I launch myself from a flagpole to a sheer, dusty, brick wall several feet away, not a handhold or ledge in sight and nothing but fifty feet of air below me. The absurdly acrobatic Prince touches the wall with all four limbs before angling his feet and hands in just a way that allows him to push off and send himself upward several feet to grab a broken scaffold and pull himself up. The rotten wood begins to creak and splinter just as I manage to get the Prince to hurl himself over to a thin drapery rod and deftly navigate his way using just his hands to a tiny stone outcropping that peeks out over the enormous palace antechamber. I pan the camera back over the room and mentally replay each of the insane stunts that the Prince just pulled off to get to this small piece of respite, where he now stands. I then tilt the camera up to see the broken walkway, that severed path that leads to my next save point, yet another twenty feet up. I scope out the next series of gravity-defying leaps and maneuvers that the Prince must take and set off on my way.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time came out twenty-two years ago and in many ways we still live in its shadow. It pushed the medium forward in countless ways, similarly to how Jordan Mechner's original Prince of Persia from 1989 was something of a watershed moment for gaming. Prior to The Sands of Time, 3D action-platformers were fun, but relatively mechanically simple. Fighting was just simple swinging of a weapon, punching or kicking, and a matter of trying to do it faster than the enemy and dodging their predictable attacks. This game introduced a much more tactical, methodical style of combat. You can't just blindly swing your sword and have much success. You are required to learn your enemy's approach to fighting, whether you should press the attack, or hang back and wait to dodge or counter. You can utilize the environment to your strategy as well, jumping over a bench to evade a strike or running up a wall and slashing back at the target, cutting straight through their otherwise troublesome defense. On the 3D platforming side, The Sands of Time completely changed that genre too. Gone were the days of straightforward, simple jump timing and comparatively uncomplicated navigation through a stage's environment. This game introduced vast reaches of verticality and parkour that turns a level into a playground of awe-inspiring stunts and leaps across enormous chasms and chambers. The Prince scales or runs across walls like a monkey and traverses incredible obstacles that keep you completely engaged in the platforming. The game feels more like Uncharted with its grand set pieces than it does anything like its relatively simple 3D platforming peers, like Ratchet & Clank or Super Mario Sunshine. Once you realize that Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, and its sequels, were the definitive blueprint for the Assassin's Creed franchise, you find a whole new appreciation for this title. The counter-heavy, fluid, acrobatic combat and the intuitive, creative platforming and parkouring are cornerstones for the Assassin's Creed games, and those cornerstones were hewn right here in the DNA of Prince of Persia.
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| Image Credit: MobyGames |
The story of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is somewhat unsophisticated, though it still has enough forward momentum to grab you and lead you along through the duration and it's not without its charms. The Prince and his father, the King of Persia, are traveling through India to visit a kingdom called Azad. A local Vizier (advisor) of a nearby Maharaja (Indian royalty) tells the Persian king that they should raid the Maharaja's palace, as it holds many treasures. The Vizier is dying and wants the titular Sands of Time, a magical artifact held in a giant hourglass, so that he can control time and evade his death. The piece of treasure that the Prince finds during the raid is the Dagger of Time, which he pockets for himself. The Maharaja's daughter, Farah, is taken captive by the Persian king's forces. With their treasures in tow, they continue their journey to Azad to visit the Sultan there, a friend of the Persian king's. While showing off his treasures to the Sultan, the Vizier (who continued traveling with the party, as he still wants the Sands of Time) convinces the Prince to insert his Dagger into the hourglass, which proves to be a key to the Sands of Time. In an instant, the mystical Sands of Time explode out of their container, inexplicably transforming everyone save for the Vizier, the Prince and Farah into monstrous creatures. The Vizier tries to take the Dagger from the Prince, but fails as the Prince and Farah ally themselves and run away, seeking to find a way to fix the error that the Prince made. This intro lays the groundwork for the events of the game, and sets up the dynamic between these main characters as the Prince and Farah collaborate and face off with the Vizier a few times through the course of the story.
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| Image Credit: MobyGames |
This intro sequence, in setting up the story for the game, simultaneously set up important structures for the environment and the key gimmick for The Sands of Time. The entirety of the game takes place in the Sultan's now ruined palace in Azad. His gargantuan palace is famed for its many notable features and treasures. The palace houses a zoo, a library, an observatory and many other grand locales that keep the game feeling fresh constantly. The gimmick that I referred to is probably the most famous aspect of this game. When the Sands of Time were released and destroyed the palace and changed everyone into monsters, they blew around the vast palace grounds and provide the Prince the ability to partially control time, using his Dagger of Time. This central feature is the crux upon which the entire game functions. By wielding the Dagger, the Prince can rewind short windows of time and avoid death. This essentially gives you several chances on each fight or platforming sequence to make sure that you get it right. Mistime a jump? Run it back and try it again, just make sure to ration out your sand usage, so that you have it when you need it. In combat, the Dagger can be jabbed into an enemy, temporarily freezing them and giving you the opportunity to hack them down. You can also drain an enemy of their sand to refill your gauge.
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| Image Credit: MobyGames |
The environment itself is incredibly unique and fascinating. The titular Sands of Time are blowing around every room in the palace, giving this hazy, sparkly, mystical feeling. The color palette and medieval Persian aesthetic also has a sort of Arabian Nights vibe, that when combined with the illuminated sands drifting around, the whole adventure has a sort of dream-like style to it. I couldn't get enough of this whole visual style. I've always enjoyed a medieval Arabic setting, and this game's approach was just excellent.
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| Image Credit: MobyGames |
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a phenomenal game that holds way up two decades later. There are frustrations that come from the game just being old, but when you can view the game from the perspective of what it managed to do in the era that it came out, and the impact that it had on the industry, you can look past some of the slight grievances. The slick combat, with all of its strategy, combined with the incredible platforming sequences and breathtaking environment and visual style all came together for an altogether blockbuster package. I played this via the Prince of Persia Trilogy HD Collection on PlayStation 3. It originally was on the PlayStation 2, Xbox, PC and GameCube. There is also very different version of The Sands of Time on Game Boy Advance.
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