Prince of Persia - The Sands of Time

This game from UBISOFT in Montreal demonstrates how an old, boring gaming concept can be revamped into something new and vibrant.

The game tells the story of a young prince in search of glory and paternal approval who finds instead betrayal, magic and love. As the story is told, we (the player) must solve puzzles and survive battles to continue the saga. The cinematic scenes are beautifully done and the game play is solid.

I don't typically go for puzzle games. They tend to become tedious and pointless over the course of the game and I usually have no interest in finishing such games. However, Prince of Persia (POP) does it right. The developers have intertwined the puzzle solving with battles and upon completing the puzzles and battles, the story is told through cinematic cut-scenes. For the most part, everything was put together in such a way that the puzzles made sense and they were difficult enough that you felt a sense of accomplishment for completing them.

The game shows the player a third person view of the action. The controls could be set to whatever is comfortable for you. I played the PC version but the Xbox and PS2 versions are straight forward also. I think I only changed one setting, so the default setup was very intuitive with the standard W,A,S,D movement keys and mouse button attack keys. There was only one thing about the interface that I actually hated. The automatic camera angle. For the most part the player controls the angle at which they view the action. However, to help out in situations where walls are in the way, the camera suddenly snaps to a different viewpoint and makes a "whooshing" sound. In theory, this is a great way to implement a third person view. But in practice, it caused a couple of areas where it seemed I was battling not only the puzzles but the interface as well. It was so bad on a couple of areas, I had to walk away from the game and try to figure out a way to avoid the areas where the camera would suddenly change on me. On a lesser game, this may have made me throw the game away, but the desire to see the rest of the story of POP made me keep coming back for more.

The battle interface was very cool, and allowed you to make several different acrobatic maneuvers to defeat your foes. The central theme, the Sands of Time, allows you to time warp the action by slowing the enemy (enables some pretty cool slow motion battle sequences) and to actually rewind time when you make a mistake. Another excellent detail was the presentation of save points. If you chose to enter a save point you were presented with a black and white "vision" of the action you were about to enter into. This was invaluable in some areas as it gave you quick visual cues as to how to solve some of the puzzles. The enemy AI, while not brilliant or overpowering, fit this game very well. After all, this is first a puzzle game with the fighting parts thrown in for good measure. You must generally fight four foes at a time and as you dispatch one another warps in to take its place until the scene is complete.

The sound effects and music were excellent. From the sounds of dripping water, crumbling walls and swooshing swords to the mood setting music, UBISOFT did a great job in the sound department.

Overall this game is well worth getting if you like puzzle games or just like to play a game that will keep you amused with a story. Try the demo.