Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2003)

This is a standout action-adventure title that revived the classic franchise with elegance and innovation, the game combines fluid platforming, acrobatic traversal, and clever time-manipulation mechanics. Most notably the ability to rewind time after mistakes, making it both forgiving and thrilling, and this was one of it's unique mechanics at the time, which was recycled in the future entries of the PlayStation 2 platform.

The story is engaging, centered around a young prince who unleashes the Sands of Time and must undo his mistake. The chemistry between the Prince and Farah adds emotional depth, while the game's Persian-inspired aesthetic and atmospheric soundtrack enhance its timeless feel. Though the combat can feel repetitive compared to its excellent traversal mechanics, the overall experience is memorable and influential. It’s widely considered a PS2-era classic.

Eve though this is the weakest Prince of Persia from the PlayStation 2 platform, it is still worth playing, it has very unique enemies compared to the subsequent titles, which even though they improved platforming a lot, the enemies were much more repetitive in comparison. I highly recommend this title is not skipped if you like PoP from PlayStation 2, or platforming in general, it was one of the most unique titles at the time and it is still a very influential videogame, even for today's standards.

Just finished a play-through of this and I’m happy to report it still largely holds up well, aside from the combat.

I was a big fan of the game upon initial release - it was one of the few games I have ever finished in a handful of sittings.

This is a great example of the themes and story telling conceit of the game all blend really well into the gameplay to take the whole experience to the next level. Gameplay wise there is a flow state you can really get into when solving the parkour puzzles. That flow was often broken up by the combat sequences which I didn’t find to vary all that much, were too long and generally not very challenging.

To end on a positive note, I want to highlight the puzzle/level design. Much like the best in class Metroivania type games, the flow of many puzzles are excellent and it is very satisfying to come to the end of a bespoke area in an unexpected but tight fashion.

What a beauty, what a comeback, what a way to honor a classic...

The original Prince of Persia was the first game I ever played, back in the early 90's. I was very young at that time so I can only remember glimpses of my feelings playing that but I do remember the challenge, the feeling of expectancy with each moving screen, the thrill of the story (minimal as it was) unfolding bit by bit.

This title brings all that back but more. It appeals to that nostalgia in a subtle, elegant way and does not shy away from innovation and change. The platforming in this game is so f***ing good, man. Each puzzle feels so good to complete. The battle system is so satisfying and intuitive.

This game is already 20 years old! Heck, this game is now older than the original Prince of Persia when this came out, so it's probably a nostalgia-tinted thing but I cannot remember a flaw worth mentioning here. Probably that is only like 15 hours long? (Not even, actually I think that works in the game's favor), or maybe some puzzles being a little bit too much? (I was a 14 year old dingus and I was able to complete it without looking up Internet walkthroughs). I honestly do think this is one of the best games ever. No notes.

Come to think of it, I never completed the original Prince of Persia. Damn game was harrrrrrd.

Prince of persia the sands of time is a 2003 action, adventure, cut-and-shoot and puzzle-platform game.Ubisoft Montreal, the producer of the game, and Ubisoft, the distributor, have done a great job.The story of the game is as follows.Prince and his army go to occupy a place and he finds the knife with the sands of time.The gameplay is as follows.in this game consisting of 40 sections, you are trying to kill enemies and cross the section.The music of the game is beautiful.The graphics of the game are not bad.My rating for the game: 10/10 (y) Good games to everyone 🙂

In my original review of the PC version I was very negative but after reading user reviews complaining about the PC port I decided to try the PS2 version to see if it fared better. And I'm happy to report that, indeed, this version plays infinitely better.

Some of my issues are still present. The camera is still shit, although slightly less so, and combat is still atrocious. In fact, the combat gets worse and worse as the game advances. More enemies in more crammed spaces and interminable waves. I realised that one of the issues is that because every time you kill an enemy a new one appears from thin air, there's no sense of accomplishment. And because there's no indication of how many enemies are left, encounters feel even more eternal. That happened to me in the first boss; since enemies kept respawning I wrongly though that they were infinite and I shouldn't bother with them.

The main improvement in the PS2 version is that the audio was recorded with a can on a string and so you can actually hear the dialogue. This adds so much more personality to the game that all the other issues become tolerable. The banter between Farah and the prince oozes personality and charm. The way they trade insults and trade sarcastic remarks is super fun.

As for the overall story, is still pretty lacklustre. The pacing is terrible, after the inciting incident basically nothing happens until the final 30 minutes, when you meet the main antagonist and eventually kill him in the most boring and uninspired bossfight in recent memory. But I really liked the framing and how it ties itself up at the end.

On balance, I enjoyed the PS2 version of the game. Avoid the PC version like the plague.

Wow that bossfight against the dad is atrocious.

Not only the combat is bad, but there's so much of it. And so artificially extended with wave after wave of magically-appearing enemies that revive of you don't kill them with the special move.

Saying this game is good except for the combat is like saying a barbecue is good except for the food.

