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This thread has been linked to the game 'Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands'.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was a very well received effort to bring the Prince of Persia gameplay into a 3D environment. If you have forgotten all about The Sands of Time then this game will serve as a memory refresh. After the disappointment (in my opinion) of the last outing, Ubisoft have taken the Prince back to some glory days.
The Prince of Persia games should carry a Don’t Try This At Home warning for the impressionable. As the Prince, you will be scaling up walls and leaping from ledge to ledge in a way that would make Spider-Man jealous. You will be performing acrobatics that would make any Olympic gymnast team applaud and doing so with little effort. If only real royal family members were this entertaining.
The story is typical Prince of Persia. Your father sends you to see your older brother, Malik, to learn some leadership skills. Big brother lives in an impressive kingdom but on arrival our Prince finds the kingdom is under serious attack from an army and they are doing some considerable damage to the buildings. Due to the destruction and havoc the army are causing, you’ll not be ringing the bell and walking in through the front door to see your brother. After what can only be described as the most impressive of entrances, the Prince does finally meet up with his brother but there is no time for Leadership class. Malik admits the kingdom is being overrun by the army and the only way to win this war is to unleash King Solomen’s Army via a magical seal. The Prince has his concerns but Malik is not one to listen and unleash the army he does.
King Solomen’s army consists of the undead, each made of sand. This doesn’t sound too bad but there are a fearsome bunch and with a touch they turn humans to sand and they seem to like doing this. They also have no interest in helping Malik’s cause which cues a sharp exit from the brothers who get separated by some of the building collapsing. The Prince shortly finds a portal where he meets Razia, the Prince’s only hope of putting things right. Razia explains the major blunder Malik has made and informs the Prince that the only way to resolve the situation is to reunite the 2 pieces of the seal which contained the army. You have one part, Malik has the other and you’ll soon find out your brother is reluctant to hand over his half seal. And so your mission begins.
The gameplay is classic Prince of Persia. With the kingdom under attack you will find rooms locked down and destruction blocking your path. The Prince will be running up walls, leaping from pillars, swinging on horizontal poles, running along walls and clinging onto ledges as he progresses. Few games make getting from A to B as joyful and impressive as this. Each new area starts with the camera swopping about giving you hints as to how you are going to make it up to the seemingly unreachable doorway way above. The control of the Prince is so simple and fluid that you will soon be stringing jumps and leaps together and reaching your target destination with impressive ease. It’s not always obvious where to go but a quick look about will see you on your way in no time. The level design is not about hiding your path, it’s about making it reachable only via some spectacular and death defying acrobatics.
To make things a little more tricky you will face the familiar traps of the other Prince of Persia games. The Kingdom defences are in operation and it seems they were designed to stop you and only you. You will find circular saws moving up and down walls you want to run across, spiked beams swinging about, spiked pillars moving around set areas on the floor and floor tiles which activate a release of spikes when stood upon. It is simple to spot how to get past each of them but it all comes down to timing and your ability to string moves together. You will find you have to run along the wall between 2 circular saws, leap to the other side and grab a ledge, drop to the lower ledge to avoid another saw before darting along the wall to safety. It sounds like a lot to consider but the controls make it easy to do leaving you to concentrate on getting the timing right.
As well as all the acrobatics, there is a fair bit of sword play to be done. The undead army may be able to turn humans to sand but they have no interest in getting their hands on you, they would rather acquaint you with their swords. The Prince comes armed with a sword of his own and he knows how to use it. Combat is relatively shallow with a regular sword strike and a charged up powerful strike. Add in a dash of kicking, rolling and acrobatic jumping which sees you leap over the enemy for an attack from behind or landing on their shoulders and it all makes for some impressive fights scenes. Deep it isn’t, fun it most certainly is. The undead attack in considerable numbers at times and have a little variety. Some are armed with shields to block your attacks, some are stronger than others and you can also have a large beast or 2 acting like a bull and charging at you, knocking anything and anyone in their path flying. It will keep you on your toes.
