Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time
The Prince finishing off an enemy..
Royal Family
It was back in 1992 when I first played the original Prince Of Persia. Like most people I was immediately impressed with the fluid motion captured animation, and drew macabre pleasure the first time I backed an enemy into those chomping traps and had them sliced neatly in two.
It can be said however, that there really hasn't been much to shout about with the series since then. The following games were a mediocre affair, and the Prince's first foray into 3d was not exactly hailed a great success. So can UBI Soft change that with their latest attempt? Well I think they have!
A brief history of the Sands Of Time.
The game is told by the Prince himself, recounting his tale starting out with him lusting for battle and glory. As the prince of an invading army sacking a sultans palace, he sets out to obtain the Sultans treasure, winning favour with his father. He eventually manages to 'liberate' the Dagger of Time, soon realising that this dagger has the power to rewind the last 10 seconds. Literally allowing the bearer to fix a costly mistake. Unfortunately for our Princely hero, he is soon after tricked by the Sultans treacherous Vizier into using the dagger to unleash the sands of time, resulting in everyone within the palace they are residing turning to mindless zombies intent on the Prince's destruction.
Three characters are spared this fate; the Prince himself who is protected by the Dagger of Time; the mysterious Farah, who is the daughter of the Sultan the Prince's army destroyed; and the evil Vizier who had betrayed the Sultan and tricked the Prince.
The Prince must, with Farah's help, attempt to stop the Vizier and undo the cataclysm that he himself has unleashed upon the world.
Standing around and chatting is common in war
Gymnastics
The Prince is an athletic fellow, capable of running along walls, swinging on bars, jumping between ledges, and all manner of impressive feats that your average truffle hunting piglet can only gawk at. It is with this arsenal of moves, that you must guide the Prince around the various traps and dangerous rooms separating the Prince from his goal.
The moves themselves are relatively easy to pull off, with a very easy to use control scheme. If I had a complaint, it is that the control lends itself more to a gamepad than a keyboard resulting in a few misdirected jumps (if like me you don't own a gamepad for the PC). This is something you get used to, and some mistakes can be neatly resolved using the dagger.
Once you have the dagger, you can rewind up to the last 10 seconds of play, undoing that mistimed jump that saw the Prince fly off the edge of a large cliff and plummet to his doom. The dagger has a limited number of uses, but these can be replenished often, and the maximum total even increased as the Prince goes along. This dagger is so essential to the Prince's progress, you will really notice its absence when you play the levels without it, where a simple mistimed keypress leads to having to do that whole section again. Fortunately, these sections are never too long without some form of progress save.
"This property has some wonderful views of the kingdom"
The Opposition
Obstructing his path are all the guards and residents of the palace, that have been made virtually indestructible by the sands. These monsters can only be beaten by slashing them with your sword until they drop. At that point the Prince can use the dagger to retrieve the sand that animates them, killing them and replenishing some of the daggers power. The dagger also has the power to slow down time, or completely freeze enemies to help the Prince in these fights. Unfortunately its during these combat sequences that the first actual flaws of the game make themselves known. There are the usual camera issues that seem to come as standard with 3rd person titles like this, bits of scenery obstructing your view as the camera swings wildly trying to figure out where the Prince is going. For the most part I found I could put up with that. What is more annoying, is the feeling that the combat never really changes much (until the very end). You are informed of different moves, but for the most part the combat becomes a repetitive and somewhat frustrating affair, as you down enemy after enemy only to have another respawn in their place. Because you need to retrieve the sands from each enemy after you have downed them, this often leaves you open to an attack as several of those still standing decide that this is exactly the right time to hit you (which of course it is). There is no indication of just how many enemies you have to fight each time, and until you reach that number, each time you finish an enemy, a new one will appear and take their place. This unfortunately means that combat can often become just a tired sequence of enemies to drop until you can get back to the game again.
There are also a couple of times I felt like this in the rooms too, where you have just overcome a complex series of jumps and leaps, only to be faced with another room of the same. But despite this, the game still manages to draw you back in. Some of the puzzles are inspired, relying on cooperation between the Prince and Farah to get past an obstacle. Others rely noting out available ledges and poles which can be leapt from, and spotting important objects from the flashes of premonition the Prince gets whenever the game is saved. There is one puzzle that relies upon audio clues, a fact I completely failed to spot only to have my girlfriend point it out to me with an air of exasperation which rightly indicated that I clearly suck at complex tasks. I didn't find any puzzle overly obscure, and very few instances of trial and error. (Even those can be put down to me missing points).
Prince of Persia only allows the saving of the game at predefined points, rather than a save anywhere feature. These save points are well placed and integrated into the story, as the Prince walks into a sand fountain, giving him glimpses into the future. These flashes are essential to spot the path through the rooms, which makes paying attention to them important.
Flag poles are your friends..
Handsome Fellow
The sands of time is a great looking game. The scenery is well drawn and textured, the characters detailed. They do require some power to run, I had some chugging in places, and a few settings which simply didn't work on my machine. But even once I had dropped the detail and resolution, I was very impressed. What really stands out, true to form of the series, is the animation of the Prince. He moves fluidly and believably, reacting to the world around him. Farah's animation is possibly less impressive, and sometimes looks out of place, but I am quibbling unnecessarily now.
Sound is of a high standard, with good background music that can be very themed in places. Voice acting is excellent, with a brilliant and often funny dialogue between the Prince and Farah that gives emotion to both characters. I have one complaint, and that is the volume for the voices sometimes dropped to stupidly low levels, often making it very hard to understand what was going on, even with the voice volume specifically turned up.
It's best if u don't play this game drunk
Princely
All things considered, The Sands of Time is a really good game that I have no hesitation recommending to any fan of 3rd person action adventures. The story is both touching and memorable, (with a good ending) as is the dialogue between the main characters. The puzzles are not obscure and have flashes of genius in their conception.
There are a few flaws in the game, namely the repetitive and annoying combat and the usual camera niggles. It is also not the longest game ever, you can be through it in under 8 hours, and UBI Soft (I thumb my nose at their usual invasive registration program) appear to have taken the annoying decision not to include the original Prince Of Persia with the PC version of the game, unlike the console versions which have this and other unlockable extras. But for the time you play this game, it is enjoyable, even on a second run through. The flaws can (and should) be overlooked. If you like this sort of game, then you shouldn't be disappointed. If you go all fuzzy at the memory of the original Prince Of Persia, you will definitely not be disappointed. It puts a big plus back on the series.
الجمعة ديسمبر 29, 2006 4:22 pm