Prince of Persia is a fantastic game that introduces some great new innovations into the gaming landscape.
Set in Persia (where else?) the game follows the prince, who accidentally unleashes a deadly curse onto his fathers kingdom. Feeling responsible, the Prince decides to save the day by reaching a giant hourglass. The story is well told and surprisingly funny thanks to the Princes narration throughout the game.
The story however provides the basis for the gameplay, which is just delightful. Running across walls, tiptoeing across beams and swinging on poles is a lot of fun and wonderful to watch too. Puzzles are equally good and many of them combine the adventure elements to make for some joyful head scratchers.
Although there is a crack in the Princes hourglass and that is the combat. It's not bad and it is well executed however fighting enemies becomes a chore as you battle repetitive sand monsters. There are some bird enemies to shake up the combat but they are mostly annoying. If the enemy designs were more varied, Ubisoft would be on a home stretch but unfortunately they aren't so they're not.
Graphically the games environments are beautifully detailed and feature some marvellous water effects. The character models look good too until you get up close and see them in cutscenes where their lip-synching is all off. The voice acting is nicely done and adds a extra dimension to the games story.
Overall Prince of Persia The Sands of Time is a great adventure game with a surprising amount of gameplay innovation. I mean how many games today use the free-running mechanics established in this game? Despite some short comings, its still a worthy purchase and better then its sequels.