You will be popping back to speak to Raiza from time to time and she grants you some powers to help you on your way. The first power is the rewind feature. It’s still a bit of a gimmick and it’s only purpose is to prevent you going back to the last checkpoint on death. Missed a jump? A quick rewind and you can try again. It’s quicker than dying and waiting to try again from a checkpoint. Freezing water on the other hand is well executed. Water can be frozen to form walls to run up, pillars to climb or poles to grab onto. You can only freeze for a certain period of time so there is no hanging about to admire the view. Fortunately there is no shortage of useful flows of water which can be used. The game spices things up by having some variable flows meaning you can’t make use of a flow of water when it’s just a trickle. You will also find times where you need to freeze and release in quick succession in order to progress which does spice it up a little. The dash move is useful for making jumps you will otherwise miss or knocking a group of enemies to the ground. The last power is memory based. Razia grants you the memory of how the kingdom used to be which allows you to have fallen parts of the kingdom reappear to aid you in your acrobatics. It works in a similar fashion to the frozen water and adds a little variety to the same idea.
The kills in combat adds to your XP. Reach a certain level and you can power up. There are a lot of power up options to consider and you have the choice of increasing health or increasing powers. The game allows you to allocate a special power to each of the 4 d-pad buttons. These are either attack powers or defensive powers which come into play with the combat. They can help when you find yourself surrounded or you want to clear a batch of enemies a little quicker.
Graphically the game is impressive. The Kingdom is detailed and even though it is being destroyed you can still see the signs of grandeur. The swooping camera at various stages shows off the levels well and there are some spectacular scenes.
Outwith the main game is a Challenge mode which offers you a variety of different challenges to complete such as time attacks to clear a certain number of enemies or surviving wave after wave of increasingly tough enemy attacks. It’s a nice addition but I’m not sure the combat is deep enough on its own to make this mode more than a distraction.
Overall this is a very enjoyable game. The controls are spot on and allow for some quick acrobatic manoeuvres although perhaps some may feel it is too simple to pull off the spectacular moves. It’s not introducing anything new to the series but after the disappointment of the last instalment, it brings back the fun and spectacle of The Sands of Time. It won’t offer much of a challenge on Normal difficulty, it won’t keep you busy for long (which helps avoid repetition issues) but there is no denying the fun involved. A worthy buy at the reduced price this can be found for now.
8
The Prince of Persia games should carry a Don’t Try This At Home warning for the impressionable. As the Prince, you will be scaling up walls and leaping from ledge to ledge in a way that would make Spider-Man jealous. You will be performing acrobatics that would make any Olympic gymnast team applaud and doing so with little effort. If only real royal family members were this entertaining.
The story is typical Prince of Persia. Your father sends you to see your older brother, Malik, to learn some leadership skills. Big brother lives in an impressive kingdom but on arrival our Prince finds the kingdom is under serious attack from an army and they are doing some considerable damage to the buildings. Due to the destruction and havoc the army are causing, you’ll not be ringing the bell and walking in through the front door to see your brother. After what can only be described as the most impressive of entrances, the Prince does finally meet up with his brother but there is no time for Leadership class. Malik admits the kingdom is being overrun by the army and the only way to win this war is to unleash King Solomen’s Army via a magical seal. The Prince has his concerns but Malik is not one to listen and unleash the army he does.
King Solomen’s army consists of the undead, each made of sand. This doesn’t sound too bad but there are a fearsome bunch and with a touch they turn humans to sand and they seem to like doing this. They also have no interest in helping Malik’s cause which cues a sharp exit from the brothers who get separated by some of the building collapsing. The Prince shortly finds a portal where he meets Razia, the Prince’s only hope of putting things right. Razia explains the major blunder Malik has made and informs the Prince that the only way to resolve the situation is to reunite the 2 pieces of the seal which contained the army. You have one part, Malik has the other and you’ll soon find out your brother is reluctant to hand over his half seal. And so your mission begins.