After binging a lot of Zero Punctuation I got curious about this game. I remember playing the original rotoscoped game as a kid and wanting to play this "reimplementation" with (at that time) modern tech.

I have to say that first impressions are poor as hell. This game has aged horribly. Controls like crap, the sound design is aggressively bad, combat is horrible and the level design is confusing as hell.

The camera swings wildly in random directions, is almost always pointing the the wrong way and the right thumbstick is less of camera control and more of camera suggestion. What the "special action" button is going to do when pressed is anyone's guess, as well as where will the character jump after pressing A.

Levels all look the same and, without much in the way of signposting, are very confusing to navigate.

The rewind mechanic is cute, but since it's slow motion, it takes much longer to recover from an error than to make it. This is especially evident during combat, since if an enemy stun-locks you, those few hits that takes to kill you are insufferable to rewatch.

There is something wrong going on with the sound because dialogues are almost inaudibly low volume. With no subtitles, I have almost no idea of what's going on, who these people are and what am I jumping and killing monsters for. But even disregarding that issue, the sound is horrible. Epic battle music suddenly intrudes over the otherwise completely silent platforming even when killing two beetles.

Basically, there's not single moment in which I'm not fighting against the controls. And even then, I'm confused of what I'm going, where to go and not enjoying any of it. I don't know if this comes from issues with modern hardware, an old good game not holding up or just bad game from the start, but I'm flabbergasted at how bad this supposedly beloved game plays.

Excellent art direction, character development and level design. The Prince starts as a sniveling, foppish and chauvinistic Chad, but ends as a likeable character who grew organically as a result of his experience. The relationship between him and the princess develop as they both grow and doesn't feel cringy, except for the end of the game when he kisses her and rewinds time. That's pretty bad.

The platforming feels great, though a bit clunky from antiquated control schema. It's cinematic, beautiful and the camera mostly works, though sometimes I found it frustrating. The best feature of the game is the dagger of time. It allows you to quickly retry a given platform sequence within a constrained time frame. This prevents most platforming from getting aggravating since you're given plenty of leeway. It's a brilliant use of Ludonarrative.

The issue with the game, which sadly I cannot overlook, is combat. It feels like someone at Ubisoft was liking everything the devs were doing, but was appalled by the inclusion of a dagger and no combat. How can you have a dagger and not stab someone with it, right?

There is no merit to combat. It's clunky, not designed for multiple opponents and slow. You are always bombarded from all sides by multiple opponents and these fight sequences last so damn long... This game would be a masterpiece if they completely removed combat. It may seem harsh to dock this game a whole two stars, but the combat is both that prevalent and terrible. It feels like operating a crane with crab claws.

The worst part of this is a sequence towards the end of the game where your ability to manipulate time is taken away. You have a brief combat sequence (I just ran past it), followed by a puzzle, then finally a platforming sequence. In theory, this is a great way to test the player. In practice, I completed phase 1 and 2 to only die on the first jump of the platforming sequence due to a shitty camera angle and the clunky controls. I had to re-do this 3-4 times... Normally it wouldn't be an issue since I could rewind time...

Still a classic for a reason and worth enduring the terrible and prevalent combat.

I've never been drunk but i imagine it's a lot like playing this Sands of Time. The camera keeps switching and switching and switching, and just for good measure they added some nice bright flashes. "Vomit-inducing camera" is up there with "mouse glued to screen" in my list of unforgivable design choices.

It has crappy checkpoints, unskippable cutscenes and awful dialogue too. What a shame, Prince (of Persia) was one of the first games i ever played, i was looking forward to seeing floor spikes and those metal jaw thingies.

«Принц Персии: Пески времени» по-прежнему хорошая игра, но всё-таки не без недостатков.

Сюжет в игре простой, чисто для обоснования путешествия по дворцу, ну и атмосферу восточной сказки он не портит. Но вот в любовь Принца и Фары поверить никак не получится. Всю игру они общаются только на темы открытия нужных дверей, да периодически вяло и несмешно подкалывают друг друга. А потом Принц вдруг заявляет (в очередном разговоре с самим собой), что влюбился в Фару. Ну ё-моё! Но у нас тут сказка, так что такая проработка сценария простительна.

К тому же, не за сценарий полюбили «Принца», а за геймплей. И с ним тут, по большей части, всё хорошо. Основная часть игры — это простой, но увлекательный платформинг. Чаще всего нужно определить правильный маршрут, а следовать по нему всегда легко. Немного мешает кривоватая камера, иногда берущая всратые ракурсы, но благодаря чекпоинтам на каждом шагу и перемотке времени, ошибки не раздражают. Пару раз за игру дают порешать простенькие загадки с зеркалами и лучами света. Ничего особенного, но для разнообразия приятно.

Что совсем не приятно, так это бои. Они затянутые, медленные и раздражающие. Сначала раздражает только то, что каждого врага нужно добивать при помощи кинжала, иначе он возрождается. Плюс, кроме удара и блока, у Принца есть только пара приемов, вроде отскока от стены и сальто за спину врага. Но где-то со второй трети игры врагов становится утомительно много, они зажимают Принца у стен, а камера от этого сходит с ума, и драться становится совсем неудобно. Благо секций с акробатикой в игре намного больше, чем драк, да и чередуются они так, чтобы игрок не уставал от происходящего.

