Prince of Persia: Sands of Times is fantastic from a presentation standpoint, but much less than that from a gameplay standpoint, specifically where combat is involved. First the good stuff: the jumping, running, flipping and other gymnastic feats performed by the Prince are a treat to watch, and relatively easy to control. The puzzles are challenging, but satifying to solve and for the most part are not frustration-inducing. The voice acting and other sounds of the game add much depth to the gaming experience and help to create a very immersive environment. Now the bad stuff: the random, sometimes overwhelming method in which the bad guys appear leaves you with the feeling that the developers substituted "spam spawning" for real A.I. By "spam spawning" I'm referring to the seemingly arbitrary and endless flow of bad guys that bum rush you with no real tactics other than to outnumber and corner you. Once in a while this is fine, but when this approach is used throughout the game, and increases with difficulty as you progress, some of the joy gets sucked out of playing this game. In some cases you can just run away from these guys, but in other cases the save game point isn't available until you can dispose of all of your murderous stalkers. This situation is made worse by the shifting camera angle which changes the direction that you move and adversely affects your ability to effectively control the Prince during combat. Granted some of the younger gamers out there are completely comfortable with the marathon button mashing sessions, but many of us older gamers grow weary of such activity, especially when it seems that this approach masks the fact that there is no real A.I. involved here. Overall, this is an above average game. However, due to the combat sections of this game you may find yourself NOT looking forward to playing Prince of Persia as much as you should.
Other Helpful Reviews for Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
The Good: Great puzzles; intense combat and terrific animations of the acrobatics. Unique style of saving loading. Soft lighting and pretty good sound. The Bad: Intense combat; somewhat repetitiveness of the action. N... Read Full Review
First up is the gameplay. PoP has some excellent controls that are easy to get to grips with. Running along walls, jumping from pole to pole and slashing those nasty sand creatures are all made easy by the very user-frie... Read Full Review
