Number 36: Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, Ubisoft 2003 (PS2 Version)
Intro:
The title screen is a live rendered view of a part of the game's introduction with the game's title and the main menu options over it, and like in God of War the game will just drop the Title and Options and start the intro movie if the player selects Start New Game. There is a slightly confusing pre-rendered video of the Prince running through a jungle, while a woman surrounded by ethereal curtains sudden awakens at the spash of an overt metaphor. The game goes into a self-narrated flashback, and I found myself trapped in a small, rectangular enclosure,
Getting Going:
The game tries its best to explain to the player how to do everything, and most of the time it does a great job knowing when to tell the player how to do something. Unfortunately, this means the first few times you need to wall run, it will remind you how, even if you learned it just fine the first time. The game seems to use bounding boxes to decide when to tell the player things, and these zones can be a little finicky, so players may have to experiment a little to fill in for these problems. The messages appear at the bottom of the screen with no background, so they don't really get in the way.
Fun:
Glory me! This game is fantastic! The pace is wonderful: the traps are getting difficult just a little at a time, so I don't feel like I'm suddenly being expected to do anything rediculous, but at the same time, I'm satisfied by each passing trial and eager to meet the next. Fights are pleasantly spaced, and each has a health-restoring water fountain near it. If the player get overwhelmed, or an enemy deals a really nasty blow to him or her, they can just rewind time back to before the strike, and then flip over the enemy's head and cut them up, turning the tables instantly. The range of motion the player has to overcome obstacles is great, too, since just about everything that doesn't count as a trap (including the enemies) can be used to the player's advantage in both combat and non-combat situations.
Visuals:
Everything has a slight glow, and the clouds of dust here and there make me feel like I'm really in a sandy place where the air is always full of fine sand. Special abilities (especially the first time they are used) are in slow motion so the player can get a good look at it. Rewinding time makes everything look a little desaturated and warped, adding to the supernatural effect of the ability. The style is very clean and consistent, risking becoming boring at moments with the constant repitition of sand-colored walls and floors, but the varied outdoor/indoor lighting, vegetation, and splashes of color in the decorating do well to break it up.
Intelligence:
Enemies block and encircle the player, and if I move right, the enemies seem to be sizing me up just as much as I'm sizing them up. The few types of enemies I've seen seem to behave based on basic convergence, though they seem to understand the Prince is just as much of a threat to them and will behave accordingly. They don't just try to strike right off, either: they seem to pace themselves based on their comrade's attacks (as much as my own) and will try to strike at just the moment when I'm busy fighting someone else.
Immersion:
This game's immersion is nearly perfect. From Start New Game to my dad asking "Since I brought you some ice cream, can I see how the Red Sox are doing?" The only interruptions were saving the game. Otherwise, even in the PS2 version, the game seems loadless. The organic and creative level design is great, and the flow from room to room is great: the next stop is never difficult to find, between hints and the openness the player is rewarded by the acrobatics the Prince is capable of. The only break is the save time, which darkens the play area and puts a bunch of garish and inconsistent windows and menus up, and has the NERVE to ask me if I REALLY want to overwrite my progress. I freakin' do! And then, the voice telling me that we'll "start from here if the game is interrupted" is of a DRASTICALLY different compression quality than the rest of the audio, which is very weird sounding.
Cameras:
The camera shakes appropriately in areas where the castle is collapsing, which is a nice addition to the experience, so players get a better sense of the atmosphere than just fast music, rumbling sounds, and falling rocks. Having the Landscape view and the First Person view helps a lot in figuring out new puzzles. Also, the player can control the camera. The only problems are that the camera REFUSES to deal with clipping an environment object, and runs hiding to the default view if you try to leave it there, and the occasional auto-camera jumping to awkward locations in the middle of combat, so getting pushed back to the narrow hallway by the undead enemies can make the camera do some really screwy things.
