Damn, this game makes you kill strippers! (Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (PS2))

Member Name: Stunt 101

Product:	Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (PS2)
Date:	07/09/07 (134 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Beautiful, responsive, well told and very fun.

Disadvantages: Short. No, very short.

Tomb Raider, Marc Ecko’s Getting Up and other games like these all have acrobatics in them. Who do you think invented games like these? Prince of Persia. Starting as a 2D arcade classic, this isn’t the first time the game has gone 3D, but it’s the first successful time it has. In 2003, Ubisoft released Sands of Time, one of the best action adventure games on the PS2. It looks fantastic, sounds great, plays perfectly, and has a well told story as well as controls responsively. I just wish they’d released a next-gen version-unless you count Assassin’s Creed, which though isn’t a sequel is a lot like the PoP games.

-(The Story)-
You’ll take the role of the Prince, who tries to gain honour and glory as well as the approval of his farther by stealing this dagger of time. Sadly, it’s a plan gone wrong as when he unknowingly unleashes the sands of time, creates a load of hellish creatures and turns the place into chaos, he can’t get his approval of his father as his father is trying to kill him! So, it’s up to him, and a girl in red called Farah to save the palace and stop the creatures. The plot is interesting, and it’s also well told. The Prince narrates the whole thing, and it feels like a storybook and is great.

-(The Controls)-
Usually with a game like this, the controls aren’t responsive and they mess up the whole thing. Thankfully, Sands of Time is different. The controls are responsive, and the fact that you can pull off insane stunts so easily is excellent. Basically, you move around with the left analog stick, control the camera with the other. The X button makes you jump/roll, the square button slashes your sword, the triangle button slashes your dagger of time and the circle button drops you from ledges. You can use sand abilities with the L1 button, L2 moves the camera into a prospective where you can see the whole environment and R2 puts you into a first person view. The controls are simple, but what makes them so fantastic is that they’re so responsive. In some games, it may be ok if a game takes a second to respond, but here when timing is a key that is not allowed. And that isn’t the case, thankfully.

-(The Gameplay)-
The game consists of three gameplay types, which are platforming, combat and puzzle solving. All these gameplay types are well executed, and it adds some great variety to the game. That said, the game would be remarkable if the game was simply consisted of the platforming, as the acrobatics in the game are amazing. Yet, the game feels more cohesive with the fighting and puzzle solving, as simply wall running, jumping over traps and doing death defying leaps can get old. Sadly, the game really isn’t too challenging. Thanks to the easy controls, lack of challenge the enemies appose and the easiness of avoiding the deathtraps means you may get bored at times. Still, the game is still exciting, thanks to the dangerous traps. The game also creates a fantastic sense of height. If you’re about 20ft in the air, you can tell as it’s pretty foggy as you look down, not because of poor draw distance, but because you’re so high! Anyways, it’s pretty exciting if you try to jump across, as you think ‘god that’s far too jump, will he make it?’ and when you try to jump it’s so tense as you could fall to your death. And if he makes it, you feel a sense of relief as you’ve made it!

The acrobats are really exciting. Basically, Prince can roll, wall run, balance on poles and hang onto ledges. At the beginning of the game the acrobatics aren’t too crazy at the beginning, as you’re usually just wall running over spikes or jumping from ledge to ledge, but as you progress the stunts can be downright ridiculous. You’ll be jumping from one ledge to another over a 20ft drop and other things as crazy as this. It’s a shame that if you’re too high, you can die instantly, which is a pain. Luckily accidental deaths don’t occur much. If you happen to fall off while balancing across a pole, Prince will grab the ledge before he drops, which is helpful. Getting into the most accurate position isn’t a problem either, as if you’re a little bit away from the pole; you can usually jump to the pole from that position. Prince can also do other moves like wall jumps, where you jump between two close walls to go higher, and climb ladders. The game is really enjoyable with its acrobatics, as it’s the most occurring thing in the game and is better than the combat and puzzle solving. Yet, the combat and puzzle solving break up the action nicely.

The combat is, well simplistic. Prince has a nice set of moves on him. He’ll have his three move combo, a move where he stabs his enemies with his dagger and he can also jump over enemies and stab them in the back as well as launch and do a sort of spear move which can take enemies down to the ground instantly. But you can’t simply hit them and expect them to die; you have to do something to kill them. You can do one of two things. You can put the enemy to the ground and then stab the dagger to absorb their sand, and in turn killing them, or you can use a move where you freeze them, and then if you can throw them into the air you can slice them in two! Sadly, the combat isn’t too challenging. There are a couple of scenarios which are a bit hard, where if you don’t use the moves to take them out they can kill you, but the game is mostly a breeze to get through. One thing is that in combat you’re partner Farah will fight with you, but if she dies then its game over. That means you need to protect her from the sand monsters. The game’s monsters don’t make it much more challenging, as they’re slow and rarely attack. They seem to try and crowd you, which can lead to some unfair situations, but they also rarely do that.

