Prince of Persia The Sands of Time
can be recommended wholeheartedly. It looks fantastic and features
responsive controls, some original play mechanics, a good story, and
plenty of thrilling adventure.
Prince
of Persia: The Sands of Time takes place in a mystical Middle Eastern
setting, all bathed in soft, warm light and looking like something
straight out of a storybook. You play as a young prince who possesses
exceptional athletic and acrobatic skill. Early on in the game, the
prince steals the dagger of time, a treasure from a rival nation, as a
token for his father the king. When a traitorous vizier compels the
prince to use the dagger to unlock another treasure, a huge hourglass,
everything goes wrong.
The sands from the hourglass blow forth,
enveloping the kingdom and turning its guardsmen and citizens into, for
lack of a better way to describe it, "sand zombies." The prince, the
vizier, and a young woman named Farah are among the only survivors. In
the prince's efforts to undo his mistake, he'll join forces with Farah,
seek out the hourglass, and confront the vizier. The game's story takes a backseat during
most of the game, but it is bookended nicely and is framed as the
prince's own retrospection. So, for instance, should the prince fall and
die at a certain point during the game, you'll hear him say, as
narrator, something like, "No, that's not how it happened." Not only is
this an interesting technique, but it compels you to keep pressing on.
You'll want to know exactly how his complicated ordeal will unravel.
The
prince's new dagger of time has other uses besides causing calamity.
It's the key to defeating the evil spread throughout the palace, and it
also makes the prince virtually immortal. In most cases, should the
prince fall to his death or be slain by a sand creature or a trap, with
his last breath, he may use the dagger to "rewind" the course of time to
a point prior to the unfortunate incident that would have ended his
life. Each time you use this ability, it costs a "sand tank," which you
earn a greater quantity of as you get farther into the game, and which
you restore by defeating sand creatures. In practice, you won't often
run out of sand tanks, but even if you do, you'll restart the prince's
story from a recent location.
A
highly responsive, very forgiving control scheme further ensures that
at no point during Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time will you get
particularly stuck, if at all. Though other action adventure games
involving a lot of death defying leaps and other such bravery tend to
force the player to perfectly time his or her maneuvers and often force
him or her to wrestle with issues
concerning the controls or camera perspective, Prince of Persia is set up in such a way
that it's remarkably simple to pull off all of the prince's spectacular
moves. The default PC controls are a mouse and keyboard combination,
similar to what you'd use with a typical first person shooter. They work
well, though not quite as well as the console versions' gamepad
controls. On consoles, it's a bit easier to move in the direction of
your foes, as the camera changes angles and the analog control lets you
move with more precision. However, the default PC controls ultimately
aren't detrimental to the game. What's strange is that the PC version of
Prince of Persia apparently only seems to support one specific dual
analog gamepad, so even if you wanted to use a dual analog gamepad with
the game, you probably wouldn't be able to.
The prince's acrobatic moves make Prince of Persia nearly as enjoyable to watch as it is to play.
Despite the convincing
look of its huge environments, the game is completely linear, and the
prince's course tends to be very clear. Doors will slam shut behind him,
forcing him to press onward, and each time you enter a new area, you'll
see a quick fly through showing where it is you're trying to go and
what it is that stands between you and that goal. Additionally, at each
of the game's frequent save points, you'll see a "vision" of what lies
ahead a quick sepia toned montage of the trials and tribulations to come
in the next area. You'll soon discover that this is basically a built
in hint system. Should you ever get stuck, just head back to a save
point, watch the "vision" again, and you'll probably figure out what
you're supposed to be doing.
The
prince has a great variety of really impressive moves at his disposal.
Like a Mid Eastern Spider Man, he can defy gravity to a certain extent,
by triangle jumping from wall to wall, running horizontally along
vertical surfaces, balancing on narrow ledges, swinging wildly from
ropes or horizontal bars, jumping from pillar to pillar, and more. He's
truly the most acrobatic character in a game, to date, and executing his
moves is simple and even intuitive. The prince can't be made to
accidentally fall; he'll automatically
grab the ledge if you walk him off of one, and you can hang on
indefinitely. A separate key is used for pulling yourself up as opposed
to letting go, so there's no worry of accidentally dropping even when
you seem to be hanging on for dear life. And, even when you're balancing
on a narrow rail thousands of feet above the ground, should you lose
your balance and tip over, you'll always catch the ledge and can pull
yourself right back up. All this is maybe a little too convenient, but
at least it means you'll be forging ahead rather than constantly
tumbling into pits.
The
console versions of Prince of Persia offer some bonuses, in addition to
the main adventure, of which the most notable is the inclusion of an
unlockable port of the original version of the game that started it all.
Unfortunately, for some reason, these bonuses have been omitted from
the PC version (which retails for less, as if in exchange). Still, perhaps you remember the original
Prince of Persia, which influenced games like Tomb Raider and pretty
much every other game in which you can grab on to ledges. The original
game presents a stark contrast with the new installment of the series in
just how punishing it was. On the other hand, Prince of Persia: The
Sands of Time is a game that can be recommended wholeheartedly. It looks
fantastic and features responsive controls, some original play
mechanics, a good story, and plenty of thrilling adventure. In the simplest terms: Do not miss out on this game.
RAM= 256MB
Video Memory= 64MB
Size= 275MB Download Links:
Download Prince of Persia The Sands of Time PC Game Full Version
0 comments:
Post a Comment