You'll gasp in amazement all the way through this great title.
The architecture of the palace you'll be stomping around in is amazingly realistic. Sand blows in the wind, tapestries and curtains flutter as you approach them, and dust/water/particle effects are extremely well done. Indeed Sands Of Time really does show some rather impressive scenerys and character design. The enemys really do look quite nasty and evil which is great. It's so refreshing to actually have game that has impressive gamplay and graphics and not just a fancy cutscene. Although the cutscenes are equally spectacular too.
The voice acting is top-notch, the clang of sword on sword echoes within your speakers, and the screeching and whispering of the sand beasts will send shivers down your spine. The music in the game is not intrusive at all. During the puzzle sequences, its non-existent... it only flares up during combat and other plot-important areas. When it does, it's a pleasure to listen to, being a mixture of traditional Indian music with a smattering of rock beats.
The prince controls easily and fluidly. As you get accustomed to the controls (and they're absurdly easy) you'll find yourself doing incredible things. After a particularly intense platforming sequence, I sat there for a few seconds awestruck as to what I had just done. After running along a wall to a platform, the ledge I was aiming to land on crumbled beneath me... without a second thought, I jumped from the wall across a chasm, then to a rope which I was able to use to swing to a flagpole on which I was able to acrobat swing to a balcony nearby. In essence, controlling the prince becomes almost second nature.
The puzzles in the game are challenging, but not overly so. I've beaten the game, and I didn't run into a puzzle that I wasn't able to pass without carefully studying my environment. Sometimes the solution to a puzzle is reached by a barely visible ledge you have to jump to, and sometimes it's a switch pulling affair. (even switch puzzles in this game are entertaining!) The palace traps hold true to the original game with some needed additions such as swinging spiked logs of death, buzz saws along the wall, and bladed turrets that swing about along the ground. Some traps require careful and delicate timing to overcome... others are easily surpassed.
Combat is a mixed bag. While in combat, the prince moves extremely fluidly, and you'll often be amazed at what you just did. Without any effort, you can vault over an enemy, slash them in the back to knock them down, and immediately do a triple back flip to attack the enemy behind you with a spinning flip kick followed with a twirling sword slash... all with the press of just a few buttons. On the downside, however, combat has been almost too easy due to the variety of moves the prince has. Most of the early enemies can be defeated by vaulting over them. However, the tougher enemies will keep you from doing that, in which case they can be defeated with a simple vault off the wall, a quick dodging roll, or a block and a parry. The only times combat can get hairy is when you have to protect your co-star, which can get somewhat annoying. The only way i can think of this being improved, would be to enhance the combat engine. It would be great to be able to perform different combos with different combinations of button pushing.
Another downside is that the levels become fairly predictable... solve a few puzzles, get past a room, enter the next room, where you'll have to fight a few waves of enemies, and then figure out how to get out of THAT room, only to fight more enemies, and so on and so forth. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but it does tend to get a bit repetitive.
For those unfamiliar with the premise behind this game, you accidentally unleash the "sands of time" with the magical dagger that you looted from the palace. This dagger protects you from the dangers of the sands of time, and it also gives you limited control over time itself. However you discover that the sands are evil, and then begin a quest to restore the sands to the giant egg timer.
"It also gives you limited control over time itself."
Basically its almost impossible to die in this game. As long as your dagger has sand in it (gained by delivering a death blow on enemies with the dagger, or by retrieving sand foci) you can rewind time. So, if you misjudge a leap and fall to your death, all you have to do is hold down the L button until time rewinds to just before you made the jump. Additionally, if you ever get killed in combat, or take a bunch of blows you don't think you can afford, just rewind time and avoid those blows. The dagger also gives you the power to slow down time for everything, including yourself, to slow down time around you while giving you superhuman speed (excellent for clearing out a room full of enemies,) to freeze an enemy in time where you can kill them in your leisure, and to see the future (only done at save points.)
In conclusion, enough good things can't be said about this game. It is epic; the story is fantastic, the gameplay is fantastic, everything about it is fantastic. If there's one bad thing about this game, it's that it's not long enough and a little too easy.