Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time – GC – Review

The story is as involving as the game itself, and here is a quick summary of it.
There is a legend that many centuries ago a young Prince discovered a magical
dagger. He was tricked into using that dagger to unleash a deadly evil upon the
Sultan’s Kingdom. That Prince went on a quest with an Indian Princess to restore
the palace and time itself back to normal. He must be very careful because there
are many dangers that face him, and he must use that dagger to master time, or
else he will lose everything.

The Prince is the son of the Persian King: Sharaman. He is very gifted in sword
fighting and an even better athlete. He is very eager to please his father and
bring him glory. Since being tricked into unleashing the evil upon the land, he
must now restore it back to normal. Farah is the Indian Princess who was
captured on one of the King’s conquests. She is sticking close to the Prince to
help him restore everything back to the way it was. Vizier is an evil traitor
who tricked the Prince into unleashing the Sands of Time upon the world. His
wish is to destroy the land and rule it.

What makes this game great is the tight control that the Prince has. He has a
variety of moves at his disposal and they all feel very natural, from running
across walls, swinging on bars, to hanging on ledges. The best part of this
action game is the combat engine that is used. At any given time the Prince can
take on several enemies at once, doing back flips over them and defeating them
without taking much damage. The combat is always smooth and very easy to get
acquainted with.

The Dagger of Time is the best part of this entire game. When players have this
dagger filled with some of the sand they will be able to control the very fabric
of time. There are many different powers that players have available to the
control: rewind, slow motion, free, fast-forward, and visions. Rewind is the
best one, because it allows players to go back a few seconds and correct any
stupid mistakes they make. Slow motion allows players to slow down time for
everyone but you. Freezing time is great when there is a hard enemy and you need
to get that extra edge. I really liked Fast-Forward because this allows players
to go extremely fast and defeat multitudes of enemies in a few seconds. The
visions allow players to get hints on what to do in some of the levels.

While The Dagger of Time puts a lot of power into gamers hands they will always
have to keep a constant eye to make sure that they have enough sand to use them.
The way that players refill the sand is by beating the Sand Creatures and
extracting the sand from their bodies. So there is usually a constant supply of
sand available to the players.

The fantastic thing about all of these powers is that they are an integral part
of this game, and they never feel like they are gimmicky. Each of these powers
comes in handy from time to time, and players will be glad that they have these
powers available to them.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is drop-dead gorgeous! The artwork in this
game is nothing short of spectacular! Players will find themselves stopping to
admire all of environments that they are put into. All of the levels are teeming
with details, for instance at times players will see candles flicker, water
running, or many other things that make it look surreal. The player models have
a nice polygonal count and are swarming with detail as well.

The thing that makes the graphics look even better is the awesome character
animations and camera control. No matter what the players are doing the prince
will always respond in a smooth way, with no jerky animation. It is always
amazing to see the Prince pull off several of his acrobatic movies because they
are silky smooth and look great. The camera is also very good in this game, if
players do get a bad angle all they have to do is touch the C stick and move it
to the best angle available.

If you have a Dolby Digital Pro Logic II set up you will defiantly want to hook
their GameCube to it to get the full effects from this game. The music has a
very “Arabian” feel to it and really sets the tone throughout the entire game.
The music really makes players feel like they are in an ancient Arabian nation.
The sound effects are awesome as well. Everything, from the swords clashing, to
the loud explosions, and walls collapsing down sound very crisp and clear.

The voice acting for this game is top notch as well. There is a ton of dialog in
this game, and it is nice to hear the Prince speak all of this instead of trying
to read it all. Plus at times it is funny to hear the witty remarks the Prince
will say.

Graphics: 9.5
The game is gorgeous! Everything is highly detailed with eyes-watering goodness.
The best part about this is that the framerate never drops while you are in
heavy action.

Sound: 9.4
If you have a good audio setup I highly suggest you hook your GameCube up while
playing this game. Everything sounds very good, and the sound effects are top
notch!

Difficulty: Medium
This game teeters that fine line between easy and hard. At times players will be
able to blast through a level in no time, and other times players will wish they
had the ability to rewind time more. But this is what makes this game so great,
it is not fun to have a game that is so easy that you are able to beat it in one
or two nights.

Concept: 9.7
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a rare game that revolutionizes this
genre! Having the ability to control time is one of the best ideas that have
been implemented flawlessly! The solid level design makes this feature even
better and gives this game something that will be praised for years to come!

Multiplayer: N/A