The gameplay is classic Prince of Persia. With the kingdom under attack you will find rooms locked down and destruction blocking your path. The Prince will be running up walls, leaping from pillars, swinging on horizontal poles, running along walls and clinging onto ledges as he progresses. Few games make getting from A to B as joyful and impressive as this. Each new area starts with the camera swopping about giving you hints as to how you are going to make it up to the seemingly unreachable doorway way above. The control of the Prince is so simple and fluid that you will soon be stringing jumps and leaps together and reaching your target destination with impressive ease. It’s not always obvious where to go but a quick look about will see you on your way in no time. The level design is not about hiding your path, it’s about making it reachable only via some spectacular and death defying acrobatics.
To make things a little more tricky you will face the familiar traps of the other Prince of Persia games. The Kingdom defences are in operation and it seems they were designed to stop you and only you. You will find circular saws moving up and down walls you want to run across, spiked beams swinging about, spiked pillars moving around set areas on the floor and floor tiles which activate a release of spikes when stood upon. It is simple to spot how to get past each of them but it all comes down to timing and your ability to string moves together. You will find you have to run along the wall between 2 circular saws, leap to the other side and grab a ledge, drop to the lower ledge to avoid another saw before darting along the wall to safety. It sounds like a lot to consider but the controls make it easy to do leaving you to concentrate on getting the timing right.
As well as all the acrobatics, there is a fair bit of sword play to be done. The undead army may be able to turn humans to sand but they have no interest in getting their hands on you, they would rather acquaint you with their swords. The Prince comes armed with a sword of his own and he knows how to use it. Combat is relatively shallow with a regular sword strike and a charged up powerful strike. Add in a dash of kicking, rolling and acrobatic jumping which sees you leap over the enemy for an attack from behind or landing on their shoulders and it all makes for some impressive fights scenes. Deep it isn’t, fun it most certainly is. The undead attack in considerable numbers at times and have a little variety. Some are armed with shields to block your attacks, some are stronger than others and you can also have a large beast or 2 acting like a bull and charging at you, knocking anything and anyone in their path flying. It will keep you on your toes.
You will be popping back to speak to Raiza from time to time and she grants you some powers to help you on your way. The first power is the rewind feature. It’s still a bit of a gimmick and it’s only purpose is to prevent you going back to the last checkpoint on death. Missed a jump? A quick rewind and you can try again. It’s quicker than dying and waiting to try again from a checkpoint. Freezing water on the other hand is well executed. Water can be frozen to form walls to run up, pillars to climb or poles to grab onto. You can only freeze for a certain period of time so there is no hanging about to admire the view. Fortunately there is no shortage of useful flows of water which can be used. The game spices things up by having some variable flows meaning you can’t make use of a flow of water when it’s just a trickle. You will also find times where you need to freeze and release in quick succession in order to progress which does spice it up a little. The dash move is useful for making jumps you will otherwise miss or knocking a group of enemies to the ground. The last power is memory based. Razia grants you the memory of how the kingdom used to be which allows you to have fallen parts of the kingdom reappear to aid you in your acrobatics. It works in a similar fashion to the frozen water and adds a little variety to the same idea.
The kills in combat adds to your XP. Reach a certain level and you can power up. There are a lot of power up options to consider and you have the choice of increasing health or increasing powers. The game allows you to allocate a special power to each of the 4 d-pad buttons. These are either attack powers or defensive powers which come into play with the combat. They can help when you find yourself surrounded or you want to clear a batch of enemies a little quicker.
Graphically the game is impressive. The Kingdom is detailed and even though it is being destroyed you can still see the signs of grandeur. The swooping camera at various stages shows off the levels well and there are some spectacular scenes.
Outwith the main game is a Challenge mode which offers you a variety of different challenges to complete such as time attacks to clear a certain number of enemies or surviving wave after wave of increasingly tough enemy attacks. It’s a nice addition but I’m not sure the combat is deep enough on its own to make this mode more than a distraction.
Overall this is a very enjoyable game. The controls are spot on and allow for some quick acrobatic manoeuvres although perhaps some may feel it is too simple to pull off the spectacular moves. It’s not introducing anything new to the series but after the disappointment of the last instalment, it brings back the fun and spectacle of The Sands of Time. It won’t offer much of a challenge on Normal difficulty, it won’t keep you busy for long (which helps avoid repetition issues) but there is no denying the fun involved. A worthy buy at the reduced price this can be found for now.
