Post by Merkuri on Apr 5, 2004 8:55:26 GMT -5
Prince of Persia has always been one of those games that everybody remembers. It's undenyably a classic among 2d games. I remember watching my cousin play it on his computer, trying in vain later to master the joystick and make the prince leap that pit, remembering to catch the ledge on the other side. That was before I was really into computer games, though, and was way too difficult for me to get into. PoP 2, however, was one of the games that really got me hooked on computers. I remember jumping in place to see if any tiles were broken, walking slowly through those spike traps, and making sure the prince was swinging in the right direction before I let go of my handholds.
But PoP: Sands of Time blows that all away.
You still have to walk through the spike traps, watch out for loose tiles that will fall when you walk over them, and take long daring leaps over deep pits, this time all in collorful 3D. But there's more. The amount of gymnastics the prince is capable of is astounding. I keep finding it hard to believe I can control a character this well. The prince can swing on poles, somersaulting in mid-air like an olympian on the parallel bars. One of the first really difficult tasks to do in the game involves jumping Bruce-Lee like between two walls with no handholds to make your way to the top. And my personal favorite trick is the ability to run on walls for a limited distance.
And if that wasn't enough, in SoT you have the unique ability to rewind. The dagger of time, an artifact you aquire in the very beginning of the game and the one that starts the whole fiasco, gives you the ability to control time in a number of ways. If you miss a jump or walk into those swinging blades instead of rolling under them, just press a key and you can rewind time up to ten seconds to do it over again. You collect sand (the Sands of Time, actually) either by killing sand creatures or finding piles of it on the ground, and this is what fuels the dagger's extraordinary ability. And rewinding isn't the only thing the dagger can do, though it is probably the thing you'll use most. Stabbing an enemy with the dagger will make time slow for it, and at later points in the game you can actually slow time for all enemies at once, putting the game into slow-motion.
But the prince doesn't need these tricks to kick ass. Even without the dagger, his speed and agility give him a huge advantage over the baddies you'll see in the game. It gives combat an air of a fully coreagraphed martial arts movie. The prince will leap over opponents, jump off of walls, and perform whirlwind saber attacks at your command. Some tricks take a little practice to get the hang of. I haven't learned yet to propell myself off of a wall succesfully, but vaulting over enemies has been essential in my fighting style. Whirling from opponent to opponent, slashing each in turn, then leaping over one of them when I'm surrounded is immensely satisfying. In the original PoP games I found combat tedious and boring. I would have been much happier if the game consisted of all mazes and leaps and spikes and no guards. But in SoT, I'd have it no other way. I have yet to find a piece of SoT that has been less than enjoyable. The puzzles, the 3d mazes, and the combat are all entertaining and challenging.
The plot, too, has improved in my opinion. I won't give anything away, but the prince has gotten himself into this mess and it's up to him to get himself, and the rest of the world, out of it. The game has a narrator, the prince himself, and he will occasionally interject his thoughts as if the game were his recounting of the story. If you die (and have run out of sand so that you can't rewind), he will say something along the lines of "No, no, no, that's not how it happened. Let me start again," or "Wait, what did I just say? That wasn't right." At one point the prince meets up with Farah, and the parts where she helps him along have been my favorite so far, simply because of the added humor. Soon after meeting, we were standing on a ledge and there were a group of baddies underneath us. The prince tells Farah to stay there, and she says "I'll cover you." (She has a bow and can support you from afar, though she is also helpful in sliding through small spaces to open doors the prince can't reach.) The prince replies, "I'd rather not, you're more likely to hit me!" I jumped down and began fighting, Farah covering me anyway, and a little bit into the fight the prince yells out in an accusing voice, "Ow!" and Farah, from the ledge shouts, "Sorry!" (The event was scripted and I don't believe I took any damage from her arrow. She certainly has never hit me since.) Their banter can be very funny. "Can't you crawl through a crack or something?"
The only real drawback to the game is that, having been originally intended for console games, it doesn't play well on a computer without a gamepad. I bought one just for this game and have never looked back. As a computer gamer (as opposed to a console gamer), I also find it annoying that the game can only be saved at savepoints. These savepoints are made up of fountains of sand that give the prince visions of the upcoming puzzles and battles, hinting to him how to get through them. You can return to the savepoints at any time to review the vision if you're stuck. Farah hates when I do this, however. Apparently it disturbs her to see the prince writhe in the sand pillar as if in pain, then wind up on the fetal position on the floor a few mintues later. Frankly, I don't blame her, and the fact that she tells the prince "Stop doing that!" when he walks into them voluntarily adds a bit of realism to the game. Speaking of realism, you won't find random potions lying around on the floor. You will however, find that "water is life." You heal by drinking from the many fountains and pools you'll find, and while the idea of healing by drinking ordinary water isn't very realistic, it's more understandable that there would be strategically spaced fountains rather than first-aid kits or potions.
