Amidst the scorched
sands of ancient Persia, there is a legend spun in an ancient
tongue.
It speaks of a time borne by blood and ruled
by deceit. It is within this war torn land that a young Prince discovers
a magic dagger. Drawn to its dark powers, he is led to unleash a
deadly evil upon the reaches of his father’s vast kingdom.

Aided by the wiles
of a seductive princess and the absolute powers of the Sands
of Time,
the Prince stages a harrowing quest to reclaim
the Palace’s cursed chambers, and restore peace to the very
fabric of Time itself. He must tread these dangers carefully, however.
Because in this world, there is only one rule: master the Sands,
or be buried.

By now, you’ve surely
read all the hype about Prince
of Persia: Sands of Time, seen the television commercials
and drooled over the screenshots. Well, we’re here to tell
you, believe it all, ‘cause this game rocks the casbah.

This Christmas season
has offered some great presents for console gamers. There are so
many exceptional games being released that it
is difficult to choose what to play first. The Haunted Mansion, Beyond
Good and Evil, FFX-2, Max Payne 2, Castlevania and True
Crime have
all been recently released for the holiday season, but how does once
choose which one to play first? Prince of Persia was not our first
choice – mainly due to a sort of ‘been there, done that’ mentality
– but once we did, it was sort of trying to eat only one Lay’s
potato chip – we just couldn’t quit.

Simply put, Prince
of Persia: Sands of Time is brilliant game that
looks as though it were ripped from the pages of a storybook. It
is a tribute to old school gaming, but at the same time also sets
the standard for the next generation of games. It features eye-dropping
graphics that draw the attention of bystanders and non-gamers alike.
This is a game that stops people in their tracks as they sit down
and just watch in awe.

The main character is
– of course – a Prince who steals the magic dagger of time as a
gift for his father. His impudence though backfires
with major repercussions when a traitorous vizier convinces him to
use the dagger to unlock a huge hourglass, unleashing a deadly sandstorm
that decimates the kingdom leaving only the Prince, the vizier and
Farah – a young lady who will aid the Prince on his quest to
restore the kingdom.

But the dagger has dual uses as it can also be used to manipulate
time. You can rewind time for up to ten seconds to undo untimely
deaths, slow down time to gain an advantage over opponents, freeze
time to halt the movements of others so you can perform other chores
and fast-forward time to accelerate your movements.

Your goal is to navigate
a huge palace – much like we did
in Ico – to undo
a great evil. The story is told partly through cut-scenes, but more
by the prince’s narration as he wanders through the castle.
Of course no story of this magnitude would be worth it’s weight
in rubies unless there was a hapless princess involved, but there
is a nice twist as the Prince develops a love/hate relationship as
he is called on to save her time and again. The story is very well
told, and you will empathize with both players.

What Prince of Persia does best though is instill a constant sense of excitement, much
of which comes from discovering new moves. One
such move is the wall run, where the prince can run along side a
vertical wall from one platform to the next. This creates a whole
new thought process for gamers. It used to be when you saw a platform
in the distance, your first thought was ‘there’s no way
I can make that jump!’ In Prince of Persia, you can do a long
wall run and then leap off the wall onto the platform. There is no
amount of words that can aptly describe seeing not only this move
firsthand, but also watching in awe as the Prince runs up the front
of an opponent’s chest and then vaults over him to attack from
behind. It is pure gaming nirvana.

Now, there are other moves
that are just as impressive, but at least 80% of the gameplay itself
is puzzles – and yes, the spiked
floors and walls are still a big part of the game. You will enter
a huge room and look up at the ceiling and see your next goal. You
will have absolutely no clue how to get there. Certain pillars of
sand will perform visions giving you an idea of how it is done, but
you will still need to put the pieces together yourself. All the
puzzles are logical, which makes them an exercise in how well you
can remember your own strengths and weaknesses.

Thanks to one of the best control systems in any game ever made,
it is a breeze to pull off all the moves. In most platform games,
jumping becomes a chore of lining yourself up correctly. In Prince
of Persia, jumping to ropes and pillars is easy, as the prince lines
himself up for the next jump. Even jumping from platform to platform
is easy enough, and if you miss the jump, you can rewind time to
right before you jumped and try again. This makes playing less frustrating
for the player and leaves you free to just try to figure out what
to do next, without worrying if you have the skill to pull off the
feat.

The Prince will have to combat monsters, but he has a wide variety
of moves and is quicker than most monsters he will encounter. He
does not only fight the monsters, he humiliates them, as he jumps
off walls and leaps over them to strike them from behind, does summersaults
on them, or races around them and kicks some major butt. The Prince
is always outnumbered, but never outclassed. A few combat sequences
drag out a bit too long, as you will fight what seems like twenty
or so monsters, but those instances are few and far between.

This game will definitely change and influence future platform games.
It raises the bar in much the same way Grand Theft Auto 3 revolutionized
car chase games. Although the game is a little on the short side
– about 12 hours – it is the best 12 hours of gaming you will ever
get for your money. The Xbox version we played also includes an added
bonus – the original Prince of Persia 1 and 2. Also included are
several documentaries on the making of the game. As for replay value,
this is a game that is a pleasure to not only play repeatedly, but
to also watch others play. From graphics to sound to music to plot
to gameplay, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time is the best console
game of 2003.

Final Grade: A

You can read more about
the history of the Prince of Persia series at the official
website,
download wallpaper for your pc and enjoy various other goodies
including an opportunity
to win a free copy of this magnificent game.

System Requirements:

• 800MHz processor
• 256MB RAM
• 64MB graphics card
• 1.5GB hard disk space.