Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (PS2)

The graphics are lush and rich in colour- many games sink into deep murky browns and greys, but Prince of Persia avoids this: even in the numerous outdoor night sequences: the moonlight bathes everything in a blue radiance and firelight flickers off metal and stone in crimson waves. A particularly impressive piece of atmosphere is the movement of drapes in the wind, and their billowing as the prince runs through them. The characters are all well defined and presented in the increasingly popular, and effective, semi-cartoon style: although no cell shading is to be found. The action is fast and fluid, occasinally hit by small amounts of slowdown: given the time-manipulation facets of the game this can, if anything, add to the atmosphere!

The detail on the prince is incredible: his acrobatic feats are both realistic and fantastic in execution, a blend of the anti-gravity sprinting of Hong Kong action movies and the acrobatic bounding of the Douglas Fairbanks movie `The Thief of Baghdad'. After only a few minutes of play most players should be able to pull off impressive displays of combat-acrobatics and wall-sprinting leaps. The array of moves is vast: wall-sprinting, vaulting, shimmying & (limited) climbing, swinging and leaping from flag-poles, wall-bouncing jumps- and all with realtively simple controls. On rare occasions the context-sensitivity of the game doesn't match the player's inention and the prince leaps to his doom, but this is rare and most deaths are due to a mistake on the player's part.

Sound is atmpospheric, but unusually quiet at times. The voice acting is exceptional for a computer game, and for once features some English accents that aren't bad guys, or Lara! Sound effects work well, particularly effective are the surreal squawks and whines when time is reversed, or the prince receives precognitive glimpses of levels to come. The music is, of course, very middle-eastern in feel, with a touch of heavy rock thrown in as well that spices fights up nicely. Some insightful voice-overs by the prince add depth to what is in essence a platform-fighter/explorer game.

What makes the game truly special are its little touches: the movements of drapes in the wind, the prince resting wearily when you stop moving him. A personal favourite is the presentation of the entire game as a story being told by the prince himself: the game-over comments are sometimes quite funny ("No, no, no: that didn't happen. May I begin again?"). Leave the game paused for a length of time and the prince will request to resume his story, he also sounds very dissapointed when you request he stops (quit the game)!

The time element of the game is strong, and effective. It is also introduced gradually. There is a great satisfaction in being able to rewind the game from managing to kill the prince in a foolish jump...only to do it again! the slow-motion effects on the demoniac opposition are well done, and actually let the player appreciate the large amount of work put into the fluidity of the prince's fighting moves.

Controls are reasonably intuitive, and the game introduces them in a gentle learning curve that feels natural: effectively the player learns the special moves as the prince learns them. Just as with the Tomb Raider games that the original Prince of Persia inspired falls are invariably lethal and it can be alarmingly easy to fly off ledges when running at break-neck speed: this leads to even greater satisfaction when you manage to reverse the fall and bounce the prince of another ledge or wall to grab a safety-hold. Climbing is not as detailed as in the Tomb Raider games, but the speed is far quicker- the prince is superhumanly agile.

The gameplay itself feels incredibly free and flexible, which to an extent it is. The path of the game is actually fairly linear (although I may be mistaken as I am only 20% into the game as I write this): each section is effectively a level of phenomenal acrobatic leaping and bounding. The satisfaction really comes in being able to map out through a level and then execute it with as much style and speed as possible. No matter what actions you take as the prince when they work they look awesome!

The only real negative side to the game is that the combat may become repetitive in spite of its large impact and stylish nature. The game has a nice balance between puzzling and fighting: the majority of puzzles involve finding the correct, quick route through a sequence of deathtraps, but there are others too.

In all the game is essentially a very flash platformer- it really is a truly 3D version of the older games, and actually delivers the rarity these days of true edge-of-the-seat game-play. If you like the older versions you'll love it; if you like any of the Tomb Raider games you'll love it; if you just like action games- you get the idea.

Overall an excellent game, that is only let down by the occasionally snippet of repetetivity and by the lack of extra depth: perhaps in Prince of Persia 2 (here's hoping...) there will be more inter-character interaction possible, and a little less linearity: but then it would cease to have that knife-edge feel it has now. A great game worth having and playing to death, several times.

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.