Finished Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

When I first started playing Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time I said, "Wow! This is amazing. It controls like a dream, why doesn't every adventure game control like this?" Literally, I said it out loud. I thought back to all the wasted time I spent falling off ledges in Tomb Raider simply because the controls were awful. But, thanks to the Dagger of Time, even falling off ledges presents no problem for Prince of Persia. The Dagger allows you to reverse time back to the point where you were standing firmly ON the ledge. Then you can take another crack at whatever you attempted that sent you to your death, or decide on another path. What a wonderful gameplay mechanic. But in the end, I was disappointed by the cheap tricks played by the game's designers to lengthen the game. What could have been a favorite game has been reduced to "yeah, I played that; it was okay."

The game's story is framed as if the player is listening to hero tell his tale. And, throughout the game the story teller helps to immerse the player by highlighting the hero's emotions, or pointing out interesting facts about the environment. An example that springs to mind is when the game leads you to a prison/torture chamber. The story teller explains that he knew that his father's castle had such places, but he had never seen them, and how the Sands of Time had reduced both guard and prisoner to equals. Little details like this immersed me in the world and gave depth to the characters and story.

Common gameplay elements are explained away using the story telling motif as well. Saving the game merely becomes a pause in the story, and after you've saved your game the story teller says, "Done, I'll start the story from here next time." Dying gets explained away by the story teller as well. When you die in the game the story teller cuts in and says, "No, no, no. That didn't happen." These mundane elements of gameplay, that otherwise would have drawn you out of the world, now neatly fit into the idea that we're being told the epic tale by the hero of the story.

Another aspect of the game that they really got right is the companion, Farah. It's truly a joy to watch the relationship develop between the hero an Farah. She's supportive of the hero, without losing her own identity or character. The relationship and its development is my favorite aspect of this game (which I consider a love story).

Here's my big complaint with the Sand of Time. As you progress through the story the battles, while fun, seem far too long. It seems as though the game designers added more and more combat simply to add time to the total gameplay. It's a dirty trick that drags down the gameplay and draws you, the player, out of the story. After all, if I'm thinking thoughts like, "Why did the game designers do this," then I'm no longer immersed in the story; suddenly I'm playing a game, not living a story.

Nearly all the game lengthening comes at the end. As an example, there's a part in the game where you have to guess the correct order of doors to enter, and if you get it wrong you go back to the beginning of the sequence.

Then the designers took away the Dagger of Time. I found myself cursing the game and it's designers and I completely lost all love for the story and its characters. I could understand the Dagger being taken away. I could see how that would add variety to the game. I could also see this as a way to shake things up and make you love the dagger even more once you got it back. But, the dagger is taken away for no apparent reason NEAR THE END OF THE GAME! I got pissed when they took away the dagger. I was too far through the story to quit now, and suddenly they made the game un-fun.

In the end I got very little satisfaction from finishing the game. The dirty tricks that the designers played got the better of the game, and I now regard Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time as a mediocre title. I'm disappointed, because the game had potential. And, several gamers I respect, including Yahtzee and Ludwig Kietzmann, regard the game very highly.

I liked the game. I'm just disappointed because I thought I was going to love it. I was enjoying it so much....I feel sad...(sigh).