survive, as every other living creature is transformed into a hideous sand-beast. The reason the Prince survives is his possession of the mystical dagger of time, the only thing that can stop the Vizier’s nefarious schemes, but first the Prince must locate the sands, trapped in a crumbling palace overrun by the Sand creatures.
While the plot is hardly Shakespeare, it’s certainly adequate enough for a game of it’s type, and is really fleshed out by the characters who inhabit it, even if there are only 2 main ones. The Prince in particular is a joy to play as, sarcastic, cocky yet in an endearing fashion, his little quips are almost worth playing for alone at times. I won’t give anything away, but the ending is one of the few times a game has genuinely made me chuckle, all down to the nameless Prince’s wit.
The game itself is a Third-Person 3D Adventure where you’ll need to use all the Prince’s acrobatic prowess to climb ledges, swing from poles and climb ladders, all his combat skills to defeat the monstrous foes opposing him and all of your own brains to solve some tricky puzzles. It’s not a hard game to pick up, the basic controls are easy, 2 attacks, one of which has to be used to finish off foes, a jump, a block and a Time Control (more on that later) make it very simple to get accustomed to controlling the Prince, though the controls can change depending on the context of your situation. For example in the midst of combat, the R Trigger blocks, yet in any other context, it acts as an all-purpose Action button, used for replenishing health at fountains, pulling levers and so on. In general, the response of these controls is fine and dandy, although sometimes the L Trigger’s time control didn’t come out exactly when or as I intended it to, though we are talking about a few, freak occasions.
I would have to say the game excels more at it’s Platform and Puzzler elements than it’s combat, with the Prince’s wall-runs, gripping of ledges and figuring out where to leap or run next being challenging, yet in a fun way, and the puzzles, such as arranging mirrors to control a beam of light to make it hit a target, can be head-scratching, but they never leave you in any doubt what you have to do, it’s just solving it that’s your problem, the way I think puzzles should be. Indeed, the game is at it’s most entertaining when you wall run across a room, leap from ledge to ledge and swing off poles before being met with a good puzzle.
This isn’t to say the combat is bad, but it’s certainly not without it’s share of faults. For a start, the targeting could do with a bit of work, as though the game claims holding the control stick in the direction of the foe you intend to hit will take it in that direction…this isn’t always the case, and on occasion I wanted to deal out a deathblow to a fallen opponent, only to be denied the chance as for some reason the Prince swings for someone else. The system isn’t unworkable by any means, but it could certainly do with some tweaking.
Arguably the neatest feature of the game is the Prince’s Dagger of Time. Not just a fancy weapon, you can use the dagger to rewind time by 10 seconds, saving you from potential death, or even freeze time and swiftly destroy multiple foes in the blink of an eye. To perform special feats requires you to collect Sand banks scattered throughout the game, and keep them full by absorbing defeated enemies (hence why you must finish them with the Time Dagger) At first, I thought this system sounded rather gimmicky, but in execution, it really does work quite well, and can prove very useful, especially in particularly tricky jumping puzzles.
It’s also to the game’s credit that it has an almost perfect length. It’s long enough so you don’t feel short-changed, but at the same time, it doesn’t overstay it’s welcome in your Xbox DVD drive.
In terms of sound and visual appeal, while The Sands of Time may not be the best Xbox title, but it’s certainly impressive, especially for a Multiplatform title. The sound probably outshines the visuals simply down to the Prince’s voice acting, which captures his humorous personality perfectly, never allowing his sarcastic little remarks to grow irritating. Musically, we have some nice Eastern tunes to help build up the atmosphere, with them also being tailored to suit the situations they provide the soundtrack to.
Visually, the game does better at levels than it does character models. This isn’t to say the character models are bad, because they aren’t, they just have a few lapses in detail that give away the game’s multiplatform status, which is something the game’s gorgeous levels don’t. Every stage is beautifully detailed, and some even feature some nice fog, lighting and water effects. If there is one potential thorn in the side of the game’s visual praise, it’s that the camera can get a little annoying at times. It’s not a major or consistent issue, but at a few key moments, the camera can get a bit flaky on you.
While it falls short of classic status, there can be no denying The Sands of Time is a quality game, and a thoroughly good adventure. It’s quite funny, in that the Dreamcast game was accused of being nothing but a poor Tomb Raider clone, yet upon playing The Sands of Time, the flaws of Eidos’ series become all the more apparent, and you can’t help but think that this is the game they wish they had come up with for Lara Croft. So while it’s not the best game on the machine, at the same time, The Sands of Time made me think of Tecmo’s Ninja Gaiden on more than one occasion, and while most games, when put in comparison with that epic, look poor, The Sands of Time still held up for me. Maybe not in the same league as Tecmo’s title, but certainly not too far off it. The game has 2 sequels to date, The Warrior Within and The Two Thrones. I’ve yet to play either, though if they manage to build upon this, there is little doubt in my mind they are a true wonder to behold.
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