Prince of Persia: Sands of Time

Lookit that mug. That's the face of someone who's seen more than his fair share of fucked up shit. And it's true, he has. Sand demons, unnecessary spikes everywhere, an evil king's assistant (called the Vizier) copying Jafar's moves from Disney's Aladdin and trying to acquire a source of power that he doesn't understand. You know, just another Tuesday, really.

The unnamed Prince in the game is arrogant, sarcastic, and mostly shirtless during the game but that doesn't stop you from liking the character. Indeed not, the charm is when he starts talking to himself randomly as you're playing, acting like any of us might when frustrated or angry at someone: he mocks them. Of course, he is not always so bratty and he even proves himself once he gains a little Sands of Time power, learning how to use it deftly and kicking the asses of evil sand minions.





With all this sand and sarcasm and sword fighting you may be asking yourself, where is the love interest? Almost no movie passes without some sort of love interest or sexy counterpart to temporarily muddle the mind of our hero, and games are usually not any different. Ah, predictability.

Princess Farah appears with a sassy attitude and a lithe figure to help aid the Prince into getting out of a dangerous situation, keeping her identity vague enough to hold suspicions but her heart open enough to melt them away because- let's face it- the Prince is a man and like most men in video games he can't resist a pretty face.

Farah proves to be able to hold her own in battle with a bow and arrow, giving just as much as she can take, so there are luckily no obligatory escort missions which are usually a pain. But as a teammate the AI proves to be a little less than perfect as sometimes when she's shooting arrows at a horde of monsters that you happen to be fighting, she can also inadvertently hit you. No hard feelings, I guess.

Okay, you try finding a better image of Farah.

Since it's been many years, I can't be expected to remember many things about the game but one thing I do fondly remember is the music. Game scores can be very telling of the game itself and help get you into the action if there's a big fight scene.
One thing the Prince of Persia soundtrack did that stands out is incorporate electric guitars into the otherwise ambient music and putting a modern touch to it. A lot of people criticise this aspect of the music because it seems out of place and doesn't fit the era or the mood, but I beg to differ. I really liked this and when it came to descending  a very tall tower or fighting off a group of sand monsters, the rock guitar riffs kinda builds up your adrenaline a little more.

For a sampling of the music, I suggest doing a Google video search and see what you think. The soundtrack was actually created by Stuart Chatwood who is mostly known as being a member of the band The Tea Party, who does my favourite rendition of "Paint it Black". Chatwood also has done the music for all the subsequent Prince of Persia game soundtracks, which is good because some consistency in video games is not always possible, and if you can't depend on the story to guide you (in events where the story is poorly written) then the music will surely do a good job of it.

Enough of that though. What I really wanted to say about Prince of Persia: Sands of Time is that it was a game I thoroughly enjoyed playing and don't remember having many complaints about, other than the ridiculous amount spike traps set everywhere that seem to make no sense to have in your homestead in real life. But you know, that's a video game for you.

The sequel, Warrior Within remains unfinished by me because I became thoroughly frustrated at a giant shadow griffon boss thing that seemed impossible to beat, so don't expect a post about that anytime soon.