Prince of Persia The Sands of Time can be recommended wholeheartedly. It looks fantastic and features responsive controls, some original play mechanics, a good story, and plenty of thrilling adventure.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time takes place in a mystical Middle Eastern setting, all bathed in soft, warm light and looking like something straight out of a storybook. You play as a young prince who possesses exceptional athletic and acrobatic skill. Early on in the game, the prince steals the dagger of time, a treasure from a rival nation, as a token for his father the king. When a traitorous vizier compels the prince to use the dagger to unlock another treasure, a huge hourglass, everything goes wrong. The sands from the hourglass blow forth, enveloping the kingdom and turning its guardsmen and citizens into, for lack of a better way to describe it, "sand zombies." The prince, the vizier, and a young woman named Farah are among the only survivors. In the prince's efforts to undo his mistake, he'll join forces with Farah, seek out the hourglass, and confront the vizier.
The game's story takes a backseat during most of the game, but it is bookended nicely and is framed as the prince's own retrospection. So, for instance, should the prince fall and die at a certain point during the game, you'll hear him say, as narrator, something like, "No, that's not how it happened." Not only is this an interesting technique, but it compels you to keep pressing on. You'll want to know exactly how his complicated ordeal will unravel.
The prince's new dagger of time has other uses besides causing calamity. It's the key to defeating the evil spread throughout the palace, and it also makes the prince virtually immortal. In most cases, should the prince fall to his death or be slain by a sand creature or a trap, with his last breath, he may use the dagger to "rewind" the course of time to a point prior to the unfortunate incident that would have ended his life. Each time you use this ability, it costs a "sand tank," which you earn a greater quantity of as you get farther into the game, and which you restore by defeating sand creatures. In practice, you won't often run out of sand tanks, but even if you do, you'll restart the prince's story from a recent location.
A highly responsive, very forgiving control scheme further ensures that at no point during Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time will you get particularly stuck, if at all. Though other action adventure games involving a lot of death defying leaps and other such bravery tend to force the player to perfectly time his or her maneuvers and often force him or her to wrestle with issues concerning the controls or camera perspective, Prince of Persia is set up in such a way that it's remarkably simple to pull off all of the prince's spectacular moves. The default PC controls are a mouse and keyboard combination, similar to what you'd use with a typical first person shooter. They work well, though not quite as well as the console versions' gamepad controls. On consoles, it's a bit easier to move in the direction of your foes, as the camera changes angles and the analog control lets you move with more precision. However, the default PC controls ultimately aren't detrimental to the game. What's strange is that the PC version of Prince of Persia apparently only seems to support one specific dual analog gamepad, so even if you wanted to use a dual analog gamepad with the game, you probably wouldn't be able to.
The prince's acrobatic moves make Prince of Persia nearly as enjoyable to watch as it is to play.
Despite the convincing look of its huge environments, the game is completely linear, and the prince's course tends to be very clear. Doors will slam shut behind him, forcing him to press onward, and each time you enter a new area, you'll see a quick fly through showing where it is you're trying to go and what it is that stands between you and that goal. Additionally, at each of the game's frequent save points, you'll see a "vision" of what lies ahead a quick sepia toned montage of the trials and tribulations to come in the next area. You'll soon discover that this is basically a built in hint system. Should you ever get stuck, just head back to a save point, watch the "vision" again, and you'll probably figure out what you're supposed to be doing.
The prince has a great variety of really impressive moves at his disposal. Like a Mid Eastern Spider Man, he can defy gravity to a certain extent, by triangle jumping from wall to wall, running horizontally along vertical surfaces, balancing on narrow ledges, swinging wildly from ropes or horizontal bars, jumping from pillar to pillar, and more. He's truly the most acrobatic character in a game, to date, and executing his moves is simple and even intuitive. The prince can't be made to accidentally fall; he'll automatically grab the ledge if you walk him off of one, and you can hang on indefinitely. A separate key is used for pulling yourself up as opposed to letting go, so there's no worry of accidentally dropping even when you seem to be hanging on for dear life. And, even when you're balancing on a narrow rail thousands of feet above the ground, should you lose your balance and tip over, you'll always catch the ledge and can pull yourself right back up. All this is maybe a little too convenient, but at least it means you'll be forging ahead rather than constantly tumbling into pits.
The console versions of Prince of Persia offer some bonuses, in addition to the main adventure, of which the most notable is the inclusion of an unlockable port of the original version of the game that started it all. Unfortunately, for some reason, these bonuses have been omitted from the PC version (which retails for less, as if in exchange). Still, perhaps you remember the original Prince of Persia, which influenced games like Tomb Raider and pretty much every other game in which you can grab on to ledges. The original game presents a stark contrast with the new installment of the series in just how punishing it was. On the other hand, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a game that can be recommended wholeheartedly. It looks fantastic and features responsive controls, some original play mechanics, a good story, and plenty of thrilling adventure. In the simplest terms: Do not miss out on this game.
MINIMUM PC REQUIREMENTS
Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP
Pentium III or AMD Athlon 800MHz Processor
256MB RAM
64MB GeForce 3 or ATI Radeon 8500 Class Video Card (Except GeForce4 MX)
DirectX compatible Sound Card
1.5GB Hard Disk Space
