Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Review

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            Prince of Persia: Sands of Time

Review by JesseDecember 2003

Amidst a barrage of media advertisements, Ubisoft has released yet another title this season in a bid for your Christmas dollar.  Prince of Persia: Sands of Time has been hailed as one of this year’s best action titles far and wide by the media, but what does this mean to you and me? Sure, it’s pretty, but is it a good game worth spending my hard-earned money on, or should I save it for that other Ubisoft game I just saw a commercial for?

It’s All About the Story, Isn’t It?

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time has a classic story: Boy’s kingdom conquers and enslaves Girl’s kingdom, Treacherous Vizier tricks unsuspecting boy into unleashing the Sands of Time on the populace, thus dooming the kingdom, Boy saves Girl from the Wicked Sand Monsters, Girl sasses Boy while working with him to stop the Sand Monsters, Boy decides Girl needs to learn her place, so he will marry her and teach her how to act like a lady, etc. …

POP is, if anything, a puzzle game at heart. The Middle East theme is fun, and the settings and music are all very appropriate to it, but essentially the story is there only explain the Prince’s criminal tendencies of breaking into places he doesn’t belong and taking things that are not his.

The story could easily have been: “Windex the Magnificent, Sorcerer Extraordinaire,™ catastrophically failed with his latest spell to create the world’s most powerful grease stain remover.  The resulting concoction removes stains all right, the stain of humanity! You need hunt down and kill the original in order to save the kingdom.” If you exchange the sand and Middle East architecture with the stone walls and green grass of Dark Ages Europe, and throw in some Gregorian chants for good measure, this game would play exactly the same.

The setting makes for some stunning visuals, and the relationship between the Prince and Princess adds a nice touch of sexual tension, but the story is essentially filler.

Not for the Action Faint of Heart

If you played Ico, and thought to yourself, “You know what would make this even more fun? If the fight scenes were more difficult and the fighting more involved!” then this is your game. POP is essentially a third-person puzzle game with fight scenes. Gameplay consists of enter room, kill baddies, figure out how to climb up to that ledge, avoid security, repeat.

The Prince takes the crown as the most athletic of heroes. He jumps, flips, climbs walls Jackie Chan style, and overall is one very badass dude. Everything is well animated and beautifully choreographed.  The question remains, though, whether you will still find everything as fresh and new after you have been doing it for an hour. For me, the answer was no. The first fight scene was pretty cool; after the twelfth such battle, I was less enamored; after the 27th, I was just going through the motions.

There are several moves and special abilities in your repertoire.  Your shiny new Dagger of Time allows you to slow time, reverse time to fix a mistake, freeze an enemy, or freeze everyone. It is also what you use to prevent enemies from coming back. During a fight, you can vault over enemies and hit them from behind, spring from walls, etc.

All these moves are works of art in and of themselves, and every battle scene is a thing of beauty. The camera angle slows action and moves around according to your actions and gives every battle a very cinematic feel without hindering the player.

The problem lies in the waves of enemies you are pitted against.  As a general rule, you only face four enemies at once. But as soon as you get rid of one, it is replaced by another. Add to that their ability to teleport, and strategy begins to fly out the window as you just try to cling to life. There is no point in bringing the enemies to a choke point when one can teleport behind you and thus have you surrounded. This leads to some frustrating battles, and some will have to be repeated.

The Princess tries to help you with her bow during the battles, which complicates things even more when she ends up shooting you in the back or getting surrounded and killed. In one scene, you are trapped in a tiny room with the Princess and waves of monsters, and it is a exercise in pure frustration getting through that scene without either of the protagonists dying.

A lack of variety in enemies is another sticking point. There are five different types of enemies, and during a fight they end up becoming “that guy I can’t jump over,” “that guy I can’t block,” etc. It makes sense from a balance perspective, but it further drives home the point that after the 20th battle, you shouldn’t expect anything new.

