Prince of Persia: Sands of Time

Developer:    Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher:     Ubisoft
Played on:    Prince of Persia TRILOGY HD

When Ubisoft announced a reboot to the old Ms-Dos Prince of Persia series I rolled my eyes thinking this was going to suck, however, I couldn't be more wrong, Sands of Time turned out to be one of the best games in that year.

You play as the Prince of Persia (duh!) as he and the Princess Farrah of India navigate a huge death-trap filled Palace inhabited by sand zombies, trying to reverse time and prevent a cataclysmic event he created.

Running through the Palace is not an easy feat as you'll often have to climb, jump, wall-run, crawl or hang from ledges while still solving the occasional puzzle to get where you want to go, thankfully, the the artistic graphics and smart level design never makes this seem like a chore, the same can't be said for the combat though, there's too much of it and gets old, especially considering the somewhat limited range of moves and the fact that you're always using the same weapon throughout the game.

The game's main drawpoint is the ability to reverse time, which is a genius concept for a game like this, in a game where you'll constantly be falling over or get caught in traps it greatly reduces the game's trademark frustration levels, and due to a limited number of uses of this ability, it's still able to maintain a decent challenge level.

Though the story sounds pretty generic, the characters and dialog thankfully are not, I love how likable the characters are, they're constantly getting on each other's nerves, but at the same time you feel them forming a genuine attraction to each other, giving the game an almost whimsical feel to it and it's one of the few games I've played where the main characters actually feel and act like decent human beings instead of gruff battle-hardened soldiers, it's a very welcome breath of fresh air, coupled with brilliant story-book writing.

Overall Prince of Persia is a smart game and was handled with care by the developers, it's just a shame about the boring combat.

Trivia: Did you know the PS2, Xbox and PC versions had a remake of the original Ms-Dos Prince of Persia game as unlockable? Unfortunately this was removed in later releases such as the Prince of Persia TRILOGY HD for the PS3 

Pros:
- Some of the best 3D platforming ever, made even more fun by the use of the time travel feature
- Great story-book feel to the game
- Great Soundtrack
- A great love story that flourishes in a believable way between two very likeable characters
- Farrah is quite possible one of the best female characters to have ever been featured in a videogame

Cons:
- The combat isn't very fun and there's too much of it

Final Grade: A- 

Packaging review: Found in the Prince of Persia TRILOGY HD review