I borrowed this from my friend a few days ago. It took me long enough to get it from her. She said it was a really good game - I hadn't played the SNES version of the game, but I had seen it played - a 2d adventure-esque thing. Looked pretty hard. Anyway, Sands of Time is the reincarnation of this game for the not-so-nextgen systems. So I beat it, and I think I can sum it up in one word - or phrase - if you want.
WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
OK, so the game play's not always very straight forward. The battles are a mixture of crafty moves and cool stunts, like vaulting over your opponent to strike their unguarded back. Some of them later in the game won't let you vault over them, increasing difficulty and adding variety to the monsters you face. As the game progresses, your main weapon gets to break through and enemy's defensive stance, sometimes. It's all scaling, and it's great. The learning curve doesn't take too long, either.
Know for another part of game play: getting from point A to point B, sometimes complex enough to be puzzles. They are great, and boy do I mean great. It's not always clear where to head next (not many places - many times I was just being dumb), but I thought they were well implemented into the game. The combinations of running on walls, jumping from them onto bars to swing you onto a wall to wall jump onto another bar... I found it an amazing and immersive experience. At save points, you would get visions - they sort of told you how to get past the puzzles, which was nice, considering I usually suck at them.
Of course, it could have been better. Not much. The fighting would get a bit drawn out at times - you'd know all the enemies were gone in the given area when the Prince himself sheathed his own weapons. But some of the battles just went on and on and on... There weren't specific combos, but they were there - just not very deep. Game play: 9/10.
Alright, next to the graphics, which are still pretty darn good two years after the game came out. In this dawn of the Xbox 360, it looks like something from a long time ago, but that's not the point. It still looks pretty good. The cut scenes (when shown) aren't too shabby - nothing like Pixar, but then again, what is? The character models are pretty smooth, and aren't too blocky. The animations are just as smooth, which is nice when your camera changes views and you flip over a bad guy, or onto a wall and over a bad guy. The scenery inside is sometimes really good - other times, it's just a hallway. But that's OK. Outside, it's pretty different. Everything's so big when your outside and it all looks pretty good.
But the game does slow down - granted, not much, but it does. It's really only noticeably when you're actually playing the game (my friend didn't notice, but I did), but it is there. Oh, and I think it had something to do with the camera - only when I moved that did the game's FPS drop, but not to unplayable levels. Graphics: 8/10.
As you notice all things with your eyes, your ears are hearing the music in the background. It's not a standout soundtrack, but it does have its moments. Sadly, I can't give you any examples, but I remember thinking "this song is cool!" The sound effects are just right as well. Each sound fit what it was suppose to, with nothing being out of bounds or anything like that. Metal sounded like metal, although it sometimes did sound a bit odd when your sword collided with a wall to sound like something else. Or maybe that was the sword ringing after the hit. Sound: 8/10.
This is one of the first games I've reviewed where the story stands up to the rest of the game. Sure, it's not worthy of a full-blown RPG, but it was enjoyable. It didn't want to make me skip everything just to play the game and get it done. There were enough twists to keep me interested, and I did not regret playing and sitting through this game. I'm actually going to go rent the other two games soon, if that's any indication of the story, just to find out where the Prince ends up next. I really can't reveal too much, though... The characters do make some witty remarks, if you catch them at the right time. It's funny. Story: 8/10.
Average: 8.25 / 10
Rating: 85%
You must at least rent this game. If you love it enough, you should just go out and buy it. With the immersive game play and the interesting sights and sounds, this is one of those games that's going to go on my "must play list" when referring games.
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