Posted March 28, 2009
As one who's never played this game before I think I'm coming in to this with an unbiased opinion. Having heard all the hype over the years I finally decided to pick this up and I have to say I'm not dissapointed one bit.
Sands of Time puts you in the sandals of the titular Prince of Persia. After the Prince's father uses a treacherous Vizier to help him siege a city he uncovers the Sands of Time. The Prince is tricked into unleashing the sands, which seems to begin destroying everything in sight, turning the denizens of the palace into walking abominations. It's up to the Prince to set things right.
The plot is unfolded as if the Prince is telling you a story about his adventures, which is really clever because all your deaths are chalked up to his bad memory ("No, no, that's not what happened").
He's by far one of the most acrobatic protagonists you'll encounter and thanks to an easy control scheme (I recommend a gamepad) it only takes one button to jump and one to perform a special context-sensitive action like running up a wall or swinging on a pole. And it's a good thing controls are so simple because you'll be bounding from wall to wall, swinging on poles, running across walls over pits and other sorts of things. Acrobatics have a place in combat, too. The monsters in Sands of Time go down pretty easy but they always have a numerical advantage so button mashing rarely works. The Prince can use his agility to roll, dodge and even leap over his enemies to give himself an advantage.
Sands of Time smoothly blends together combat and platforming and both elements make you feel extremely agile and cool. The story is engaging and the voicework (especially the Prince) is commendable. If you're a fan of platformers then this is certainly one you won't want to miss.
Sands of Time puts you in the sandals of the titular Prince of Persia. After the Prince's father uses a treacherous Vizier to help him siege a city he uncovers the Sands of Time. The Prince is tricked into unleashing the sands, which seems to begin destroying everything in sight, turning the denizens of the palace into walking abominations. It's up to the Prince to set things right.
The plot is unfolded as if the Prince is telling you a story about his adventures, which is really clever because all your deaths are chalked up to his bad memory ("No, no, that's not what happened").
He's by far one of the most acrobatic protagonists you'll encounter and thanks to an easy control scheme (I recommend a gamepad) it only takes one button to jump and one to perform a special context-sensitive action like running up a wall or swinging on a pole. And it's a good thing controls are so simple because you'll be bounding from wall to wall, swinging on poles, running across walls over pits and other sorts of things. Acrobatics have a place in combat, too. The monsters in Sands of Time go down pretty easy but they always have a numerical advantage so button mashing rarely works. The Prince can use his agility to roll, dodge and even leap over his enemies to give himself an advantage.
Sands of Time smoothly blends together combat and platforming and both elements make you feel extremely agile and cool. The story is engaging and the voicework (especially the Prince) is commendable. If you're a fan of platformers then this is certainly one you won't want to miss.