Xbox Addict

The gameplay in Prince of Persia is full of puzzles and fighting. Well that's only two things, but trust me it makes the game worthwhile. Puzzles will have you trying to figure out how to climb your way to different areas of the level. You will be amazed at how you will reach these points. Your character can run short distances along walls and up them. Other ways you will find your character reaching his targets is by jumping off walls grabbing onto poles and doing some gymnastic pole swings to reach high or far away places. This is not all, the levels are filled with small ledges to leap and grapple onto, pillars to climb and jump like a monkey from one to the other, ladders to climb and of course giant gaps to leap across. Players will also run into several traps they must figure ways through. To name a few, traps consist of things like spinning swords, razor sharp saw blades, spikes rising up through floor panels, ledges breaking away and spike filled logs swinging in your way blocking your path. Each can be deadly but if you take your time and look, the path will come to you. To me the puzzles of getting from one place to another were kind of easy in the game, but really impressed me with how the levels were put together. I can't imagine the amount of time the team at Ubisoft took into creating these levels and putting everything where it needed to be in order to achieve your goals. There will be puzzles of trying to move objects to help you reach heights in the game and even things stopping you from reaching these points. Such as standing in water will get your feet wet not allowing you to run up a wall to reach a ledge. The attention details of your surrounds is key to getting through this game.

Along the way you will have a companion join up and help you fight, open doors and figure out puzzles. This companion is a princess to a palace you have taken over. She does get a little irritating when you have to help defend her against overpowering enemies. You at times will wish you could give her a sword instead of the bow she is armed with or just to flat out tell her to get out of your way and leave. Guess even in a game this guy requires companionship.

A really cool feature in the game is picked up once you receive the dagger of time. This dagger will give you the power to turn back time. An advantage like this comes in handy when you have messed up and died. You will be able to run time in reverse to a point before you messed up and retry your steps. This however is not an unlimited power. You will have to fill up your sand meter to use this power. Players can do this by killing creatures and finding sand wells to fill their meter back up. The dagger also contains other powers such as doing a bullet time effect on enemies slowing them down and making them easier to destroy. As you move through the game your sand meter will grow as long as you keep retrieving the sand wells. Use your control over time carefully in this game however. On numerous occasions I have found myself moving time in reverse only to stop it a little to soon and having my character repeat the wrong moves over. This required me to use another bar in my sand meter to turn back time and try to get it right.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time will also make you a master of your controller. The controls are very well done for this game. I had no complaints about the controls. Even though you will be having to do moves and button pressing with accuracy, they were very easy to get use to. The only time I had any problems with the controls were during battles with lots of enemies. I probably would find the battles easier if I used the block button a little more. Compared to the puzzles though, the fighting I say is more of a challenge for players.

While playing the game I found out something that excited nearly as much as the first time I saw video footage of this game. You can actually unlock the first two Prince of Persia games to play! How I've longed for the days to be able to play the original again. Now thanks to Ubisoft I will have that chance. The first game is a little easier to get, by just beating the game. The second however, you will have to find hidden in the game. Sorry I won't be revealing where, that would take away the fun so as said in the movie The Princess Bride, ?Have Fun Storming the Castle!?.