В минусы также можно записать мыльноватый графон и музыку. С графоном понятно, а вот музыка (замечательная), к сожалению, играет, в основном, только в боевых эпизодах.

Но в целом, «Принц Персии: Пески времени» хорошо сохранившаяся игра, в которую весело играть и сейчас. К тому же в век игр-сервисов очень приятно вернуться к законченному и насыщенному синглу часов на 6-7.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is one of my favorite games of all time. The timelessness of the game stands out and is a quintessential game to play through if you're a fan of the medium. However, the game tends to show it's age when compared against it's descendants.

You play as the titular Prince of Persia, who is on a mission with his father and army to invade a kingdom which houses a priceless treasure, which you learn from the Vizier who intends to betray the kingdom. The treasure turns out to be an hourglass holding the sands of time, and the dagger to unleash them. After the siege of the kingdom, you go back to the Kingdom of Azad to gift the hourglass and the Maharaja's daughter, Farah to the Emperor. However, when the Vizier tricks the Prince into unleashing the sands of time, the sands infect and turn everyone except for the Prince, Farah, and Vizier into mindless zombie like creatures. To avenge your father and to contain the sands of time into the hourglass, you must team up with Farah to defeat the Vizier, who wants to use the sands of time to make himself immortal.

The story is incredibly simple, but the setup of the character's motivations and personalities are masterful, you feel for the Prince and the dynamic between him and Farah is nothing short of amazing.

Gameplay is split into 3 main sections. The platforming involves you climbing through the various environments, freerunning, swinging from poles and jumping from platform to platform. The platforming is the standout portion of the entire game because it's just so damn fun. The Prince is well attuned to the controls and while climbing it feels like you're in total control of your actions. If there are any jumps that are mistimed or any occasion where you fall to your death, it doesn't feel like the game is screwing with you. There are some sections near the end of the game where the level design becomes a little hard to understand, and there are some frustrating sections here and there, but nothing so serious that you'll want to quit the game.

The second section is puzzle solving. Using the acrobatics of the Prince, you'll be solving puzzles such as arranging mirrors to direct a beam of light to a symbol on a wall, turning cranks in order to align certain objects in the environment, etc. The majority of these are simple, and for the more confusing ones, taking a step back and taking a hard look at your surrounding is definitely the best way to take these puzzles on.

The third and most frustrating aspect of the game is the combat. It tries to be as flowing and free as the acrobatics, however it simply turns into a nightmare. There are some enemies that can be instantly knocked down by vaulting over them and attacking them, or bouncing off a wall and shooting into them like an arrow. The moves are really simplistic and sometimes janky to pull off, but when all the gears are working smoothly you can take out a group of enemies with a repetitive set of animations, but with relative ease. When you knock down an enemy, you have to stab them with the dagger to defeat them, otherwise the Sands tend to resurrect the enemy so you have to try again. You can block any attack that come towards you, but the fights have a very slow, sluggish pace to them, and enemies can gang up on you and wipe out your entire health bar in a second's notice. On the other hand, Farah can also help you stun enemies, but she can be a burden because enemies can target her and she will die if you don't jump to the rescue right away. And she can sometimes hit you with the arrows that she misses. Fun.

All of the aspects also have the Dagger of Time to use. You can control the flow of time with the dagger, so if you mess up a jump, die during a battle, or mistakenly do something you weren't intending to do, you can rewind time by a certain amount and try again. However, the amount of times you can rewind are limited, and this can be increased by finding powerups in the palace to expand the times you can rewind. In combat, you can stab enemies with the dagger to freeze and instantly kill them, however it's a limited resource. You can restore the stabbing power by defeating enemies. With this you can also slow down time to dispatch enemies faster, or if your meter is full, you can use it all in one shot and move at light speed to instantly kill any enemy that spawns for a short amount of time.

All in all, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is an excellent game. The story is simple and gripping, the gameplay (minus the combat) is excellent, and it provided a great base for the sequels to improve on it's flaws. It took me around 6 or 7 hours to complete the game leisurely, so if you have a day or two to burn through, Sands of Time is a great way to- well, kill time!

Sands of Time is a great game with a smaller crummier one sewn into its side. Yep, I'm talking about that combat. It isn't bad, just unneccesary... and repetitive... and dull... and oh god why won't they stop spawning!

Putting that aside - way aside where I no longer have to look at it - the game is great. Really great.

The platforming looks and feels fantastic. The animations are fluid,  while the environments are well detailed without compromising the visibility of ledges and handholds. Even when you do fuck up the dagger of uh-oh juice stops it from ever feeling frustrating.

The characters seemed likeable enough, though admittedly the sound mix of the PS3 remaster is so godawful that I missed a lot of the dialogue. But they definitely SEEMED ok. Kind of like a chatty Ico.