Saturday, April 14, 2007

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time

After playing this game for a long time, and which happened to be the best timepass for me here in UK, I wanted to write a review on it. though, this review might be a older one as two more sequels have already been released for this game, this might be a good one to read if you havent played this game before.

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time

Prince of Persia, the classic game of the 80s made a revolution in the gaming industry. The story driven with realistic human figures fighting with swords and the Prince running through the palace which has loose floors and cutting saws really made gaming a serious one for all ages. We always wanted such a beautiful game in the 3d world. But Prince of Persia 3D didnt met the expectations of the gamer as it turned out to be more or less the same Prince in 3D. Also the AI was so bad that you can kill anyone before they take the sword or even see you. With the honor of Prince of Persia led down by this game, it took more than ten years to see its honor and glory restored by Ubisoft with their new Prince of Persia: Sands of Time.

Every part of the game is made interesting and new. A new story with a new theme was made and the Prince is not fighting for his love this time, but for his kingdom. The game moves on as a narration by the Prince himself. The story unfolds with an invasion on an Indian Kingdom with the help of a traitor Evil Vizier. After winning the kingdom, a mystic Hourglass and the Indian Princess are taken along with the Maharaja's treasures to the kingdom of Azad, while the Prince keeps the Dagger of Time that he took from the Maharaja's Palace. The eveil Vizier tricks the Prince to unleash the Sands of Time from the hourglass, which changes all his army men and his dad to sand monsters. Only the Prince, Princess of the Indian Kingdom and the Evil Vizier remain unaffected. The Prince joins with the Princess, the unlikely person to help him in his quest of restoring the world back to normal. Does he succeed and does he win the Princess' heart is what the Prince will say in the game as you play. The ending is too interesting that it gives a real movie feeling to it. The game is moved so smoothly that you wont notice the Princess' hatred for the Prince turning slowly to Love.

So is this a normal slash, cut and kill type of action game??? No. This is Prince of Persia. It has well promising set of puzzles in a scenic and beautifu environment. Though most puzzles are easy to solve, some may make you think for a long time. You will have to jump from pole to pole, run along the walls(yes yes, you will be running on the walls), swing bars and ropes, hang on the cliffs and perform acrobatic jumps you never imagined before. The interesting and most wonderful part of the game is the powers of the Dagger of Time. You can rewind back time if you had made any mistakes in the middle of the game. And even the rewinding can be seen as if though rewinding a normal movie. And there are powers like Freeze, which allows you to freeze your enemies so that you can destroy them in a single slash. There are many more powers like Mega freeze and slow motion which you can gain when you move to higher levels. And for fighting, you can use the environments to your advantage. Use the wall to jump to the other side when you are cornered by the enemies, or kick the wall to strike back the enemy. You are in total control of everything you see.

What makes this game more interesting are the dialogues between the Prince and Farah. You can feel the hatred between them in the talks in the beginning of the game and the more caring voice in the course towards the end of the game. Also, Farah exclaiming "Be careful" and "Look back" whenever you are in trouble adds a nice feeling to the game. Only thing you can miss in the game is that you wont be playing as Farah in any part of the game. .

*************SPOILER*****************
The best part of the story is seen at the end of the game. When the Prince and Farah are trapped in a tomb, Farah tells the magic word 'Kakalukia' to the Prince which she had never told to anyone before. At the end of the game, after the Prince had rewinded the time back before the invasion on the Indian Kingdom, Farah asks his name. The Prince disappointed that she doesnt know him now says "You can call me.... Kalalukia" and leaves. That was really the best ending the game can have.
*********END OF SPOILER**********

The facial expressions are very well made and it reflects their behavior and personality very clearly. The Prince's expression of doubt and anger are very well potrayed throughout the game.

With more than 10 hours of gameplay at the first time and about 8 hours in the subsequent times, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time is really the most interesting and revolutionary game as its original. By now, the story has been continued as a triology with two more stories "Warrior Within" and "The Two Thrones" and Sands of Time till stays as the natural favorite for most of the Prince of Persia original fans. A must play game for every gamer.

2 comments:

Shanks_P said...

Injey,
U will make me buy this game .....
Will it run fine on a laptop :D ?

INJEY! said...

Office laptop? I doubt it.

Check whether you have atleast ATI Radeon or nvidia graphics card with 128MB of graphics memory. It is really worth every penny if you buy the game. Not to forget the sequels, Prince of Persia - The Warrior Within and Prince of Persia - The Two Thrones.

Amazing storyline and gripping adventure.