The game’s puzzles are pretty straight forward. They usually involve you simply move crates, flipping switches, figuring out how to use some machinery, stuff generic to the action adventure genre. Yet, there’s something nice the game adds to the puzzles. Basically, with Farah with you sometimes her and Prince will need to work together to complete a puzzle. There’s an example where Prince will first create a path for Farah to get to a switch so she can make a path for you. It was pretty fun. She’s also so skinny (eat a Hot Dog goddamit!) that she can crawl through small holes or slide through small cracks, so she can activate a switch for you. It adds a nice twist to the game, and it will remind people of a legendary game known as ICO. There’s also some puzzle solving by simply finding where you’re meant to go.

As Prince gets the dagger of time, he can do a number of moves with his dagger. The most used move is the rewind ability. Basically, if you do fall to your death or die in combat, the Prince can usually rewind time to a point before he was about to die, and prevent sudden death. This feature means you won’t die constantly, taking a lot of the challenge out of the game. Still, it’s nice to see the game not being too punishing. One another ability will let him freeze an enemy, so you can chop him in half! Sadly, these all make the game too easy, coupled with the easy combat and acrobatics make this game a little too easy for its own good.

Still the game is very accessible, meaning even a non-gamer can pick up the game and still enjoy it. Still, the game still deserves its 12+ rating as some of the monster games are a little scary. Very young children will be scared by the monsters, so they should stay clear. Still, I would let maybe a ten year old play the game if they’re not scared easily. The game has a little bit of blood here and there, and there’s a lot of swash buckling action. Plus, a ten year old could pick up and play the game easily thanks to the great learning curve, responsive controls and lack of needed precision.

-(The Graphics)-
Graphically, Sands of Time looks brilliant. The character models are fantastic, with nice details and animation. The enemy characters don’t repeat too much, and the main characters are exquisite. There’s some nice CG cutscenes here too, which look drop dead gorgeous. The best thing about the game, though, is the environments. They look incredible. There’s some brilliant lighting work to be found here, with some sun soaked moments. The environments all look excellent, with lots of details and clean textures. You’ll go through exotic gardens, dark dungeons, huge palace halls and more. And the sheer size of the levels can be incredible, they’re sometimes massive. The frame rate stays pretty much smooth throughout, which is incredible considering the size and details.

-(The Sound)-
Soundwise, the game also is excellent. The voice acting is great. Prince is perfectly voiced as a young man who is a bit naïve as he does some dumb stuff at the beginning, just to impress his dad. The rest is enjoyable to listen to as well. The music is great too. We’re in Egypt here, so the music will have a sort of Arabian feel to it, so it suits the game. The effects are good too, with the sword slashes, wall cracking and etc. Sadly the game’s sound is undermined by some sloppy recording, as some of the voices are drowned out completely by the effects when they’re saying something important. And sometimes, the voices and effects are done really quietly, so you can’t hear it. Still, the game does sound fantastic.

-(The Replay Value)-
This is the weakest area of Sands of Time. The game is way too short. Put it this way, the game is only 7 hours long, which you’ll tell as you play through as I’d only be playing for a couple of hours, and I was already nearly 50% into the game. Replay value? Well there’s the arcade original, which has held up well and is fun, though it’s much harder than the new game so younger or casual gamers may struggle. There’s also a level-remake, which is fun. But, aside from them two things, there’s not much to do after, leaving you wanting more. There are no unlockable costumes, no bonus videos or art pictures or anything like that.

-(The Score)-
Controls=10
Gameplay=10
Graphics=10
Sound=9
Replay Value=6
Overall Score=9.0

-(The Ending Comments)-
Sands of Time is an excellent game, no doubt about it. It plays excellently, looks stunning, sounds excellent and controls responsively. Sadly, the game is too short, lasting about 7 hours. Still, the unlockable bonus of the original PoP should keep you busy for a bit longer. I recommend it to fans of acrobatics (in games that is), fans of action adventures, newer gamers (as the challenge isn’t too high) and people who like games who tell a good story. If you’re scared of heights, hate games like this or want a challenge, as well as a longer game, look somewhere else. And if you’re even interested in playing the other PoP games, play them in order goddamit as you’ll be stumped if you jump straight to the second or third game.

-(The Extra Info)-
This game was published and developed by Ubisoft.
This was released on November 21st, 2003 and is also on the PC, Gamecube, Xbox and GBA.
You can buy this in the used and new section from £1.79

Thanks for reading. Stunt 101

Summary: Well PoP the bottle, this game rocks!