Usually in action games, you expect the game to become progressively more difficult as you get further along and more comfortable with the controls. Not so here. Since the enemies never change, as you grab more powerful weapons, things actually get easier, and all the game can do is throw more bad guys at you. This all leads up to a sorely disappointing final battle at the end. After clawing your way up to the final scene and honing your skills to the point where you can singlehandedly fend off a legion of Sand Monsters, you are treated to the easiest battle of the entire game as you face your final foe. Anticlimactic doesn’t begin to describe it.

But I Paid a Lot More Money for My PC!

POP, in keeping with Ubisoft tradition, plays very much like a console port. I would highly recommend a gamepad if playing on the PC, as there are a lot of keys to keep track of. As a veteran of 1980s PC RPGs, I am used to playing games that use every key on a keyboard, but if you are not absolutely comfortable with keyboard use, it would be more of a hindrance than a help. Even with my experience, there were many times I hit the wrong key and got smacked by a monster in the process.

Save points are another carryover from the console that will grate on many PC gamers. Most save spots will not be available until you fight off legions of monsters. This can be quite frustrating, especially if your health is already low at the beginning of the fight. If you do die, you will not have to go back as far as the last save, but you will still have to face those 20 enemies with your low health before you can progress any further.

Just about every major battle has a pool of water you can use to replenish your health, but when it takes several times to refill your health and you face endless spawning enemies that can teleport right next to you, that is easier said than done.

Will I Want to Use That Rewind Feature on My Purchase?

Is Sands of Time worth your holiday dollar? This will vary depending on your tastes. If you like third-person puzzle environments but are not a big action fan, you probably should look for something else. If you have a PS2, I would highly recommend Ico instead (besides, you get to hear the cool “clop clop clop” of Ico’s wooden sandals). If you are a diehard action fan, POP may seem a little thin in the strategy department, and you would be better off looking in the Tomb Raider department, which has more strategy along with the platform elements.

If you enjoy a combination of both, then you might enjoy this game.  The fighting scenes are beautiful and cinematically done, the martial arts–style athletics add a fun element to the 3D environment, and the game has a wonderful atmosphere.

In the Gamecube and PS2 versions, you are able to unlock the first POP game, and in the Xbox version you can also unlock the second POP game. The Xbox and Gamecube also have a “making of” featurette. It appears that none of this is available for the PC version, so if you have a choice as to platform, I recommend the Xbox version. If the extras mean nothing to you and you have a good controller for your PC, then the PC version is the cheaper buy.

I enjoyed Sands of Time and think it makes an excellent addition to the Prince of Persia mythos. I was disappointed that no effort was put into the PC version, and it even lacks any of the extras featured on the console versions, but I found it a fun little action game that kept me entertained for 10 or so hours.  If you are not put off by action gaming elements and you like puzzle-type games, I think you can find enough merit in the visuals and cinematography to justify a purchase. The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: Ubisoft Publisher: Ubisoft Release Date: December 2003

Available for: Game CubeWindowsXboxPlayStation 2 

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System Requirements

Windows 98 SE/00/ME/XP PIII 800 MHz 256 MB RAM GeForce 3 or equivalent with 3D support (GeForce 4MX not supported) DirectX 9.0a (included)

Where to Find It

GoGamer PC 37.90; GC 46.90; Xbox 46.90; PS2 42.90

Prices/links current as of 12/19/03Links provided for informational purposes only.  FFC makes no warranty with regard to any transaction entered into by any party(ies).

      Copyright © Electric Eye Productions.  All rights reserved.  No reproduction in whole or in part without express written permission.

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14 Responses to Fear Factor

  • Fear Factor | Tap-Repeatedly.com | Reality Topics Blog

    […] nobody@flickr.com (graftedno1) wrote a very interesting post today.   Here’s a quick excerpt:My greatest fear is to be trapped alone in a confined space with a blind human, in total darkness. They have a heightened sense of smell and hearing, and. […]

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    Lewis, you made me think of the scariest moments I’ve experienced in gaming, and we’re very similar people.

    Bioshock had two moments – the dentist and the flooded room filled with mannequins.

    Thief had Return to the Cathedral, which was terrifying to me. Thief 3 had Shalebridge Cradle, which is so scary it ought to be fined.

