Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Review
Wow. This game rocked. Simply put, it gets just about everything right, manages to be fun the whole way through, and does not pound the player on the learning curve. It looked good, sounded good, played well, and even has a stock of replayability. I really don't have much to complain about for this game!
So let's get down to brass tacks. First up, the gameplay. For those of you who played the first games in the series, you will quickly remember the acrobatics portion of the gameplay, and either grin or grimace; if you didn't like timing jumps, swinging on ropes, and just generally performing amazing feats of skill and acrobatic legerdemain within the game in its previous incarnations, you should give the new version's take on it a chance anyway. Something that Sands of Time does that few other platformers have dabbled in is the heavy-handed auto-correction it uses. I consider this a good thing - no matter how capable a gamer you are, getting everything perfect is more of a pain in the ass than it is a source of fun when it comes to this kind of gaming. Sands of Time manages to make what would invariably be jumping puzzle hell in other games a very simple and entertaining process - it manages to keep consequences in while minimizing the dumb-ass death quotient. You will not be cursing the game itself when you screw up - you will be cursing yourself for your own ineptitudes. That's how good the control is. The major downside to this, of course, is that it can be pretty easy to an experienced gamer, who's become adept at dealing with the crazy mechanisms of older games. I managed to beat Sands of Time in a little over six hours - and I've frequently considered myself a merely 'good' video gamer, not one of those nutcases who can beat Megaman 2 in under 30 minutes.
So where is my gripe on gameplay? The combat. The combat of Sands of Time is, in base, cool - simple, easy to master, a variety of options with an easy control set - arguably, it should be a lot of fun. At first, it is. Then the combat doesn't stop. It frequently feels like it never will. The major irritation for the whole game to me is that the combat would always take forever. Not because individual opponents were difficult to fight - because they weren't - but rather because there was always a never-ending stream of them. You will get into fights in which 50 opponents need to be slaughtered before you're done. They never attack more than 4 at a time - because more than that would be insanely difficult - so you have to slug your way through 50 guys in a slow and torturous process. Furthermore, your opponents can teleport up to your position in the blink of an eye if you back off too far from them - which is a huge piss-off in the 50 man melees when you really need to go sip some of the healing waters. I would not complain about that if you only had to worry about a few guys at any one point, but you most frequently need to heal when you're on Guido #30 out of 50. It's not that the combat can't be fun, it's that there's just plain too much of it. Without the combat, my trip through the game would have been maybe two hours less, and I would've been MUCH happier.
When we talk good graphics, a lot of people conjure images of Final Fantasy 10 or Halo. Sands of Time is probably more comparable to Halo - all in-game graphics, all functional, all awesome. The game looks very good, and doesn't try too hard to be of a specific style - rather than forcing itself into a look, it just went with its purpose and developed a style of its own. The result is that the characters look neither realistic nor cartoony - they're a quite pleasant blend of both. The environments don't look precisely realistic, but what they represent seems completely reasonable. In short, if you're looking for photo-realism, this game doesn't have it. It's not meant to. It does look good, but in the mind-blowing sense. Although I have little specific to complain about here, I also can't claim it's a real graphical wonder - the most remarkable thing about the graphics is how they fit with the game engine perfectly, and do not generate any sort of flaw. That's something not even Halo can claim.
The music of the game is generally good, but really isn't terribly memorable. There are no 'must have' tunes from the game. A lot of it fits, though, and works excellently as its intended purpose - background music. The music for the combat, especially, is well done... which is good, because otherwise there would have been times that the fightin' would've been intolerable. Otherwise the sound is approximately 'good.' A lot of the expected noises and tones, a few nice little musicas for accomplishing goals and finding secrets. As a special note, the entire game is told through voice-acting, and the voice acting is, wonder of wonders, pretty good. I'm not saying Tim Curry and Maggie Smith, but relative to a lot voice-acting you hear, it's pretty good. Sure as hell better than the voice acting of Dynasty Warriors.
The story of the game is probably the sorest point of it. This is because it's an action game. It's meant to be played. If you want deep complexity, character development, and compelling story... go play Final Fantasy Tactics. Actually, go play Final Fantasy Tactics anyway - best game Square's ever had anything to do with. But we digress. Back to the point at hand, the story of Sands of Time manages to be above par for the sort of game without being particularly amazing fiction. As a premise for an entertaining game, it does a better job than some I can name. It's not great literature, no, but that's not what I was expecting anyhow. What it does manage, though, is to include some interesting views of the flow of time and a fair piece of character involvement. Believe it or not, you'll probably like the prince long before you're done. And possibly his sidekick, Farah, too.
As for the replayability, it's purely based on how enjoyable the game is in the first place. Aside from the combat sections (which gets easier as you get less stingy with your special powers) the game is a ton of fun. Plus, there are a fair number of little secrets to be found, and it's quite possible to miss out on some of the bits of dialogue and spare voice commentary. Nothing in and of itself particularly inspiring to playing through a game a second or third time, of course, but once you've experienced the main play, you'll probably have less of an objection. Or at least, I did.
Final Scores:
Replayability - 7/10
Gameplay - 9/10
Plot - 7/10
Graphics - 9/10
Sound and Music - 8/10
Overall - 9/10