Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

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Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Prince of Persia: The Sand of Time GameCube box cover
Developer(s) Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher(s) Ubisoft
Designer(s) Jordan Mechner
Engine updated JADE engine
Release date(s) Playstation 2

NA November 6, 2003
EU November 21, 2003
JP September 2, 2004

Xbox
NA November 12, 2003
EU February 20, 2004

Gamecube
NA November 18, 2003
EU February 20, 2004

Game Boy Advance
NA October 30, 2003
EU November 14, 2003

PC
NA November 30, 2003
EU December 5, 2003
Genre(s) Action/Adventure
Mode(s) Single player
Rating(s) ESRB: Teen (T)
PEGI: 12+ (PS2 version)
7+ (GameCube and Xbox versions)
Platform(s) Xbox, GameCube, PS2, PC (Windows), Game Boy Advance, Mobile Phone
Media CD-ROM (2)/DVD-ROM
Input Keyboard, Mouse, Joystick, Gamepad
This article is about the third-person action adventure video game. For other uses, see Sands of Time (disambiguation).

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a third-person action adventure video game published by Ubisoft. It was released on November 6, 2003 and is a continuation to the landmark PC game series Prince of Persia, created by Jordan Mechner in 1989.

The Sands of Time, developed internally at Ubisoft Montreal, successfully captures the mechanics of the original platformer and extends it to the 3D generation. An earlier attempt by The Learning Company to transfer the game to 3D (Prince of Persia 3D) was released in 1999, but failed to meet the standards set by the franchise. The Sands of Time was praised for its visual design and finely tuned game mechanics, and won several awards.

Developed for the PC, PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox, and later a 2D version for the Game Boy Advance and mobile phones, the initial sales of The Sands of Time were below expectations. Sales, however, picked up after strong reviews of the game in the press. Eventually the success of The Sands of Time led to a 2004 sequel, Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, and another sequel, Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones in 2005.

Contents

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
The Dagger of Time.
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The Dagger of Time.

Passing through India en route to Azad, King Sharaman and his son, the Prince of Persia, defeat the powerful Maharajah of India with the promise of honor and glory. After looting the city and capturing a giant hourglass full of sand, a mysterious dagger, and the Maharajah's daughter Farah along with other treasures, they continue to Azad. A dying Vizier, who had betrayed the Maharajah and aided King Sharaman in return for a share of the spoils, demands to have the dagger, as he was promised his choice of the Maharajah's treasures. But Sharaman refuses to take the dagger from his son, who captured it first. So the Vizier, who wishes to harness the power of the sands in the hourglass for himself, making him an immortal god and giving him control over time itself, tricks the Prince into opening the hourglass. When the Prince uses the dagger to unleash the Sands of Time from the hourglass, the sands destroy the kingdom and turn all living beings into hideous sand creatures. Only the Prince, the Vizier, and Princess Farah, the kidnapped daughter of the Maharajah, remain unchanged due to their possessions; the Prince's dagger, the Vizier's staff, and Farah's medallion.

On a journey to repair the damage he has caused, the Prince teams with Farah to return the Sands of Time to the hourglass by using the Dagger of Time, which also gives the Prince limited control over the flow of time. Before they reach their destination, the Prince and Farah form a romantic relationship. However, the Prince knows that Farah has every reason to hate him for conquering her people, and he suspects that Farah plans to steal the Dagger of Time from him. While the Prince sleeps, Farah does at a later time take the dagger, as well as his sword, and attempts to return the sands to the hourglass herself, leaving only her medallion behind with the Prince. When the Prince catches up with her, she is being attacked by sand creatures, and falls through the ceiling of the hourglass chamber atop the Tower of Dawn before the Prince can save her.

Afterwards, the Prince uses the dagger to return the sands to the hourglass, and the timeline reverts to the point prior to the battle against the Maharajah. As a result, the relationship between Farah and himself is a memory that only he possesses. However, the Prince still has the dagger in his possession, even in the past. He goes to find Farah, to warn her of the Vizier's treachery before the sands are released, and to give her the Dagger of Time. But as the Prince shares his epic story with her, he is confronted by the evil Vizier, who still yearns for the dagger, and eternal life. After defeating the Vizier, and preventing the opening of the hourglass, the Prince offers the dagger to Farah. She questions why he needed to invent such a fantastic story to deliver it to her, as she is not a child who would believe in such nonsense. After he responds with a coldly-received kiss, he rewinds time a moment and instead agrees with her, that it was just a story. As he leaves, she asks him his name, and is left dumbfounded when he tells her to call him "Kakolookiya", the name of a fairy-tale hero that Farah's mother told her stories about as a child and that only she would know of (in the previous timeline, Farah had told the Prince about some of these stories).

