Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (PS2)

In recent months, in fact for long periods over the last year my gaming attentions have turned to the Xbox or Gamecube due to the dearth of good action games on Playstation - a prime example of this was the massively disappointing 'Tomb Raider, Angel of darkness' and nothing since has come close to the mighty aforementioned 'ICO' until now. So what makes 'Prince of Persia - The sands of time' stand head and shoulders over it's peers? For a start the graphics are superior to virtually anything on PS2 at the moment, some of the outside areas in particular are breathtaking. But graphics are nothing without gameplay and in 'Prince of Persia' it's literally groundbreaking! Once you have the 'dagger of time' all manner of hell can be unleashed upon your enemies - fight them in slow motion (a la Max Payne), freeze time to pick them off without being harmed and then there is the awesome mega freeze or 'fast forward' attack, which although must be used sparingly it has to be seen to be believed.
The biggest advantage you have though is the 'rewind' ability - again limited - but taking a leap of faith is no longer the risk it usually is in most action/platform games (Think any Tomb raider games!), as you can press the rewind button and give it another shot even after plummeting to your death.

Which leads on to the only real criticism of the game. With the 'rewind' ability you can cheat death on a regular basis obviously saving you from those annoying re-tries and broken controllers, but what it means is that things are a lot easier. There are also many save points littered throughout and at each one you experience 'visions'. These give away parts of the game yet to come, making the already easy puzzles even easier, although you can chose not to watch them if you are that way inclined. Seasoned gamers will finish 'Prince of Persia' within 8-10 hours on first play which is a little disappointing as it is the kind of experience you don't want to see the end of, there is however the bonus of the full original POP to unlock - if you manage to find the right wall to knock down whilst playing.

Time span aside there are very few flaws to this game, the odd dodgy camera angle aside, but then all games of this ilk are cursed with that problem and it is something that you will hardly notice as the controls in general are so sublime. This game is really what many had hoped something like 'TR - Angel of darkness' would be and then so much more. The developers UBI-Soft appear to be trying their hand at just about every game genre out there at the moment (e.g. 'XIII' and 'Beyond good and evil'), well I can tell you that they have this one well and truly nailed!

It has to be said that this *is* just another 3D, platform/puzzle/combat type adventure game in the same vein as Tomb Raider and Soul Reaver, but UbiSoft have managed to incorporate so many new ideas that it actually feels fresh and new, quite an achievment. The idea of including time effects such as rewind (up to ten seconds) and look-forward is inspired, and is sure to be copied by other games in the near future.

At various stages in the game there are save points, however these can also be used to get a brief glimpse of the future path you will take. These come in very usefull at certain times, as they can give hints on the various puzzles you will encounter - and as usual, the style of these is superb. These flash-forwards are viewed in a sepia-stlye, almost black & white mist, with suitably strange sound effects.

The animation of the prince is exagerated, but so free-flowing it is almost believable. The energetic main character can perform the usual jumps and rolls, and can also use the walls to perform back-flips and long, arced runs to clear large gaps in the floors, as well as somersaults from flags poles etc. The attention to detail means that after walking through water, the Prince's abilities are reduced (but only for a couple of seconds) as his wet shoes cannot grip the walls as well as usual!

I don't think this is quite as large in overall length as the Tomb Raider games, but another bonus can be found at the start menu under 'extras'. This menu has 'Prince of Persia 1' listed here, and I think it is the entire original game which made it's debut a long time ago on home computers such as the Amiga 500. This isn't exactly cutting-edge anymore, but it's great to see it here included - I still have fond memories of this. Unfortunately it needs to be unlocked first (by finishing the new game I expect!) but it's a great idea and still a good game by itself.

In conclusion I still think that the Tomb Raider games have terrific music and a lot of class, but this new Prince of Persia has a style which is the new leader in this genre.