Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

40 to 100 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Masterpiece"

I would have rated Prince of Persia The Sands of Time with a full 10 if it was not for some critical, sporadic AI bugs (gamebreaking) and for the low quality audio voice samples.

But this game is nevertheless wonderful! It's a mix of perfect parts that embrace fully my personal vision of how a flawless game concept is thought.

In fact, I can right away say that there are minor faults in this game: there is little replay value, voices are low quality sampled, the end is slightly anti-climatic and there are no juicy boss fights. Paradoxically enough, the first and the latter are just a merit in the context of this game.

While any minor fault should, theoretically, prevent a game to attain the maximum score, in practice Sands of Time defies this "rule". And this because this game has heart like no one else in my experience. I will never, ever cease praising the genius of the developers that decided to introduce the rewind concept in the game. Finally, it's possible to play a challenging game with strong hope of not seeing the dreaded "Game Over" sequence which would force players to either start over or reload: it's enough to be wise and quick enough with the use of the sand (not easy but very possible) and you can complete the game like the fairy tale it is, told by the voice of the prince himself.

Another aspect that I simply adore is the lack of respawns. Many great action games (Metroid Prime and Ninja Gaiden Black - both among my reviews) make use of respawn, which is a loathsome gaming concept in my opinion. But not Prince of Persia: Sands of Time.

And what about the controls? Simply perfect and that's enough said. I have always felt full control on every single step the prince took.

I enjoyed immensely both the visuals and the animations. While there are not those flashy, jaw-dropping sequences that Team Ninja could offer in their Ninja game on the Xbox, everything is perfectly in place and the prince is a more believable character than any other I played before. To this contributes with no doubt the presence of his partner. Together they exchange witty lines of dialogue and together they grow as characters. I, as player, felt like I did care for the prince and the princess. It's something that has happened to me rarely, especially when it comes to action games. I only wish that the game could be even more cinematic in developing their banters. Despite that, there have been times when I thought I was not playing a game but rather reading a good book.

Also well above average were the puzzles encountered (always logical). A series of acrobatic challenges lead often to some "usual" lever to push but in this case the background informations (the defense system being activated in the castle) makes the whole experience much more believable and realistic (kudos again to the developers). Often your dexterity with the joypad will be further confronted with a time limit. But the system is never punishing (thanks also to the aforementioned infallible controls) and I, who usually dislike time-based decisions in games (especially if they lead to cheap deads), found myself perfectly at ease with them.

Even the camera has worked magnificently in my experience, with a single exception (in one of the later levels, a difficult jump is plagued by a sudden change of camera angle).

I can but recommend to anyone, even those who don't like action games, to play Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. I don't know how big the role of a genius like Jordan Mechner was in the creation of this more than worthy sequel to his classic Prince of Persia game (rated 9 by me - played on Amiga) but I like to think that this game is the product of a team that earned a ticket to sit in the game developers' hall of fame, with Jordan Mechner at their head.

Congratulations on a perfect score then, Ubisoft!

And thank you for fathering a dream of a game to tell about here.