I started playing this game Friday evening, and I couldn't stop playing it all weekend. It's the first game I've really gotten into for a while. According to the save game statistics I'm about a third of the way through it. It's amazing. I love it. Two thumbs up.
But PoP: Sands of Time blows that all away.
You still have to walk through the spike traps, watch out for loose tiles that will fall when you walk over them, and take long daring leaps over deep pits, this time all in collorful 3D. But there's more. The amount of gymnastics the prince is capable of is astounding. I keep finding it hard to believe I can control a character this well. The prince can swing on poles, somersaulting in mid-air like an olympian on the parallel bars. One of the first really difficult tasks to do in the game involves jumping Bruce-Lee like between two walls with no handholds to make your way to the top. And my personal favorite trick is the ability to run on walls for a limited distance.
And if that wasn't enough, in SoT you have the unique ability to rewind. The dagger of time, an artifact you aquire in the very beginning of the game and the one that starts the whole fiasco, gives you the ability to control time in a number of ways. If you miss a jump or walk into those swinging blades instead of rolling under them, just press a key and you can rewind time up to ten seconds to do it over again. You collect sand (the Sands of Time, actually) either by killing sand creatures or finding piles of it on the ground, and this is what fuels the dagger's extraordinary ability. And rewinding isn't the only thing the dagger can do, though it is probably the thing you'll use most. Stabbing an enemy with the dagger will make time slow for it, and at later points in the game you can actually slow time for all enemies at once, putting the game into slow-motion.
But the prince doesn't need these tricks to kick ass. Even without the dagger, his speed and agility give him a huge advantage over the baddies you'll see in the game. It gives combat an air of a fully coreagraphed martial arts movie. The prince will leap over opponents, jump off of walls, and perform whirlwind saber attacks at your command. Some tricks take a little practice to get the hang of. I haven't learned yet to propell myself off of a wall succesfully, but vaulting over enemies has been essential in my fighting style. Whirling from opponent to opponent, slashing each in turn, then leaping over one of them when I'm surrounded is immensely satisfying. In the original PoP games I found combat tedious and boring. I would have been much happier if the game consisted of all mazes and leaps and spikes and no guards. But in SoT, I'd have it no other way. I have yet to find a piece of SoT that has been less than enjoyable. The puzzles, the 3d mazes, and the combat are all entertaining and challenging.
The plot, too, has improved in my opinion. I won't give anything away, but the prince has gotten himself into this mess and it's up to him to get himself, and the rest of the world, out of it. The game has a narrator, the prince himself, and he will occasionally interject his thoughts as if the game were his recounting of the story. If you die (and have run out of sand so that you can't rewind), he will say something along the lines of "No, no, no, that's not how it happened. Let me start again," or "Wait, what did I just say? That wasn't right." At one point the prince meets up with Farah, and the parts where she helps him along have been my favorite so far, simply because of the added humor. Soon after meeting, we were standing on a ledge and there were a group of baddies underneath us. The prince tells Farah to stay there, and she says "I'll cover you." (She has a bow and can support you from afar, though she is also helpful in sliding through small spaces to open doors the prince can't reach.) The prince replies, "I'd rather not, you're more likely to hit me!" I jumped down and began fighting, Farah covering me anyway, and a little bit into the fight the prince yells out in an accusing voice, "Ow!" and Farah, from the ledge shouts, "Sorry!" (The event was scripted and I don't believe I took any damage from her arrow. She certainly has never hit me since.) Their banter can be very funny. "Can't you crawl through a crack or something?"
The only real drawback to the game is that, having been originally intended for console games, it doesn't play well on a computer without a gamepad. I bought one just for this game and have never looked back. As a computer gamer (as opposed to a console gamer), I also find it annoying that the game can only be saved at savepoints. These savepoints are made up of fountains of sand that give the prince visions of the upcoming puzzles and battles, hinting to him how to get through them. You can return to the savepoints at any time to review the vision if you're stuck. Farah hates when I do this, however. Apparently it disturbs her to see the prince writhe in the sand pillar as if in pain, then wind up on the fetal position on the floor a few mintues later. Frankly, I don't blame her, and the fact that she tells the prince "Stop doing that!" when he walks into them voluntarily adds a bit of realism to the game. Speaking of realism, you won't find random potions lying around on the floor. You will however, find that "water is life." You heal by drinking from the many fountains and pools you'll find, and while the idea of healing by drinking ordinary water isn't very realistic, it's more understandable that there would be strategically spaced fountains rather than first-aid kits or potions.
I started playing this game Friday evening, and I couldn't stop playing it all weekend. It's the first game I've really gotten into for a while. According to the save game statistics I'm about a third of the way through it. It's amazing. I love it. Two thumbs up.