I remember when this game came out during the Gamecube era. It was well-received but it didn’t appeal to me at the time. Later, when I had nothing else to play, I picked up the sequel “Warrior Within” which looked more gritty/edgier (the Prince looks a bit too cartoony in this game). I loved Warrior Within, and I did play the reboot as well as two Forgotten Sands games (Wii and Xbox 360) which I really enjoyed too.
I’ve been meaning to play this after acquiring it years ago, and now I finally have. I was surprised at how similar the gameplay is, as I assumed some ideas were just for the sequel.
The Prince, along with his Father and his army are off to visit the Sultan of Azad. On the way, the Vizier persuades them to attack the Maharaja's palace, where many artefacts are stored. During the raid, the Prince loots an artefact called the Dagger of Time. He is tricked by the Vizier into inserting the dagger into an hourglass which unleashes some evil magic, turning people into sand monsters except the Prince, Princess Farah and the Vizier. I think the Prince is protected by the dagger, Farah has an amulet, and I’m not sure what the Vizier’s deal is.
The dagger does give the Prince the ability to slow or rewind time which he utilises to navigate the palace and hope to reverse his mistake. The rewind mechanic was a big deal at the time because it wasn’t something you saw in games. It also helps alleviate the frustration when you make mistakes, rather than waiting for loading screens and replaying long stretches of gameplay.
There is a section near the end of the game where you are without the dagger. I felt this section was very frustrating because it wasn’t as clear where you needed to go, and had many sections based on wall-jumping which I thought was the most unresponsive part of the mechanics. Any moment where the level design wasn’t clear, or where you felt the controls didn’t respond - could be forgiven due to the rewind mechanic; but when the rewind is removed, it is infuriating.
The Prince excels in climbing and fighting. He can run up, or along walls, climb vertical poles, swing from horizontal poles, shimmy along ledges and wall jump. The climbing is a visual spectacle, especially when you successfully execute a sequence of moves.
When you enter rooms, you often get a quick camera pan to show you traps and where the exit is. Save points also give you a montage of upcoming sequences. Although it’s a cool effect, I did wonder if this hand-holding is really necessary.
I know it’s a game, and they want to force you to use the Prince’s skills, but sometimes the Palace design didn’t seem organic. Do they really need a spike pit in a library? Or require wall-runs to get to a prison cell? It would be interesting to see how they got prisoners into those cells - I’m sure the average prisoner can’t wall-run.
There’s some puzzles, but many are simplistic; often involving buttons, pushing blocks, or turning cranks. I thought the better ones are where you really need to survey your surroundings and work out how to navigate the area. There’s a couple of complex puzzles involving larger mechanisms and a couple of puzzles using mirrors and lights. I would expect sequels to improve in this area.
In combat, you can slash with a sword, stab with the dagger, flip over enemies, block and dodge. There’s opportunities for some special moves like jumping against the wall, then the Prince pushes off, leaping over enemies, then attacks. When enemies are on the floor, you must finish them with the dagger. If you don’t then they recover. The simpler enemies can easily be defeated by leaping over them, slashing them, then stabbing them with a dagger. The enemies that are blue cannot be leapt over so are harder to take down.
Combat sections usually break up the platforming sections. Often you have a few enemies but then more spawn in. When you defeat them all, a cutscene plays of the Prince putting his sword away, so you know that section is over. Some of these sections overstay their welcome by spawning a large sequence of enemies.
You generally fight the same enemies over and over again. In some sections you fight scarabs, bats or vultures. These aerial creatures are very annoying to fight and require precise timing, but are defeated in one hit.
Sometimes you are guiding Farah. In combat, she remains stationary and uses her bow and arrow which can hurt and stun enemies, but you have to deal the killing blow. Her arrows sometimes hit you if you are in the way. Outside of combat, you often take turns hitting switches, or she fits through cracks in the wall whilst you take the long way around on your own.
The rewind mechanic can be used in both platforming sections and combat. Fall to your death? Rewind. Lose a chunk of health? Maybe rewind if you don’t want to risk it.
You recover health by drinking water. These often come in the form of water fountains, but other sources of water like pools, rivers, flooded sections can also be used. Some combat rooms have a water source which you can use during a fight if you manage to gain enough distance and only drink small amounts.
There’s some shiny sandstorms to find which upgrade your powers. Some secret areas can also be found which boost your max health.
The camera generally does a good job moving to a position to give you a good view whilst hinting to the path forward. You can pan the camera yourself, switch to a first person view if needed, or change to a panoramic camera which gives you a wider view but is zoomed out.
Gamepads require manual configuring but it didn’t take me long to work out which buttons to assign for comfortable gameplay.
The music is a mix of eastern music but sometimes with rock guitar in the fight sequences. The sound mixing seems off, even when I adjusted the volume levels. The voice is often far too quiet, whereas some sound effects are too loud. It still looks fine and plays well, so there’s not much need to remaster it, even though Ubisoft are currently doing so, but taking a long time about it.
It’s easy to see why the Sands Of Time was well received by critics and players, and definitely influenced future games, particularly spawning a new series for Ubisoft; Assassin’s Creed. But before that, they churned out a few sequels and even made a film. It will be interesting if they make changes for the remaster, and hopefully they will make a new game with some new ideas.