Controls:
This game not only give the player a huge rage of motion, but controls that make these stunts easy and fun to do. Hard turns aren't very friendly, but wall-running 15 yards and then jumping to a platfrom, only to miss and fall on to spikes, which is then rewound and then done correctly is extremely easy to do. The controls switch easily and reasonably from combat to non-combat situations, motions defined by wether the Prince is in his exploring posture or has his sword drawn in the attack posture. The reach of the players moves aren't especially new, except for the wall run (which is very much reminiscent of Tony Hawk style wall rides, unless its a straight on wall run which is unlike anything I've seen outside of films). My only problem was my brain wasn't ready at first for the new range of motion: this new freedom took some getting used to, and even after playing for a while my brain is a little slow to think "ya, I'll just run up that wall..."
Ideas:
There are two key ideas I see here: Time control abilities, and the Prince's acrobatics. Time control is wonderfully executed, where the player can rewind all the actions and movements of the past few seconds at the touch of a button, or nearly freeze enemies in the air so they won't go far while the player handles the inevitable horde they easily dispatch of. Rewind is especially great, harkening back to the old days of Prince of Persia, when the smallest wrong move would cast the player to their death and all they could do is wish they could take back that one wrong step. The Prince is able to overcome amazing physical puzzles thanks to the great movement controls, casting the old school of dumb jumping puzzles to the wind and replacing it with a delightfully old-school feeling but very much new-school range of motion and skill. These abilites make the puzzles extend in all directions, and while the player doesn't really have the freedom to find their own unique way through the level, each turn demands a lot of creativity and critical decision making out of the player without frustrating anyone.
Memory:
A gloriously selfcontained and enjoyable adventure through a highly atmospheric and perfectly tuned platformer that proves the grown-ups can play games just as creative and fun without confusing the publisher's marketing team. The plot is pretty straight forward, while the gameplay offers a lot of depth, fun, and experimentation that does for the old Prince of Persia what Metroid Prime did for the Metroid series: take a strictly 2D gameplay model and adapt it to the third dimension without losing the feel of the original. If it wasn't for the camera problems and the poorly recorded saving message, this game would be perfect. PERFECT.
The title screen is a live rendered view of a part of the game's introduction with the game's title and the main menu options over it, and like in God of War the game will just drop the Title and Options and start the intro movie if the player selects Start New Game. There is a slightly confusing pre-rendered video of the Prince running through a jungle, while a woman surrounded by ethereal curtains sudden awakens at the spash of an overt metaphor. The game goes into a self-narrated flashback, and I found myself trapped in a small, rectangular enclosure,
Getting Going:
The game tries its best to explain to the player how to do everything, and most of the time it does a great job knowing when to tell the player how to do something. Unfortunately, this means the first few times you need to wall run, it will remind you how, even if you learned it just fine the first time. The game seems to use bounding boxes to decide when to tell the player things, and these zones can be a little finicky, so players may have to experiment a little to fill in for these problems. The messages appear at the bottom of the screen with no background, so they don't really get in the way.
Fun:
Glory me! This game is fantastic! The pace is wonderful: the traps are getting difficult just a little at a time, so I don't feel like I'm suddenly being expected to do anything rediculous, but at the same time, I'm satisfied by each passing trial and eager to meet the next. Fights are pleasantly spaced, and each has a health-restoring water fountain near it. If the player get overwhelmed, or an enemy deals a really nasty blow to him or her, they can just rewind time back to before the strike, and then flip over the enemy's head and cut them up, turning the tables instantly. The range of motion the player has to overcome obstacles is great, too, since just about everything that doesn't count as a trap (including the enemies) can be used to the player's advantage in both combat and non-combat situations.
Visuals:
Everything has a slight glow, and the clouds of dust here and there make me feel like I'm really in a sandy place where the air is always full of fine sand. Special abilities (especially the first time they are used) are in slow motion so the player can get a good look at it. Rewinding time makes everything look a little desaturated and warped, adding to the supernatural effect of the ability. The style is very clean and consistent, risking becoming boring at moments with the constant repitition of sand-colored walls and floors, but the varied outdoor/indoor lighting, vegetation, and splashes of color in the decorating do well to break it up.
