Apart from the original, much earlier in this 1001 list, I don't think I've played a single other Prince of Persia title, and that includes its dramatic jump into the third dimension (at the second attempt) in the form of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.
Serving as a reboot, The Sands of Time takes us on a tale of undoing the mistakes of the past, through puzzle-platforming and action-adventuring. It successfully spawned several sequels, but none of them seems to hold up to this one. They're not on the 1001 list, certainly, and that's quite an indicator...
How often will we need to rely on the magic sands to make it through our story? Let's listen to the Prince tell us himself.
Fun Times
While I know of The Sands of Time as a console game, I'm playing the PC version, and it opens with the Prince recounting his story. Looking to please his father, he hopes to stand out on the battlefield.
We think of the Prince as a good guy. Well, I do. He looks like a reasonably good chap, even with the evil beard and furrowed brow. But here he is, along with hundreds of soldiers trying to smash their way into this city. Are we the bad guys?
While we wonder about that, we soon learn that if nothing else, we are the agile guy. The Prince runs and jumps and clambers up ledges like a proto-Parkour expert. Fearless and fluid. He even laughs at physics, running along walls, over gaps far larger and higher up than any sane person would want to look at, let alone think of jumping over. The guy doesn't think twice and only needs to run into a wall while holding the special action button.
He is, of course, also a skilled swordsman, bobbing and weaving through opposition swings to deliver swift cuts and kicks until, after a few solid attacks, they stay down for good. The Sands of Time is almost poetic in its movement. If not poetic, graceful. If you're not graceful while playing, then you're no Prince.
I'm no Prince, I know that for sure.
The controls aren't too difficult to pick up, though the PC version doesn't translate between button prompts and controller prompts when you're using one, so the opening sections were a little trial and error until I landed on the correct inputs.
When faced with multiple enemies, holding down the special action button raises your sword into a seemingly invincible defensive stance, and you can point the Prince towards the target you intend to attack before pressing the attack button so that you can more efficiently dispatch your foes.
I understand the idea, but my execution and timing need a little work...
Frustrations
Moving the Prince isn't an issue, though he does has a quirky speed thing going on, where he stalks in a direction until the camera is in a position to allow him to start running where you want him to go. The camera control, though, isn't an issue either, and while not perfect, it allows some basic zoom control to give you some options to see what's going on.
None of this matters much if you don't know where you're going or get your angles entirely wrong.
In my defence, these poles were climbable and were all I saw. I should have seen the much more accessible ledges, instead, but no, I saw the poles, and then the ground, and then the Game Over screen.
"No, no, that's not what happened. It's my story, you know, I ought to know how I got through to the next section of the level", the Prince says. More or less. Attempt number two, then.
Further Fun Times
To the Prince, it doesn't matter whether ledges or poles paint the way forward, as he is adept at climbing both, shimmying up poles, swinging around them, leaping from one to another... On the ledge front, he can dangle from them, sidestep along them, and generally speaking, navigate the walls as well as you and I can walk the floors.
Amid incoming cannon fire (well, catapult fire, I suppose), we hop through a hole in the wall and carry on stomping the defenders. It is here that the Prince really does start to show off.
You can jump and roll over enemies, usually resulting in a cinematic slow-motion view of the Prince leaping into the air, twisting into an advantageous position, and cutting through the now exposed enemy defences. It's as easy as pressing the jump button while in combat. You can bet I tried it out a few more times, to make sure I got it down...
When not in combat, you will probably be springing up and off the walls in clearly marked platforming sections. They'll test out your timing and your judgement, as you run along one wall to then jump off it, over a ridiculous gap, landing on a ledge on the other side.
Accompanied by subtle slow-motion and sweeping camera angles, it looks great. When you're not sure where you're going, not so much...
Further Frustrations
These were just a few of my instant deaths. For a man who can leap impossible distances, if you dare to drop just a few feet and the wrong time, no amount of youthful athleticism will help. You won't be walking it off and get back to running in five minutes, oh no. You'll be face-first on the floor, dead.But isn't the point of The Sands of Time that you have a dagger that can reverse time, so if you fall, you just rewind a few seconds to a point where you can choose not to mess it up again? You're right, that is the point of The Sands of Time, or it's main feature, at any rate.
In fact, this is the dagger in question, somehow impossible to pick up through this reasonably large gap in the wall:
I'm on my way to getting it. I've just got to put up with learning what to do painfully by repeating jumps again and again until I get them right. By going through entire sections again, because that's where the checkpoint puts you. By just getting good.
But I don't like falling to my death from five feet, and soon ran out of steam and gave up, with no impetus to reach my first goal - to start the damn story, in effect.
Final Word
I am 99% certain that I'm stupid, and just missed the path to progress. It wouldn't be the first time. But in a game where instant deaths can be instantly reversed, isn't it a little bit weird to quit before even seeing that mechanic in action? Well, yeah, of course it is, but the point I'm trying to make is whether The Sands of Time stands up without that mechanic, because you've got to earn it so that it has the effect that you want it to have.
The gameplay isn't terrible. It's going to take time to get used to various platforming hopping, getting your timing right and so on, and these early sections are clearly blocked off and segmented so that you need to do the thing successfully before moving on, be it fighting or climbing.
I can see where all the puzzles will come from. Where do you jump to first, how do you get to this ledge, is that object something I can climb on at all? I can see it spiralling into more complicated challenges, where you'll need to string together multiple wall runs and jumps and pole climbing and whatever else in a row to get through a room.
When that's not going on, you'll be up against multiple enemies, probably numerous enemy types that'll require yet more timing and maybe combos to deal with. I bet there will be some who can't be leapt over at all.
All of this is taking place in the hot sands of Persia, depicted in-game with graphics that I can't complain about at all, and yet despite all this potential, I gave in before the game even got going.
I partly blame the controls. The Prince is a little finicky in places and getting him and the camera in the right place before moving can delay things. I imagine that'll be a right faff as the game goes on, but by the time the game went on, I'd have the ability to rewind time.
I partly blame the PC version. It's not quite entirely welcoming to controller inputs, even though they're supported and work. It feels like it was an afterthought, and that I should be using the keyboard. But for these genres especially, I'm far more used to the controller and want to use one.
Mostly, I blame myself. As well as the PC version, I've got a copy of the PS2 release that I can stick into original hardware to try my luck with. Maybe that's all I need - a fresh attempt in a different setting - because I'm sure The Sands of Time deserves it.
What I need is a dagger full of sand that can take me back a few hours and give Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time another go. I've learned a little from my mistakes, and I'm able to tell his story correctly this time, I'm sure of it.
Until that dagger appears, I'll just put the Prince on the pile of games I'll get back to at some point. I do want to see more of it and prove I'm not as stupid as I appear to be. Try to, at least.
Fun Facts
The rewind mechanics were thanks to the games director's troubles in Donald Duck: Goin' Quackers - he wished he could rewind time after each mistake, rather than restart the level. If only every game had that...
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, developed by Ubisoft Montreal, first released in 2003.
Version played: PC, 2003.