8
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Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was a very well received effort to bring the Prince of Persia gameplay into a 3D environment. If you have forgotten all about The Sands of Time then this game will serve as a memory refresh. After the disappointment (in my opinion) of the last outing, Ubisoft have taken the Prince back to some glory days.
The Prince of Persia games should carry a Don’t Try This At Home warning for the impressionable. As the Prince, you will be scaling up walls and leaping from ledge to ledge in a way that would make Spider-Man jealous. You will be performing acrobatics that would make any Olympic gymnast team applaud and doing so with little effort. If only real royal family members were this entertaining.
The story is typical Prince of Persia. Your father sends you to see your older brother, Malik, to learn some leadership skills. Big brother lives in an impressive kingdom but on arrival our Prince finds the kingdom is under serious attack from an army and they are doing some considerable damage to the buildings. Due to the destruction and havoc the army are causing, you’ll not be ringing the bell and walking in through the front door to see your brother. After what can only be described as the most impressive of entrances, the Prince does finally meet up with his brother but there is no time for Leadership class. Malik admits the kingdom is being overrun by the army and the only way to win this war is to unleash King Solomen’s Army via a magical seal. The Prince has his concerns but Malik is not one to listen and unleash the army he does.
King Solomen’s army consists of the undead, each made of sand. This doesn’t sound too bad but there are a fearsome bunch and with a touch they turn humans to sand and they seem to like doing this. They also have no interest in helping Malik’s cause which cues a sharp exit from the brothers who get separated by some of the building collapsing. The Prince shortly finds a portal where he meets Razia, the Prince’s only hope of putting things right. Razia explains the major blunder Malik has made and informs the Prince that the only way to resolve the situation is to reunite the 2 pieces of the seal which contained the army. You have one part, Malik has the other and you’ll soon find out your brother is reluctant to hand over his half seal. And so your mission begins.
The gameplay is classic Prince of Persia. With the kingdom under attack you will find rooms locked down and destruction blocking your path. The Prince will be running up walls, leaping from pillars, swinging on horizontal poles, running along walls and clinging onto ledges as he progresses. Few games make getting from A to B as joyful and impressive as this. Each new area starts with the camera swopping about giving you hints as to how you are going to make it up to the seemingly unreachable doorway way above. The control of the Prince is so simple and fluid that you will soon be stringing jumps and leaps together and reaching your target destination with impressive ease. It’s not always obvious where to go but a quick look about will see you on your way in no time. The level design is not about hiding your path, it’s about making it reachable only via some spectacular and death defying acrobatics.
To make things a little more tricky you will face the familiar traps of the other Prince of Persia games. The Kingdom defences are in operation and it seems they were designed to stop you and only you. You will find circular saws moving up and down walls you want to run across, spiked beams swinging about, spiked pillars moving around set areas on the floor and floor tiles which activate a release of spikes when stood upon. It is simple to spot how to get past each of them but it all comes down to timing and your ability to string moves together. You will find you have to run along the wall between 2 circular saws, leap to the other side and grab a ledge, drop to the lower ledge to avoid another saw before darting along the wall to safety. It sounds like a lot to consider but the controls make it easy to do leaving you to concentrate on getting the timing right.
As well as all the acrobatics, there is a fair bit of sword play to be done. The undead army may be able to turn humans to sand but they have no interest in getting their hands on you, they would rather acquaint you with their swords. The Prince comes armed with a sword of his own and he knows how to use it. Combat is relatively shallow with a regular sword strike and a charged up powerful strike. Add in a dash of kicking, rolling and acrobatic jumping which sees you leap over the enemy for an attack from behind or landing on their shoulders and it all makes for some impressive fights scenes. Deep it isn’t, fun it most certainly is. The undead attack in considerable numbers at times and have a little variety. Some are armed with shields to block your attacks, some are stronger than others and you can also have a large beast or 2 acting like a bull and charging at you, knocking anything and anyone in their path flying. It will keep you on your toes.
