Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Released: 2003

Developer: Ubisoft Montreal

Genre: Action-adventure

Though this game is over half a decade old, it is, to be put simply, a masterpiece. Of course, this is for its time.

You play as Prince (he doesn’t ever reveal his name), who used to only want to help his father. However this all changes when the Prince gets his hands on the Dagger of Time and causes a huge disaster which results in the imminent death (and zombification, pretty much) of an entire palace. Soon he meets one of only two survivors (other than himself) of the tragedy, the beautiful and mysterious Farah.

The graphics are nothing short of stunning for a 2003 release. The environments are beautiful to look at, whether acrobatic jumping from stalagmites in a cave, running along palace walls or killing sand creatures in lush gardens. All of the main characters (Prince, Farah and the Vizier) were created beautifully, really capturing the characters’ personalities.

The gameplay is also nothing short of amazing. A common element of action-adventure titles is constant death when unable to figure out a puzzle, and having to restart an entire portion of a level. The Sands of Time fixes that problem with Prince’s Dagger of Time. This tool allows the Prince to rewind time, as well as even slow down and fast-forward. Of course there is a limit to how many times he can rewind and such, but it does save a lot of frustration for the hardcore gamers.

Besides the rewinding time, the combat system is great too. Every once in a while, Prince will need to defeat a certain number of sand creatures in order to gain access to an oracle which provides him with insight into his near future (also a good tool in letting the gamer know what’s coming up). The Prince will start off fighting easy sand creatures and as he advances he’ll come up against creatures that normal fighting techniques won’t work on.

The voice acting and script is also great. Some of Prince’s exchanges with Farah are quite funny, and Prince becomes even more hilarious when he is alone and talks to himself. The dialogue never seems to be forced, and it always fitting of the situation.

To put it simply, if you own a PlayStation 2 or XBox, you should have this game and have already played it through several times. I find myself playing it even now and am at the point where I can start reciting dialogue.

SHARP OBJEX Rating: 4 out of 4

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Trailer #1