Playing A Game Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (NGC, PC, PS2, PS3, XBOX) PC

Toward the end, Sands of Time's gameplay and scenario design shows its age poorly:

  • As fights become lengthier and lengthier, you're more likely to run into issues with the rewind timer being reset. In the elevator encounter near the end, I had a handful of rage-inducing moments where I could only rewind back to a point that was already too late to avoid death.
  • And in the final sequences, no longer having the Dagger of Time makes parkouring around surprisingly frustrating. The game spends hours getting you used to undoing your mistakes; and in its final hour, makes you resort to traditional checkpoints, instead.

But, all that considered, it's still quite good for a 14-year-old game. Its peers, like Enter the Matrix or Tales of Symphonia, would be lucky to have held up so well.

Hell, Sands of Time still has some things to teach modern games, particularly that the ability to rewind and try again is really, really satisfying. But I guess everyone is into "rogue-like" permadeath now, so... sigh.

Better than: Assassin's Creed II, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
Not as good as: Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Just a reminder, Ubisoft: We haven't seen the Prince since Forgotten Sands in 2010.

Rating: Good