Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time review

The Vizier tricks you into releasing the Sands of Time.

The original Prince of Persia was a side scrolling, decidedly 2D affair that amazed with its, at the time, breathtaking animation. Ubisoft, with the help of original Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner, have come up with this sumptuous update and dragged it kicking onto all the major consoles, and onto the PC, which is the copy I've received. It looks fabulous, but pretty looks don't get very far with me - I like depth and lots of it. Hopefully, my fondest Prince of Persia memories will be surpassed!

Our mysterious heroine has a magical necklace, protecting her.

As usual, installation is simple with two CDs seeming to be the norm these days - surely a twin release of DVD and double CD versions can't be far off now for most games? An absolutely gorgeous intro sequence details how the dying Grand Vizier tricks our prince into releasing the sands of time, changing almost everyone into sand creatures, which, naturally, take offence at out hero's attempts to right the terrible consequences he's created. Our hero, along with the Vizier and a mysterious female character, have magical weapons that stop them being changed into sand creatures. The prince has the dagger of time; a very handy implement that can store some of the sands of time, allowing the prince to effectively control time, but only if the dagger has sand in it. The dagger allows you to rewind time by up to ten seconds, but each rewind costs you a sand tank and the dagger only starts with three, which need to be filled before they can be used. On later stages the number of tanks can be increased, giving you the power to freeze time (handy for multiple enemies) and fast forward time (also handy to inflict a lot of damage on powerful enemies), but again, all these cost you sand and no sand, no fancy tricks!

No sandcastles here!

Drinking water restores your health.

This sand can be found sometimes flowing freely throughout the palace, or collected from slain sand creatures. These sand creatures will respawn unless their sand is collected, so the dagger effectively becomes a killing weapon, your normal sword can only incapacitate them for a few seconds, giving you time to extract the sand. Of course, these creatures are armed to the teeth with swords, club, axes and sometimes the odds seem totally against you, but thanks to the nimble sword play, it's easy to even up the odds with a few jumping slashes and sand dagger attacks. Drinking from fountains will give you your health back and there are hidden secrets on most levels that lead to mysterious fountains that increase your health meter, allowing you to take more punishment.

Sun, sea and somersaults

Four bad guys versus yourself is commonplace in this game. Unfair odds - for them!!

Combat is not the only thing you have to master though. Your prince is a nimble chap, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. OK, there are no tall buildings, but he's a rather talented chap nonetheless. He can jump great distances and then hang on and climb up if needed, he can also run along walls for five or six steps, allowing you to cross gaps without jumping as well as being able to run up walls then jump away from them. Walking along ledges is simplicity to this chap. Our hero can also swing from flagpoles(some of these will only withstand so much swinging before falling out of the wall, so you need to be quick) and he can also climb poles and jump from one pole to another, a move which is vital to your progression through the game. It's really easy to get him to do any of this, a simple, straightforward tutorial tells you how to do all the moves, you don't even need to have six thumbs and five index fingers either, as the controls are all quite simple. Movement, action, sword, dagger and jump are all you need and even playing on a keyboard, as I did, is easy enough. Playing with a gamepad would no doubt improve the game further (I believe there’s a version of the game packaged with just such a device – ed.)

Curtain call

I always knew he'd make a good pole dancer.

The graphics are sumptuous, totally stunning in their detail and scope. Looking out of a window shows the whole palace spread out in front of you and the interior of the palace is also breathtaking. The curtains and shrouds hanging from the walls deform realistically when you walk past them and some of them also move in the wind. The game will give you a quick 'flythrough' of the room you've entered, showing a rough guide to the route you should take (usually the only one, but it doesn't feel linear at all) and the exit point. Getting there isn't always easy though, usually there's a few sand creatures needing to be culled on the way and it's not always easy to know what to do once you've got to the other side of the room.

Camera tricks

Entering a column of sand gives you a vision of what is about to happen.

So, are there any faults with this game? Is it completely flawless? Well, no, of course there's faults, they're just minor niggles though. The camera can often hinder you rather than help you, especially in some of the tighter passageways where it's not always apparent which way you should be running to run along the wall and sometimes, when jumping from pole to pole the camera will swing round and look at the jump you have to make at a 45 degree angle, so you're not sure if it's up or left you press and, of course, you'll get it wrong and have to use some of your dagger sand. The combat is also a minor problem as it can sometimes drag on a little as you never know how many sand creatures you have to defeat before you can move on. There's only ever three attacking you at any one time, and often you can slay five or six and still more respawn. Like I said, minor niggles, but niggles they are.

The rather special Dagger of Time, giving it's holder power over time itself.

Overall, it's fabulous, the sounds are great, the graphics are exceptionally good and the controls are simplicity in itself. I just wish it had sold more, although now that people have got over the purchase of Medal of Honor: Rising Sun for Christmas (a horrid, horrid game), sales seem to be picking up and now that the GameCube and Xbox versions have been released, hopefully this will result in a sales surge to the top of the charts, where it belongs! Simply fabulous, only the slight lack of replay value after it is completed might stop this from being played over and over again.