    System Shock 2 kept me on the edge of my seat, but it was more lonely panic than true fear.

    Korsakovia was so scary that I uninstalled it.

    And STALKER. Oh, god, the haunted labs in STALKER. The latter two games don’t have scares like that. Few games do.

    It’s especially rare for a game to have more than mere “moments” – for a game to be scary from beginning to end, that’s a triumph.

    Wonderful article. As if Gregg’s review wasn’t enough to convince me that Penumbra is not something I have the courage to play!

  • DPenn

    I’m with you Lewis … I’m a bit of a puss. I just have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of dread as entertainment.

    Still, I’m drawn to dark stories when they have something interesting to say, whether it’s a game like Thief or a film like, say, Gaspar Noe’s Irreversible. So I’ll push through, sometimes peering through my fingers.

    The trouble with games, though, is that if you look through your fingers, you’re probably just going to have to play through the scenario again. :~)

  • Mike "Scout" Gust

    I wanted to play this game. I downloaded the demo but the controls were just too wonky for me to get my head around. I liked the atmospheric vibe a lot. I think I’m a bit desensitized from an overdose of horror movies in my youth so I don’t so much get the dread thing from these games as a nice creepy vibration. If only the controls were better…

  • Lewis B

    @ Mike, what’s wrong with the controls bud? As someone who despises poor control schemes, Penumbra’s is just like any other FPS, except to examine things you right click on them.  To use things you left click.  I’m not sure that can be considered difficult 🙂

  • Gregg B

    @Steerpike: Yeah my greatest shit-scared moments were with those games too. A few spoilers below people, so beware.

    Bioshock – Haha, I remember the dentist. I didn’t really find the game that scary overall but the bit where you go into the wine cellar and notice a mannequin facing the wall and after upgrading your weapon it’s stood directly behind you motionless and quiet just for a moment before attacking you. I shat a brick. I also missed that bit originally until Lew told me about it.

    System Shock 2 – same as you really, more unremitting tension all the way through rather than specific terrifying moments. Oh actually, theres a bit where you call a lift and it breaks then you realise a service droid is coming to fix it… I do remember having sleep issues after my first encounter with the cyborg ninjas though.

    Thief: The Dark Project – The Sword and Return to the Cathedral and Down in the Bonehoard and well, loads of them. The Sword made me break out into goosebumps though because there was a bit where you could hear this creepy giggling which seemed like it was following me about then it suddenly changed to this horrible throaty noise. What made matters worse was that the EAX (bless you Creative) made my foot steps sound like somebody else was there with me. That level was incredible, a bit too incredible as it seems I missed great chunks of it because I was so eager to leave.

    Thief II: The Metal Age – Trail of Blood where you end up in that opening with those damn tree beasts. God the first time I saw one of those hurtling towards me I actually died shortly afterward. Do you remember that Mechanist child walking around on one of the levels? That was a little creepy.

    Then there’s Penumbra: Overture – quite a few bits but I’m not mentioning them here.

    Oh and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – The brain scorcher lab just because it was so damn quiet. My imagination seriously got the better of me there. Those stuffed animals and heads I’d seen in various buildings led me to believe that those creatures were lurking somewhere in the Zone, specifically that lab.

    @Mike: My control setup was perfect after some tweaking (as well as the simple weapon swing fix). If you ever fancy giving it another go, give me a shout and I’ll let you know my setup.

  • Lewis B

    I’m not sure why guys, but one of my starting paragraphs had gone missing, even though I copied it straight from the original source, and It was fine earlier. 

    Incase you missed it due to some technical issue you might want to re-read just after “Well no she wouldn’t in truth, but in Penumbra: Overture you don’t want to move anyway.” at the very start for those who’ve already read the article. Apologies 🙂

  • Mike "Scout" Gust

    Lewis, it was the weapon swing. It had this terrible, unresponsive feel to it, like trying to hit through molasses. I couldn’t stand using it. I tried the .ini fix as mentioned in the review but it didn’t seem to help. Of course this was the demo…but that shouldn’t have made any difference. I might try the second game instead as I guess they did away with the weapons thing.

