Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time takes place in a mystical Middle Eastern
setting, all bathed in soft, warm light and looking like something
straight out of a storybook. You play as a young prince who possesses
exceptional athletic and acrobatic skill. Early on in the game, the
prince steals the dagger of time, a treasure from a rival nation, as a
token for his father the king. When a traitorous vizier compels the
prince to use the dagger to unlock another treasure, a huge hourglass,
everything goes wrong. The sands from the hourglass blow forth,
enveloping the kingdom and turning its guardsmen and citizens into, for
lack of a better way to describe it, "sand zombies." The prince, the
vizier, and a young woman named Farah are among the only survivors. In
the prince's efforts to undo his mistake, he'll join forces with Farah,
seek out the hourglass, and confront the vizier.
www.muhammadniaz.blogspot.com The game's story takes a backseat during
most of the game, but it is bookended nicely and is framed as the
prince's own retrospection. So, for instance, should the prince fall and
die at a certain point during the game, you'll hear him say, as
narrator, something like, "No, that's not how it happened." Not only is
this an interesting technique, but it compels you to keep pressing on.
You'll want to know exactly how his complicated ordeal will unravel.
The
prince's new dagger of time has other uses besides causing calamity.
It's the key to defeating the evil spread throughout the palace, and it
also makes the prince virtually immortal. In most cases, should the
prince fall to his death or be slain by a sand creature or a trap, with
his last breath, he may use the dagger to "rewind" the course of time to
a point prior to the unfortunate incident that would have ended his
life. Each time you use this ability, it costs a "sand tank," which you
earn a greater quantity of as you get farther into the game, and which
you restore by defeating sand creatures. In practice, you won't often
run out of sand tanks, but even if you do, you'll restart the prince's
story from a recent location.
A
highly responsive, very forgiving control scheme further ensures that
at no point during Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time will you get
particularly stuck, if at all. Though other action adventure games
involving a lot of death defying leaps and other such bravery tend to
force the player to perfectly time his or her maneuvers and often force
him or her to wrestle with
issues concerning the controls or camera perspective,
www.muhammadniaz.blogspot.com Prince of Persia is set up in such a way
that it's remarkably simple to pull off all of the prince's spectacular
moves. The default PC controls are a mouse and keyboard combination,
similar to what you'd use with a typical first person shooter. They
work well, though not quite as well as the console versions' gamepad
controls. On consoles, it's a bit easier to move in the direction
of your foes, as the camera changes angles and the analog control lets
you move with more precision. However, the default PC controls
ultimately aren't detrimental to the game. What's strange is that the PC
version of Prince of Persia apparently only seems to support one
specific dual analog gamepad, so even if you wanted to use a dual analog
gamepad with the game, you probably wouldn't be able to.
The prince's acrobatic moves make Prince of Persia nearly as enjoyable to watch as it is to play.
Despite
the convincing look of its huge environments, the game is completely
linear, and the prince's course tends to be very clear. Doors will slam
shut behind him, forcing him to press onward, and each time you enter a
new area, you'll see a quick fly through showing where it is you're
trying to go and what it is that stands between you and that goal.
Additionally, at each of the game's frequent save points, you'll see a
"vision" of what lies ahead a quick sepia toned montage of the trials
and tribulations to come in the next area. You'll soon discover that
this is basically a built in hint system. Should you ever get stuck,
just head back to a save point, watch the "vision" again, and you'll
probably figure out what you're supposed to be doing.
The prince has a great variety of really impressive moves at his disposal. Like a Mid Eastern Spider Man, he can defy gravity to a certain extent, by triangle jumping from wall to wall,
running horizontally along vertical surfaces, balancing on narrow
ledges, swinging wildly from ropes or horizontal bars, jumping from
pillar to pillar, and more. He's truly the most acrobatic character in a
game, to date, and executing his moves is simple and even intuitive.
The prince can't be made to accidentally fall; he'll automatically grab
the ledge if you walk him off of one, and you can hang on indefinitely. A
separate key is used for pulling yourself up as opposed to letting go,
so there's no worry of accidentally dropping even when you seem to be
hanging on for dear life. And, even when you're balancing on a narrow
rail thousands of feet above the ground, should you lose your balance
and tip over, you'll always catch the ledge and can pull yourself right
back up. All this is maybe a little too convenient, but at least it
means you'll be forging ahead rather than constantly tumbling into pits.
The
console versions of Prince of Persia offer some bonuses, in addition to
the main adventure, of which the most notable is the inclusion of an
unlockable port of the original version of the game that started it all.
Unfortunately, for some reason, these bonuses have been omitted from
the PC version (which retails for less, as if in exchange).
www.muhammadniaz.blogspot.com Still, perhaps you remember the original
Prince of Persia, which influenced games like Tomb Raider
and pretty much every other game in which you can grab on to ledges.
The original game presents a stark contrast with the new installment of
the series in just how punishing it was. On the other hand, Prince of
Persia: The Sands of Time is a game that can be recommended
wholeheartedly. It looks fantastic and features responsive controls,
some original play mechanics, a good story, and plenty of thrilling
adventure.
Processor= 933MHz
RAM= 256MB
Video Memory= 64MB
Size= 275MBDownload