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Techtite's PC Game Reviews! |
"It's quite fitting that this game's story is about rewinding time; this game's design team has, indeed, rewound earlier mistakes in the game series, and brought Prince of Persia back to its original, award-winning roots." ---from the review -----------------
You may also wish to buy: Prince of Persia, The Sands of Time: Official Strategy Guide ----------------- Sidebar : ----------------- One Easter Egg Worth Telling... The PC version does have one hidden feature worth mentioning, although in the scope of things it's more like a cute afterthought of the game designers more than a hidden level per se. Click on "new game" until you see the prince on the balcony at night. Then click, very quickly (some retries may be necessary): X, space, left mouse button, E, C, E, Space, Left Mouse Button, C. You should be warped to a special level seen in "scroller" format, just like the classic games. Follow the level to its short end, and see a room filled with among other things, a team picture of the people who made this game. Neat. Which version should you buy...? Here's the list of things to consider when buying any of the four versions of this game. The version for X-Box, for example, includes Easter Eggs of both classic Prince of Persia games (1 and 2), plus a set of behind the scenes featurettes, to boot! The Playstation-2 version has only the first Prince of Persia game as a hidden surprise, with the Game Cube offering a sort of "Game Boy Advance" option to play one of the original games, whenever the GBA is plugged into the Game Cube. The PC version has none of the above. BUT... It's also important to note the perks of getting the PC version. First of all, this is a very graphically savvy game, which you may want to see in more than the standard 640x480 graphics of a video game system. For the cheaters among us, it's also important to note that while X-Boxers have no cheats to speak of, PC gamers can install "trainers" which give the prince infinite health, or even moreover, infinite power for his dagger of time! Cheating or not, the thought of infinite power to use time tricks as you please...? That's just plain and simply totally cool, dudes! It's all a matter of what's the most important to you; good graphics, good cheat skills, or the chance to play some of the classic, 16-color games on an X-Box. It's all up to you. ----------------- Feel free to contribute. As always, review submissions are accepted! ------------------
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Prince of Persia:The Sands of Time
Click picture to order this game (PC/windows version) A Techtite ReviewIt's one thing to make a great game. It's one thing to make a great sequel. However: to bring a once-great game series back to its original, classic roots, after teetering into the abyss four years ago...? That's an art form all its own. Although Prince of Persia and Prince of Persia 2 (to say nothing of Jordan Mechner's original Karateka) all deserved a sequel like this, 1999's Prince of Persia 3D was a sad disappointment. Not so for this fourth installment of the series, which will irrefutably be Action Game Of The Year in many critic's eyes. It's quite fitting that this game's story is about rewinding time; this game's design team has, indeed, rewound earlier mistakes in the game series, and brought Prince of Persia back to its original, award-winning roots.
Not that this game is a cakewalk. Your dagger begins with minimal power, so you can only rewind time 4 times before a recharge. To increase your dagger's power, you must find powerful "sand clouds" hidden throughout the palace for a full recharge, or defeat an enchanted enemy with the dagger, for a slight recharge. This adds to an intriguing strategy element in the game's fight scenes, because the dagger can only do the most powerful time-tricks at full power. Do you wait for your dagger to reach full strength, or do you opt for the easier time tricks, enemy to enemy...? The strategy is all up to you. Imagination like this can only lead to an imaginative back-story. Said story begins when the prince is fooled by an evil vizier into using what turns out to be the "dagger of time," to break an otherwise unremarkable hourglass. Trouble is: this hourglass contains The Sands of Time, hence the game title. The resulting error causes every living thing in the kingdom to be cursed into a monster of some sort, except for those with magical defenses. Fortunately, this includes you, as the new owner of the dagger. You must undo the mistake you've wrought, defeat these forces of evil, defeat the vizier, and return the sands of time to the hourglass, all before it's too late.
A.I. of these enemies --and Farah-- is very impressive. Any one area can have you fight as many as 40 enemies in all (!), many with their own attack strategies. Some can be defeated by jumping over them and hitting them with the dagger in mid-air; a cool trick which you'll want to try often. Larger enemies cannot be vaulted over, however, so you must try an alternate approach. The good news; Farah can shoot enemies at long distance with her bow and arrows, so she can assist you even from an impressively long range. However, as I said earlier, these enemies are no dummies, so they will attack Farah as well, if they can. The game ends if either you or Farah die, so keep a full tank of "time rewind" power available at all times, just in case...
The only gripe worth mentioning in this game is not really a gripe at all, as much as something worth mentioning: the difficulty level. In order to compensate for your time altering skills, the battles in this game are quite advanced and near the end, very tough. This is even more the case if you do not look for at least four secret hallways that lead to a magical oasis of sorts, increasing your health bar. Speaking of an oasis; any water source replenishes your health in this game. Furthermore, you can sheathe your sword and dash for a nearby oasis/fountain in the thick of battle, if you wish, presuming you can keep the enemies far away enough for a sip or two. There's also the ability to rewind time. None of this makes the game easy, however, so be prepared for a real challenge. [Some PC gamers have also whined a little that the video game systems' versions each have an Easter Egg allowing them to play one of the former games of the series, though hey; PC owners get to purchase the real deal in any bargain bin --presuming they haven't already-- so it's no big deal. Let's just move on...] Clearly, this is action-adventure game of the year, if not the best game of 2003, period. There is simply no piece of this game that wasn't well thought out, be it the enemies, the hero, the heroine, the love story, or yes, the "powers of time" that the prince can fiddle with. At this point, the only sorrow would be if there isn't to be another sequel. Farah and this prince are two effective characters. They both deserve another go.
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What pulls Prince of Persia: The Sands
of Time over the top, however, is how much fun the game designers
had with the concept of manipulating time. Not only can a newfound magic
artifact allow your prince to "slow" time to a crawl
(think 
Helping you in this quest is
Farah, who provides an extremely well written romantic side-story,
leading to an even better game. The repartee between she and the prince is
excellently written, starting as cynical jabs and proceeding into friendship
and later even love. You'll be playing the game until
well past 4 AM, not just because the game is so much fun, though also to see what happens
next for Farah and the Prince! These are two great
characters. 
As for
enemies to fight; they are all enchanted, making them an
ingenious challenge, time-powers or not. As products of the sands of time,
one cannot simply
"kill" them, though rather you must knock them off their feet, then use
the dagger of time to absorb their power, as they "poof" into sand dust. The
problem...?
These enemies are no fools, so they attack in multiple numbers, preventing
you from using your dagger easily. Fortunately, you have
those cool time-tricks at your side, which can freeze time, slow down time, and
even rewind time, all within the thick of battle. Coooool.
(Speaking of intricate AI: at one point I
wanted to get a screen shot of Farah for 
It helps that said Prince of Persia is an athletic genius. This guy can run
quickly across a side wall to a precipice nearby, shimmy up and down
thin pillars, swing
from thin poles in the walls, climb ropes, and...in other words,
if there's even the slightest piece of athletic prowess you'd like to
attempt, this guy can do it. This leads to several clever level
designs, including a library where mirrors must be manipulated on various
floors, to aim a ray of light at magic symbols in the
walls. There's also a gigantic planetarium, where the prince is literally swinging
planet to planet to get to a nearby switch. Say what you will about all
levels located within one location (the palace); these are, regardless, very
ingenious levels.