Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
PlayStation 2
Nostalgia Factor:
You may find this hard to believe, but once upon a time I used to have friends. The year was 2004. I was 22 years old. I was dating a girl named Jessica. We had a friend named Ben that we would hang out with quite often. I remember he was the "old guy" of our friend group, and he was about 30 years old. Seems funny to think about, in retrospect, that he was the old guy. Anyway, he always had the best and the newest video games. When we went over there, we'd puff puff and play them for hours on end.
One time we went over, he was playing Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. I knew absolutely nothing about this game at the time, but watching it in action immediately piqued my interest. I watched as the Prince jumped, flipped, and wall-climbed all over the place. One thing I will always remember that made me laugh was Ben saying "I want to BE this guy!" when he was showing us the game.
I thought the game looked pretty dope. I don't remember if it was for my birthday or for Christmas, but my girlfriend bought it for me as a present, and I remember being really excited to play it. The game didn't disappoint, and I played through it a couple of times. I've only played it one time since then, however. According to my PlayStation trophy list, it was March of 2012. That's 11 years ago.
I always have fond memories when I think back on this game. Would it stand up now, in present day? Let's find out, shall we?
Story:
Playing through this game in the past, I don't think I ever truly understood its storyline. Playing it again in present time, I still can't say I quite understand it.
You play as the simply named "Prince." You and your father lead a powerful military force as it invades and conquers a royal Indian palace. The Prince takes the Dagger of Time as a spoil of war. Unfortunately, he is tricked by the Vizier into sticking the dagger into the Hourglass of Time, which unleashes a malevolent force that turns everyone into sand zombies.
The Prince teams up with Farah (the local Maharaja's daughter) as he has to fight his way through the castle, battling evil sand zombies, both human and animal. When he makes a mistake or falls to his death, he can use the Dagger of Time to rewind time.
Spoiler alert: at the end of the game, you are transported back in time to before the incident in an attempt to stop it before it happens. You meet up with Farah and since she hasn't lived through the events of the game yet, she doesn't believe you. Then you fight and defeat the Vizier, and after the ending sequence it is game over from there.
Gameplay:
Historically, I don't think this game gets enough credit. The gameplay in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was a massive game changer, and in a way has laid the groundwork for many modern games as we know them. Uncharted, Assassin's Creed, Horizon Zero Dawn, etc. I'm sure there are a ton of other games out there, too. What I am talking about is how this game created the formula you see in so many of those games. Behind the back camera, being able to jump and climb over things. Being able to hang from ledges and swing across vines and climb ladders, and all that fun parkour stuff, all with the greatest of ease. Everything is so smooth and effortless in this game. Think back to how clunky games used to be in the early days of 3D gaming. You could barely get your character to run in a straight line and jump up on a ledge. And then look at this game, where the Prince is swinging from poles and and running across walls and climbing up on boxes cleanly and effortlessly.
This freedom of movement may seem commonplace nowadays, but Sands of Time is the very first game I remember seeing that behind the back, parkour formula perfected and in action. Seriously, it should get more credit for how influential it was. Tomb Raider even completely overhauled its formula for Tomb Raider Legend in 2006, modeling its gameplay right after Prince of Persia. When Lara Croft is copying your homework, you know you are doing something right.
One of the game's most unique features is the ability to rewind time. Say you mistime a jump, and plummet to your death. Just rewind time to before you fell, and try again. You can only rewind so many times, as your dagger is tied to a sand meter. If you run out of sand, you die and have to restart from the last checkpoint. You can find random piles of glowing sand around the game to refill your dagger. Or you can suck the sand out of enemies with the dagger when you defeat them, kind of like how Raziel drains enemies of their souls in Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver.
I used to remember combat in this game being hard, but honestly it didn't challenge me much when I played it this time around. There is one part when you are on an elevator-like thing later on in the game that is pretty tough. I died a handful of times there. But otherwise I was fine. You just have to learn the weaknesses of your enemies. If you can jump over them and attack in mid-air, that's the way to go. Other enemies are more susceptible to wall jump attacks. Other enemies are easier to just stab with your dagger. Doing so slows them down in time, and a strong attack will defeat them and make then burst into a pile of sand. I tried not to do this too often, as it effects how far you can rewind time. It happened too many times where I'd use my dagger attack to slow an enemy, die, and then not be able to rewind time. And then I'd lose and have to start the whole fight over again from the last checkpoint.
The game moves along in a linear fashion. The main challenge of the game is using your environment and finding out where you need to go. When you use a save point, the Prince experiences a brief vision that gives you hints on what to do next. Mainly it involves finding your way through a series of jumping obstacles. Expect to do a lot of swinging from pole to pole, wall jumping, climbing walls and hanging from crumbling ledges, all that fun stuff. As you get deeper into the game, puzzle solving comes into play. Pushing blocks, throwing switches, lining statues up. Nothing is too difficult to figure out, but admittedly there were a few areas that stumped me, and I had to look online for help.
The game is not very long. I think it is about ten to twelve hours. I should look at my old save file. It was likely close to ten. So it is very quick and easy to play. And there is almost no wasted meat on the bones of this game. It is fun pretty much 100% of the way through it. It is very hard to put down. I beat this whole thing in a matter of just a couple days.
Graphics:
This game's visuals have held up surprisingly well. I know that a lot of people don't like the PS2 era of games, and they think this era of gaming is ugly. But Sands of Time is an exception. The characters in the game look really good, most notably Farah and the Prince himself. Enemies are a little bit repetitive, as there are only about four or five different enemy types in the game. But that is fine.
Where this game really excels is its stage design and its scenery. The Maharaja's palace is large and intricately designed. From the outside, it is beautiful, especially when there is a sunset in the background. A favorite part of the game for me has always been the menagerie area. The palace's interior looks great too. From the hanging wall decorations to the furniture, everything looks very lavish.
The game is also very atmospheric. I always liked the secret fountains where you level up. Everything is so blue and mystical. Really gets you in the mood to play more and more of the game.
Sound:
This game has very good music. It's a nice infusion of Middle Eastern mixed with heavy metal. It sounds weird, but it works. The music helps add to the atmosphere of the game. It is subdued when you are navigating the quieter areas of the game, but picks up when there is action happening onscreen.
Voice acting is good, too. I like the voices of the Prince and of Farah. They seem to match the character design perfectly. My only complaint is that the voice acting can be very quiet sometimes, and there are no subtitles. I'll be running through an area full of spikes and traps while the characters are talking, and I won't be able to hear anything they are saying. I feel as if I missed out on quite a bit of the banter between the characters as I was playing the game.
Overall:
So does this game hold up after nearly 20 years? The answer is a resounding yes. It's got a solid, if unremarkable story. Good characters. Good graphics. Good sound. Good controls. Good everything, really. I wouldn't say that the game is necessarily great. It's never going to go down in the pantheon of all-time classics. But it at least deserves to be in the conversation, especially considering how influential it was and how it inspired so many copycats.
The Sands of Time is a quick and easy playthrough. I can recommend this to anyone who enjoys third person action/adventure games. I can't think of anyone who would hate this game, to be honest. There's a little something here for everyone.
I'm going to give this a solid B+. It is better than a B, but it is not quite great enough to reach A territory. It's close, though. This game is definitely worth your time.
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THE GRADE:
B+
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