You will be popping back to speak to Raiza from time to time and she grants you some powers to help you on your way. The first power is the rewind feature. It’s still a bit of a gimmick and it’s only purpose is to prevent you going back to the last checkpoint on death. Missed a jump? A quick rewind and you can try again. It’s quicker than dying and waiting to try again from a checkpoint. Freezing water on the other hand is well executed. Water can be frozen to form walls to run up, pillars to climb or poles to grab onto. You can only freeze for a certain period of time so there is no hanging about to admire the view. Fortunately there is no shortage of useful flows of water which can be used. The game spices things up by having some variable flows meaning you can’t make use of a flow of water when it’s just a trickle. You will also find times where you need to freeze and release in quick succession in order to progress which does spice it up a little. The dash move is useful for making jumps you will otherwise miss or knocking a group of enemies to the ground. The last power is memory based. Razia grants you the memory of how the kingdom used to be which allows you to have fallen parts of the kingdom reappear to aid you in your acrobatics. It works in a similar fashion to the frozen water and adds a little variety to the same idea.
The kills in combat adds to your XP. Reach a certain level and you can power up. There are a lot of power up options to consider and you have the choice of increasing health or increasing powers. The game allows you to allocate a special power to each of the 4 d-pad buttons. These are either attack powers or defensive powers which come into play with the combat. They can help when you find yourself surrounded or you want to clear a batch of enemies a little quicker.
Graphically the game is impressive. The Kingdom is detailed and even though it is being destroyed you can still see the signs of grandeur. The swooping camera at various stages shows off the levels well and there are some spectacular scenes.
Outwith the main game is a Challenge mode which offers you a variety of different challenges to complete such as time attacks to clear a certain number of enemies or surviving wave after wave of increasingly tough enemy attacks. It’s a nice addition but I’m not sure the combat is deep enough on its own to make this mode more than a distraction.
Overall this is a very enjoyable game. The controls are spot on and allow for some quick acrobatic manoeuvres although perhaps some may feel it is too simple to pull off the spectacular moves. It’s not introducing anything new to the series but after the disappointment of the last instalment, it brings back the fun and spectacle of The Sands of Time. It won’t offer much of a challenge on Normal difficulty, it won’t keep you busy for long (which helps avoid repetition issues) but there is no denying the fun involved. A worthy buy at the reduced price this can be found for now.
8
The Prince of Persia games should carry a Don’t Try This At Home warning for the impressionable. As the Prince, you will be scaling up walls and leaping from ledge to ledge in a way that would make Spider-Man jealous. You will be performing acrobatics that would make any Olympic gymnast team applaud and doing so with little effort. If only real royal family members were this entertaining.
The story is typical Prince of Persia. Your father sends you to see your older brother, Malik, to learn some leadership skills. Big brother lives in an impressive kingdom but on arrival our Prince finds the kingdom is under serious attack from an army and they are doing some considerable damage to the buildings. Due to the destruction and havoc the army are causing, you’ll not be ringing the bell and walking in through the front door to see your brother. After what can only be described as the most impressive of entrances, the Prince does finally meet up with his brother but there is no time for Leadership class. Malik admits the kingdom is being overrun by the army and the only way to win this war is to unleash King Solomen’s Army via a magical seal. The Prince has his concerns but Malik is not one to listen and unleash the army he does.
King Solomen’s army consists of the undead, each made of sand. This doesn’t sound too bad but there are a fearsome bunch and with a touch they turn humans to sand and they seem to like doing this. They also have no interest in helping Malik’s cause which cues a sharp exit from the brothers who get separated by some of the building collapsing. The Prince shortly finds a portal where he meets Razia, the Prince’s only hope of putting things right. Razia explains the major blunder Malik has made and informs the Prince that the only way to resolve the situation is to reunite the 2 pieces of the seal which contained the army. You have one part, Malik has the other and you’ll soon find out your brother is reluctant to hand over his half seal. And so your mission begins.