Intelligence:
Enemies block and encircle the player, and if I move right, the enemies seem to be sizing me up just as much as I'm sizing them up. The few types of enemies I've seen seem to behave based on basic convergence, though they seem to understand the Prince is just as much of a threat to them and will behave accordingly. They don't just try to strike right off, either: they seem to pace themselves based on their comrade's attacks (as much as my own) and will try to strike at just the moment when I'm busy fighting someone else.
Immersion:
This game's immersion is nearly perfect. From Start New Game to my dad asking "Since I brought you some ice cream, can I see how the Red Sox are doing?" The only interruptions were saving the game. Otherwise, even in the PS2 version, the game seems loadless. The organic and creative level design is great, and the flow from room to room is great: the next stop is never difficult to find, between hints and the openness the player is rewarded by the acrobatics the Prince is capable of. The only break is the save time, which darkens the play area and puts a bunch of garish and inconsistent windows and menus up, and has the NERVE to ask me if I REALLY want to overwrite my progress. I freakin' do! And then, the voice telling me that we'll "start from here if the game is interrupted" is of a DRASTICALLY different compression quality than the rest of the audio, which is very weird sounding.
Cameras:
The camera shakes appropriately in areas where the castle is collapsing, which is a nice addition to the experience, so players get a better sense of the atmosphere than just fast music, rumbling sounds, and falling rocks. Having the Landscape view and the First Person view helps a lot in figuring out new puzzles. Also, the player can control the camera. The only problems are that the camera REFUSES to deal with clipping an environment object, and runs hiding to the default view if you try to leave it there, and the occasional auto-camera jumping to awkward locations in the middle of combat, so getting pushed back to the narrow hallway by the undead enemies can make the camera do some really screwy things.
Controls:
This game not only give the player a huge rage of motion, but controls that make these stunts easy and fun to do. Hard turns aren't very friendly, but wall-running 15 yards and then jumping to a platfrom, only to miss and fall on to spikes, which is then rewound and then done correctly is extremely easy to do. The controls switch easily and reasonably from combat to non-combat situations, motions defined by wether the Prince is in his exploring posture or has his sword drawn in the attack posture. The reach of the players moves aren't especially new, except for the wall run (which is very much reminiscent of Tony Hawk style wall rides, unless its a straight on wall run which is unlike anything I've seen outside of films). My only problem was my brain wasn't ready at first for the new range of motion: this new freedom took some getting used to, and even after playing for a while my brain is a little slow to think "ya, I'll just run up that wall..."
Ideas:
There are two key ideas I see here: Time control abilities, and the Prince's acrobatics. Time control is wonderfully executed, where the player can rewind all the actions and movements of the past few seconds at the touch of a button, or nearly freeze enemies in the air so they won't go far while the player handles the inevitable horde they easily dispatch of. Rewind is especially great, harkening back to the old days of Prince of Persia, when the smallest wrong move would cast the player to their death and all they could do is wish they could take back that one wrong step. The Prince is able to overcome amazing physical puzzles thanks to the great movement controls, casting the old school of dumb jumping puzzles to the wind and replacing it with a delightfully old-school feeling but very much new-school range of motion and skill. These abilites make the puzzles extend in all directions, and while the player doesn't really have the freedom to find their own unique way through the level, each turn demands a lot of creativity and critical decision making out of the player without frustrating anyone.
Memory:
A gloriously selfcontained and enjoyable adventure through a highly atmospheric and perfectly tuned platformer that proves the grown-ups can play games just as creative and fun without confusing the publisher's marketing team. The plot is pretty straight forward, while the gameplay offers a lot of depth, fun, and experimentation that does for the old Prince of Persia what Metroid Prime did for the Metroid series: take a strictly 2D gameplay model and adapt it to the third dimension without losing the feel of the original. If it wasn't for the camera problems and the poorly recorded saving message, this game would be perfect. PERFECT.