    I’m see your first paragraph just fine. It’s the dialogue, right?

  • jdeuel

    I like the argument that weapons can remove fear, but even loaded to the teeth with ammo in AVP’99 the Marine missions were frightful because the enemy was anywhere at any time.

    As for Penumbra Overture, if the controls are anything like the original Penumbra they need to hack in some Wii-Remote 3d controls. I did not like using my mouse for 3d movements.

  • Gregg B

    @Mike: I’ve read that many people avoided conflict altogether in Overture which incidentally is something forced upon you in Black Plague. As somebody who has been renovating a house over the last 6 months with no DIY experience I can safely say that swinging a hammer is significantly easier in real life than it is in Overture without the fix. The fix balanced that for me.

    I’d highly recommend completing the first Penumbra because it’s one big build up to Black Plague which spoils the ending to Overture in the intro. And it’s a great ending too. Just so you know!

  • Lewis B

    @ Steerpike, those moments you mention are all my worst too!!  Do you remember the Robot labs in SS2? Absolutely terrifying, waiting for robots to burst out on you! 🙁 oh and have you ever player Condemned?

    @ Mike, The use of weapons in Penumbra is different to say HL2, where the player is physically holding the weapon, as in Penumbra it floats slightly infront of you.  However, if you change the control method to normal weapon swing, it’s no different!  Speak to Greggi and he’ll tell you what to do 🙂

    @ jdeuel, AVP the original and its sequal were scary however what type of fear do you think it is? I don’t think it’s anything more than sheer tension.  Having a Smart Gun makes you feel incredibly powerful.  I can honestly say in Penumbra the fear is sheer unrivalled terror, where you actually have to force yourself to play on.  It genuinly is that scary! 🙂

  • Jason Dobry

    It’s so true, an arsenal of weapons and ammo rapidly deflates any sense of horror or uneasiness in any game for reasons you already mentioned. Sakey, I thought Bioshock was more “lonely panic,” while I was pretty much always terrified in System Shock 2. I really, really, REALLY did not want to enter The Many’s nursery, and my weapons were so unreliable and ammo so scarce that I never felt safe.

    Silent Hill was terrifying for the same reasons. Ammo was rare and I frequently had to rely on my pipe for self-defense.  Even when I had ammo, the game mechanics prevented my character from being anything other than marginal with any firearm.

    Fear had one moment for me: I was climbing up a ladder, and as I reached the upper platform, my guy briefly looked down as he climbed off. As my perspective looked up again, that Ring-esque little girl was RIGHT THERE, reaching for me. I screamed and she was gone.

    What else…the original Aliens vs. Predator sent me into a locker room and I could only hear the facehuggers scurrying about somewhere within. I had to go in there. I advanced about three steps before the damn thing screamed and filled up my screen with its repulsive underside as it implanted me with its spawn. My roommate made fun of me for weeks for screaming like a girl child.

    Korsakovia–meh.  I was too annoyed and frustrated by the box rearrangement/jumping puzzles to be scared. I uninstalled it after an hour of play, I think. Maybe the scary parts were later, but I doubt it.

    As for Penumbra, I did play through about half of it before other games distracted me. I remember unease and creepiness, but no sweaty fear. I think I’m to blame here, or, more precisely, my daughter, who was still an infant at the time and generally allowed me only to play during the day for 45 minutes at a time. I was denied total immersion and the fear effect suffered. Maybe I should give it another go after I finish Call of Pripyat since she sleeps through the night now. With any luck, Penumbra will keep me from doing the same.

  • Gregg B

    I played the demo of F.E.A.R. but that ladder scare is the only bit I remember. Christ, that made me jump. I’m not too good with cat scares.

    Also I felt exactly the same about Korsakovia. It was creepy at first but then it began to irritate me far too much and it just soured the experience. I stopped playing as a result. Not to mention, when I realised I could bash those smoke-things with my crowbar they didn’t bother me nearly as much.

  • Online Up

    Great article. I look forward to reading more in the future.

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