The gameplay is classic Prince of Persia. With the kingdom under attack you will find rooms locked down and destruction blocking your path. The Prince will be running up walls, leaping from pillars, swinging on horizontal poles, running along walls and clinging onto ledges as he progresses. Few games make getting from A to B as joyful and impressive as this. Each new area starts with the camera swopping about giving you hints as to how you are going to make it up to the seemingly unreachable doorway way above. The control of the Prince is so simple and fluid that you will soon be stringing jumps and leaps together and reaching your target destination with impressive ease. It’s not always obvious where to go but a quick look about will see you on your way in no time. The level design is not about hiding your path, it’s about making it reachable only via some spectacular and death defying acrobatics.
To make things a little more tricky you will face the familiar traps of the other Prince of Persia games. The Kingdom defences are in operation and it seems they were designed to stop you and only you. You will find circular saws moving up and down walls you want to run across, spiked beams swinging about, spiked pillars moving around set areas on the floor and floor tiles which activate a release of spikes when stood upon. It is simple to spot how to get past each of them but it all comes down to timing and your ability to string moves together. You will find you have to run along the wall between 2 circular saws, leap to the other side and grab a ledge, drop to the lower ledge to avoid another saw before darting along the wall to safety. It sounds like a lot to consider but the controls make it easy to do leaving you to concentrate on getting the timing right.
As well as all the acrobatics, there is a fair bit of sword play to be done. The undead army may be able to turn humans to sand but they have no interest in getting their hands on you, they would rather acquaint you with their swords. The Prince comes armed with a sword of his own and he knows how to use it. Combat is relatively shallow with a regular sword strike and a charged up powerful strike. Add in a dash of kicking, rolling and acrobatic jumping which sees you leap over the enemy for an attack from behind or landing on their shoulders and it all makes for some impressive fights scenes. Deep it isn’t, fun it most certainly is. The undead attack in considerable numbers at times and have a little variety. Some are armed with shields to block your attacks, some are stronger than others and you can also have a large beast or 2 acting like a bull and charging at you, knocking anything and anyone in their path flying. It will keep you on your toes.
You will be popping back to speak to Raiza from time to time and she grants you some powers to help you on your way. The first power is the rewind feature. It’s still a bit of a gimmick and it’s only purpose is to prevent you going back to the last checkpoint on death. Missed a jump? A quick rewind and you can try again. It’s quicker than dying and waiting to try again from a checkpoint. Freezing water on the other hand is well executed. Water can be frozen to form walls to run up, pillars to climb or poles to grab onto. You can only freeze for a certain period of time so there is no hanging about to admire the view. Fortunately there is no shortage of useful flows of water which can be used. The game spices things up by having some variable flows meaning you can’t make use of a flow of water when it’s just a trickle. You will also find times where you need to freeze and release in quick succession in order to progress which does spice it up a little. The dash move is useful for making jumps you will otherwise miss or knocking a group of enemies to the ground. The last power is memory based. Razia grants you the memory of how the kingdom used to be which allows you to have fallen parts of the kingdom reappear to aid you in your acrobatics. It works in a similar fashion to the frozen water and adds a little variety to the same idea.
The kills in combat adds to your XP. Reach a certain level and you can power up. There are a lot of power up options to consider and you have the choice of increasing health or increasing powers. The game allows you to allocate a special power to each of the 4 d-pad buttons. These are either attack powers or defensive powers which come into play with the combat. They can help when you find yourself surrounded or you want to clear a batch of enemies a little quicker.
Graphically the game is impressive. The Kingdom is detailed and even though it is being destroyed you can still see the signs of grandeur. The swooping camera at various stages shows off the levels well and there are some spectacular scenes.
Outwith the main game is a Challenge mode which offers you a variety of different challenges to complete such as time attacks to clear a certain number of enemies or surviving wave after wave of increasingly tough enemy attacks. It’s a nice addition but I’m not sure the combat is deep enough on its own to make this mode more than a distraction.
Overall this is a very enjoyable game. The controls are spot on and allow for some quick acrobatic manoeuvres although perhaps some may feel it is too simple to pull off the spectacular moves. It’s not introducing anything new to the series but after the disappointment of the last instalment, it brings back the fun and spectacle of The Sands of Time. It won’t offer much of a challenge on Normal difficulty, it won’t keep you busy for long (which helps avoid repetition issues) but there is no denying the fun involved. A worthy buy at the reduced price this can be found for now.
8