Posted on: Friday, December 19, 2003
VIDEO GAME REVIEW
Time can stand still playing 'Prince of Persia'
By Matt Slagle
Associated Press
Whether it's bumping the wrong button or an ill-timed power outage, I've often wished I could turn back the clock while playing video games.
Now comes "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time," possibly the best-ever antidote to bad joystick decisions.
The new game for PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox and personal computers gives you abilities that would make even Albert Einstein's brain spin: You can slow down time, speed it up or freeze it entirely.
After numerous death leaps from soaring cliffs, my favorite trick quickly became the one that reverses time.
"Prince of Persia" begins with a ferocious battle in a vast palace set in medieval Persia. You play as the youngest son of King Shahraman of Persia on a quest to recapture the magical but deadly sands of time (which you've been tricked into unleashing in the first place).
Time isn't the only thing on the young prince's side. He's got the agility of a dancer and practically defies gravity while sidestepping walls, leaping incredible distances and swinging around flag poles like an acrobat.
"Prince of Persia" has easy-to-master controls to go along with the death-defying maneuvers. You'll need to master them all to get around, over and under obstacles such as metal spikes, spinning poles laced with razor-sharp hooks and spark-spitting saw blades that undulate along walls.
"Prince of Persia" can be irritating. Like too many console games, you can save the game only at certain checkpoints, which in this game appear as swirling funnels of glittering dust called "sand visions." I still dream of a day when all video games let me save whenever I want.
Admittedly, the checkpoint save system serves an admirable purpose: It allows you to see a sepia-toned "vision" of the upcoming level. The preview is short but handy when figuring out how to complete trickier levels.
The unleashed sands of time have spawned an army of undead sand creatures. You'll need your sword, some nifty acrobatics and then a final thrust with your almighty dagger of time to dispatch them — although one power I wish the game included was the ability to zip past the monster battles entirely.
While there are some neat acrobatic fighting moves, all the hacking and slashing became annoyances on the way to bigger and better adventuring: figuring out how to get around obstacles and solving puzzles.
One puzzle I wish I could have turned back the clock on came early in the game. I lined up a series of glowing rods to turn on the palace's automatic defense system — which only serves up deadly obstacles for you to dodge the rest of the game.
Your character also serves as the game's principal narrator. If you die (and trust me, you will), you have an unlimited number of backup lives. Rather than a "game over" screen, the narrator says, "Wait, wait, that's not how it ended," and asks you if you want to retry.
Graphics were stellar on the Xbox version I played.
The $49.95 game from UbiSoft Entertainment Inc. is time well spent, regardless of how it passes.
