Posted April 01, 2009
I'll start off by quoting 'Yahtzee' Croshaw of Zero Punctuation fame, who said that the Prince of Persia trilogy was the best series of the last generation of consoles. While I wouldn't go as far as that, I can't deny that this game is phenomenal, and I can't wait for the two sequels to be GOG'ed.
The gameplay mechanic of playing with time is incredible - it makes you wonder how the developers of Timeshift can moan about the problems of implementing time reversal when this game did it several years before. It never gets old seeing yourself epic-leap up a cliff, get unstabbed and backflip over an enemy whilst going back in time - getting killed becomes a 5 second entertainment, in a way. Of course, when you run out of sand tanks so you can no longer rewind, getting sent back to earlier in the game seems irritating, but this is only notable in how little it happens so long as you pay attention to the environments.
There are a few moments that make players want to shed both their tears and hair, but these are very few. The most notable is when you are locked in a chamber with a proverbial ton of enemies, and after battling all these you must defeat your father. This can take about half an hour to an hour, but for the player that perseveres, the game becomes gradually more rewarding from this point onwards.
The style of the game is excellent - from the crazy black and white visions to the enemy sand monsters to the giant aviary level, the design is consistently outstanding. The soundtrack is nothing too memorable, but it's enjoyable to listen to, and I can say, having played both the PS2 and PC versions of this game, this version visually rips its console brethren apart.
To conclude - you should prioritise this over almost anything else on GOG, with the possible exception of Beyond Good and Evil.
The gameplay mechanic of playing with time is incredible - it makes you wonder how the developers of Timeshift can moan about the problems of implementing time reversal when this game did it several years before. It never gets old seeing yourself epic-leap up a cliff, get unstabbed and backflip over an enemy whilst going back in time - getting killed becomes a 5 second entertainment, in a way. Of course, when you run out of sand tanks so you can no longer rewind, getting sent back to earlier in the game seems irritating, but this is only notable in how little it happens so long as you pay attention to the environments.
There are a few moments that make players want to shed both their tears and hair, but these are very few. The most notable is when you are locked in a chamber with a proverbial ton of enemies, and after battling all these you must defeat your father. This can take about half an hour to an hour, but for the player that perseveres, the game becomes gradually more rewarding from this point onwards.
The style of the game is excellent - from the crazy black and white visions to the enemy sand monsters to the giant aviary level, the design is consistently outstanding. The soundtrack is nothing too memorable, but it's enjoyable to listen to, and I can say, having played both the PS2 and PC versions of this game, this version visually rips its console brethren apart.
To conclude - you should prioritise this over almost anything else on GOG, with the possible exception of Beyond Good and Evil.