Almost the entire game takes place in a flashback,as the story is being narrated by the Prince to Farah.This is illustrated by the prince saying that he would start from the point next time (on saving a game) and "As you wish" on the player quitting the game.The only exception to this is the final battle with the vizier, which takes place in the (then) present.

[edit] Gameplay features

The prince using his dagger in combat.
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The prince using his dagger in combat.

The game combines exploration and combat to create a unique synthesis. Both elements make use of the Prince's acrobatic capability and agility. Throughout much of the game the player must attempt to traverse the palace by running across walls, ascending or descending chasms by jumping back and forth between walls, making other types of well-timed leaps, solving puzzles, and using discovered objects to progress. The cultural setting of the game provides many linguistically interesting inscriptions to be found on walls.

During combat much of the same moves vital to the player in other situations can be put to use to overpower enemies. Such an example is the ability of the Prince to rebound off walls in order to strike enemies decisively. The player generally attacks enemies and blocks using a sword although other objects/factors such as the Dagger of Time and its time-control abilities eventually prove to be critical to victory.

The most interesting gameplay element is the Prince's dagger. It contains "charges" of the Sands of Time from the hourglass that allow the Prince to "reverse" time and travel up to ten seconds into the past. While using this ability, all sounds and previous action play backwards, and the play environment accurately resets to its previous state. For example, if the Prince was struck by an enemy attack during the rewind period, the health he lost will be given back to him, or a bridge that was destroyed a few seconds ago will repair itself. The player is simply able to "rewind" time back a few seconds prior to the event that led to their death and try again. The dagger also allows the prince to slow down time, and freeze his enemies, using it as a main-gauche to attack them directly.

The dagger does not come with an unlimited number of uses. However, defeated enemies leave behind piles of the Sands of Time, which can be absorbed by the dagger to replenish its stock. This encourages the player to confront and vanquish enemies (as opposed to avoiding them) in order to replenish the power to manipulate time during the more tricky acrobatic sections of the game.

[edit] Soundtrack

Music for the game was composed by Stuart Chatwood of the now defunct Canadian rock band The Tea Party. The vocals of Maryem Tollar are featured throughout the game. The ending credits song is sung by Cindy Gomez.

[edit] Impact

Original Soundtrack Album cover.
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Original Soundtrack Album cover.

Prince of Persia: The Sands Of Time was received with widespread critical acclaim. The game was most often praised for its lush, dreamy environment and graphics, the acrobatic combat and platforming, the forgiving and responsive controls, the excellent animation of the Prince, the story, and the time-manipulation abilities of the dagger. The Sands of Time is also often noted for its flowing gameplay - particularly in relation to puzzle-solving, which has a tendency to hinder the action of other true 3D platform games considerably.

The game's average score on MetaCritic.com and GameRankings.com is a 9.2.

[edit] Trivia

  • Both in the start and ending sequence the prince starts his story to the princess with the following words: "Most people think time is like a river, that flows swift and sure in one direction. But I have seen the face of time, and I can tell you...they are wrong. Time is an ocean in a storm. You may wonder who I am and why I say this. Sit down, and I will tell you a tale like none you have ever heard."
  • This is also said at the end of the third game in the series, The Two Thrones.

[edit] Awards

[edit] Future film

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is currently being adapted for film. The initial script was written by Jordan Mechner with subsequent drafts by Jeffrey Nachmanoff. Thus far Jerry Bruckheimer has reportedly been attached to produce the film. When discussing the adaptation, Mechner said:

"Rather than do a straight beat-for-beat adaptation of the new videogame, we're taking some cool elements from the game and using them to craft a new story - much as 'Pirates' [of the Caribbean] did with the theme park ride." — Jordan Mechner [1]

[edit] External links

Prince of Persia series
Original series Prince of Persia | The Shadow and the Flame | Prince of Persia 3D
Sands of Time trilogy The Sands of Time | Warrior Within (Revelations) | The Two Thrones (Rival Swords)
Sands of Time spin-offs Battles of Prince of Persia | Sands of Time (Film) | Prince of Persia Wii
Characters The Prince | Farah | Kaileena | Allies | Enemies
Items Sands of Time | Dagger of Time | Medallion | Mask of the Wraith | Water Sword
Locations The Island of Time | Babylon
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