Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Review

The gameplay is where the game truly shines. If I ever find myself the coach of any Olympic level gymnastics team, I want the Prince on my team - we'll win gold every time. This guy can do everything. Give him web-shooters, and he could be Spider-Man.

No, no, no, that's not how it happened...

This may not be the best place to hide.

The Prince can scale walls, hanging from minute cracks, run sideways along a wall to reach far ledges, swing like Tarzan, balance precariously on 6 inches of available beam, or any other physical feat you put him to, with all of these animations flowing smoothly into the next. Great care was taken to get the right level of motion captures for the models and the high quality of work shows in the Prince's animations. However, while the Prince may be as graceful as a gazelle on the plains, the camera moves like a bull in a china shop.

The mouse is relegated to camera controls, which orients your movement controls in whatever direction you may wish to move, but if the sensitivity is too high, lining up for a jump may often result in your demise. While the game takes this into account with the use of the Dagger of Time (if you have enough sand points, you can reverse time to fix any goof-ups you may make - and believe me, you'll make them), getting through some of the later stages will require patience and precision - and if the camera is even slightly out of place, you're screwed. The most obvious reason for such a blatant oversight is most likely due to the fact that this game, while fantastic, is a console port - the game is already released on the PS2, NGC and Xbox, with the PC version bring up the rear (Screwed again. - Ed.).

Still, the game is, at its core, a Prince of Persia sequel - and if you're at all familiar with the original series, you know what that means - frustration, fencing, frustration, jumping puzzles, frustration, and lots of fun. But don't be discouraged. If you can get past the shoddy camera controls and precision jumping techniques, you'll be rewarded with a game that makes you feel that a man really can walk on walls (although I feel I may need to warn some of our readers that this is just a game and people really can't do those things. If you try to scurry across a vertical wall at breakneck speeds and crack your spine, we here at ActionTrip are in no way responsible for your stupidity. [But a video of you trying it would be nice! - Ed.] Stop encouraging the locals! - Six)