Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Review

Developer	Ubi Soft Montreal
Publisher	Ubi Soft
Genre	Action Adventure

How does one define masterpiece? In the world of video games, you can look no further than Ubi Soft’s resurrection of the Prince of Persia series. Over a decade ago, the original was a landmark game whose sequels paled in comparison. And with his appearance on the Dreamcast, we all felt it was safe to assume that the Prince had seen his last adventure.

Then came E3 2003.

We strolled unsuspectingly into Ubi Soft’s gigantic booth seeing unprecedented quality at every turn. But none left us nearly as impressed as Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. In bringing the Prince back to life, Ubi Soft has created an action-packed masterpiece, a new classic, and a game that could very well be the best of 2003.

Gameplay - The story of The Sands of Time is told brilliantly by rarely interrupting the actual playing of the game. Before the game starts, the Prince begins to tell us his story of how when plundering the Maharajah’s kingdom with his father’s army, he came to find the Dagger of Time. Upon their return, the Maharajah’s traitorous Vizier tricks the Prince into using the dagger to open the Hourglass, which contains the Sands of Time. By doing so, all the people in the kingdom are turned into Sand Creatures, save for the Vizier, the Prince, and Farah, the kidnapped daughter of the Maharajah. It’s now up to the Prince to discover the mystery behind the Sands of Time and stop the Vizier’s plot.

As I mentioned, the plot of the game unfolds seamlessly throughout the Prince’s adventure and is told by the Prince himself. For example, if you should die, rather than simply getting a “Game Over” screen, the Prince says, “No, no. That’s not how it happened” and begins the story from the last point. Save points are also handled quite cleverly. Each time you enter a save point, the Prince will see visions of what lies ahead. He will then say, “Would you like me to continue my story from here next time?” It’s all very clever and makes you feel as though you are truly playing through a story.

When it was released fifteen years ago, the original Prince of Persia wowed gamers with the realistic way in which the Prince could run, jump, and hang from ledges, tip-toe through traps, and more. Ubi Soft has not only stayed true to this heritage, but expanded upon it tenfold for a new generation of discerning gamers. Upon entering a new area, the camera will pan around, giving you a full look at the different obstacles, routes, and your eventual goal. It’s then your job to find a way to that goal. This is done through a variety of acrobatic moves, which brilliantly seem simultaneously realistic and superhuman. After a bit of practice, you’ll have the Prince racing up walls, leaping to a rail, swinging off the rail like a pro gymnast, and sliding down a pole without even breaking a sweat. And as complex as these moves sound on paper, the developers do a marvelous job of easing you into the game by popping up little tips and hints to get you started. Soon, you’ll be able to exploit all of the Prince’s death-defying stunts with ease and the only challenges remaining will be figuring out which ones to use to attain the goal at hand.

The puzzles in Prince of Persia are extremely gratifying. You’re given the option of running around in a close third-person perspective, zooming in for a closer look in first-person, or – in an example of brilliant game design – pulling the camera out to a incredibly wide landscape view. This allows you to get a full birds-eye perspective on your current level and perhaps see objects that are just out of third-person view.

Using the Sands of Time is this game’s signature feature. By having the ability to reverse time with a push of a button, the Prince can undo a missed jump or come back to life after receiving a mortal blow. It’s a brilliant feature that not only helps you progress through the game, it also adds a good deal of strategy. Because the Prince has only a certain number of chances to use the Sands of Time, you must often decide what blunders are important enough to redo. The Sands of Time can also be used to put the action into slow motion, allowing you to get a better jump on your opponents.

The original Prince of Persia focused more on puzzle solving and exploration than swordplay and fighting. While Sands of Time continues this tradition, there are a good number of enemy encounters in the game and the battles are extremely daring and entertaining. The Prince has a variety of moves at his disposal, allowing him to slay hoards of enemy Sand Creatures. He can block, flip, use the wall as leverage, and even spring over the top of unsuspecting foes to slash them from behind. The enemy encounters aren’t just space filler either. Each battle takes a good deal of time to clear and solid strategy and precision is required to clear a room full of enemies. Be careful not to get surrounded by a group of Sand Creatures as the punishment will be severe and you’ll soon run out of the Sands of Time.

Some moments during these enemy battles were the only times in Prince of Persia that I found to be frustrating. It wasn’t the fault of the difficult battles or the gameplay mechanics as those were both incredibly enjoyable features of the game. However, seldom as it was, there were times when gigantic enemies that were too large and skilled to spring over would surround the Prince and the camera would pop over to a very unfavorable angle, such as behind a pole or wall. The only option was to attempt to slash my way through it or to fumble with the camera stick. It also doesn’t help when in the middle of these minor aggravations your female companion “accidentally” shoots you in the back and says, “Oops! Sorry.” Again, these moments were extremely rare, but still worth noting.

As marvelous as the Sands of Time is, the developers saw fit to include bonus features such as a Making Of featurette, a level of the original Prince of Persia reworked in 3D, and the entire original game fully unlockable via the GCN/GBA Link. It’s a marvelous bonus, giving the game even more replay value.

Graphics - The Sands of Time is an incredibly beautiful game, with lush, gorgeous environments and extraordinarily convincing character models. Ubi Soft Montreal has created an amazingly real atmosphere for us to explore and each area and room is unique unto itself.

Everything in Prince of Persia lives, breathes, and acts as it would in real life. During the early battle stages, you feel as if you are really there while the Prince explores the Maharajah’s palace-turned-battleground. Walls and bridges explode around you, war-torn relics litter the walkways, and the lighting effects are top-notch Splinter Cell stuff.

The resulting effect of the vivid artwork and level design is something straight out of Arabian Nights. No game this year has achieved such a stunning and beautiful environment.

Sound - We never thought a combination of Middle-Eastern/Arabian flavor and heavy guitar rock would work, but perhaps that’s why we’re not game designers. The music in Prince of Persia is nothing short of fantastic and fits the game’s action quite well. Certain moments of the game almost inspired us to take up belly dancing. Almost. The sound effects themselves are fabulous and convincing and beg for the game to be run through your best sound system.

The voice acting is also extremely well done, as there is quite a bit of it during the game. As mentioned earlier, the Prince’s story is unfolded during gameplay and there is quite a bit of dialogue throughout the entire adventure. However, one minor annoyance was the actual balance of voiced dialogue to in-game action. We often found ourselves struggling to hear what the Prince was saying, for fear that we were missing an important plot key. While this is certainly nothing that will ruin the game experience, it was a bit puzzling.

Overall Value - I can’t remember the last time a game impressed me this much by not only its style and unique qualities, but also by simply being fun. There was not a single moment during Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time that I was not having fun. Just watching the Prince as I made him leap across chasms, do somersaults in the air, and launch himself off a pole through a hole in the wall was the most fun I’ve had with a game in ages.

The game is extremely fair, well-balanced, and innovative all at the same time. The way the story unfolds will suck you in and make you genuinely care about the Prince and Farah, the female companion that accompanies him through a large portion of his adventure.

It’s rare when a game comes along that has me making predictions. But I will say right now, that barring some mystery game being released between now and the end of December, Prince of Persia gets my vote for Best Game of 2003. I have never played anything like it. It’s simply amazing.

Review by John Luedkte