Prince of Persia

Prince of Persia is one of those odd games that I've been enjoying so much that I haven't taken anything into account. I haven't really paid attention to the graphics, the puzzles, the voice acting, the feel, or really much of the controls for that matter. I'm just playing and enjoying my experience. I guess it must be good because of my lack of a need to analyze the game. Now that I'm finally confronted with writing up my thoughts I'm at a loss for anything constructive to say. Since the phrase "It's good ,er…really good." Doesn't make for a well written review I'll try to explain more about it.

Starting off at the beginning, PoP did a wonderful job of making me feel right at home with the story. For one thing you don't start out in deep shit or learn about it through a cinematic. You actually start playing before the real story begins. Also during this portion, where acquiring the Dagger of Time is the goal, the game uses on-screen prompts to teach you how to control the Prince and accomplish his various moves. The tutorial feature can be turned off if you like.

The meat of the game requires you to navigate large rooms or hallways containing deadly traps using all sorts of acrobatic maneuvers. No simple running and jumping here. Each area requires a myriad of actions to get from point A to point B. Each area starts off with a camera "fly-by" showing the entire room and where the goal is located. This view shows the sheer magnitude of the areas and can be very daunting. If this was a Tomb Raider game I would expect to take 2 hours to find my way through. Unlike Lara, the Prince is far more agile and much quicker because he doesn't take 8 minutes to line up each jump, he just jumps where he should. Run up the wall, grab a ledge, flip to a bar, swing to a beam, balance across to a ledge and run along the wall to another platform and pull a lever to open the door. The ease of accomplishing these insane maneuvers is where PoP really shines. The controls are very intuitive and also very forgiving, which means a slim learning curve. Accidentally falling off ledges or balance beams only results in the Prince grabbing hold and pulling back up. A player really needs to screw up bad to go careening to their death, but even that is remedied by using the Dagger of Time.

Acquired very early in the game, the Dagger, gives the Prince the ability to rewind time should something terrible happen. Missing a major jump will kill the Prince, but press a button and rewind up to 10 seconds earlier before you missed the jump, effectively bringing him back to life for a second chance. Rewinding indefinitely is not possible because the Dagger uses up sand for each rewind. Don't worry though, a second chance is usually enough.

The remaining element of PoP is battling enemies. There aren't many "normal" enemies in the game, it is mostly populated by "Sand Monsters". Sand monsters can be knocked down using sword or kick attacks, and other special moves but they will keep returning to the fray unless the Dagger of Time is used. Suck enemies into the Dagger to dispatch them permanently and refill sand. Doing so will also increase the power of the dagger to allow more special attacks. Instantly freeze an enemy in time, slow down time for a while, or even Haste the Prince to deliver super speedy attacks to inhibited enemies. Battles are fairly plentiful and challenging but take a back seat to the rest of the action.

PoP: Sands of Time is a brilliantly conceived adventure game that offers an immersive experience. So immersive in fact that I literally flew through the game in nine hours and simply soaked up the ambiance. I'm sure the graphics are adequate but I was more interested in playing than looking at the backgrounds, lighting, shading, etc. I think that actually says more about the graphics because I was enthralled in every aspect of the game with basically nothing to gripe about. Unfortunately beating this game in one weekend is very feasible but I would rather have it in my collection for $20 than rent it once and forget about it.

-wileee