(This
article is spoiler-free, for those of you who, like myself until
recently, have yet to play a game from 10 years ago.)
As a child gamer, I
was told of the greatness of the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
trilogy. Despite the praise, I had never played the games because I
had somehow convinced myself (with reasons that I can no longer
recall) that I would hate them. Last summer, the HD collection of the
franchise went on sale on the PlayStation Network for about $7.50.
Even then, I was not terribly interested in the trilogy. However,
this time I was much more open to the opinions of others. Hearing
recommendations from a few people and considering how cheap the
collection was, I decided to finally throw caution to the wind and
take the plunge for myself. Now that I have played all three games in
the trilogy, I strongly believe that they serve as an interesting
case study in game design from the PlayStation 2 era. Because of
this, I will be running a series of articles discussing each game in
the franchise, along with its positives and negatives. There is no
better place to start than with the game that started it all, so
without further ado:
The Sands of Time
trilogy began, fittingly enough, with the 2003 release of Prince of
Persia: The Sands of Time. This game served as a reboot of the Prince
of Persia brand name, since the original incarnations did not do
terribly well in their day. Rather than shy away from its roots in
difficult platforming, the game opted to embrace this tradition at
the core of its design, setting the tone for the gameplay of the
franchise henceforth. Death defying jumps, wall running, and various
other feats of acrobatics and athleticism were par for the course.
Fans of the platforming genre would be immensely satisfied by this
element of the Sands of Time. However, the developers knew that they
needed to do more than that.
Given that this was
in the PlayStation 2 era, consumers were just beginning to shy away
from the unforgiving style of older games. The mechanics of the game
had to be updated in order to avoid the pain of constant failure
states. This is likely what inspired the most well known mechanic
from the trilogy: the ability to rewind time. In the beginning of the
game, the titular Prince acquires an artifact called the Dagger of
Time, which allows its user to absorb the Sands of Time into it and
use them to manipulate time. With this weapon, players could rewind
time up to 10 seconds into the past, allowing them to recover from
receiving large amounts of damage in short periods of time and/or
dying from a fall during a platforming section. In this way, players
could recover from failure states, if only a finite number of times,
and try sections again without getting a game over. Though this does
not completely prevent the frustration caused by failing a difficult
and long platforming section, it lessens the pain by giving players
multiple chances to get passed troublesome obstacles with having to
redo entire segments of play.
Another aspect of
the game the seems geared toward limiting frustrations are the
visions that the Prince receives throughout the game. Scattered
throughout the game world are plumes of the Sands of Time that the
Prince can step into. These plumes have two purposes. The first
purpose is to provide save points for the player. The second is to
give visions to the Prince. Visions give both the player and the
Prince previews of future events, displaying a rough picture of what
to do in order to complete the next section leading to the next save
point. This removes part of the trial and error commonly associated
with platformers of this type, especially when coupled with the
ability to rewind time. As a result, the challenge of the game is
preserved while stifling the unforgiving nature of constant game
overs.
However, these
elements cannot simply exist in a vacuum. Like any somewhat modern
game, there needs to be a solid story to tie these elements together
into a cohesive whole. Though I cannot be sure as to what the thought
processes were behind the development of the game, I suspect the
Ubisoft created the story to the Sands of Time in very much the same
way that Naughty Dog created the story for the Uncharted franchise,
which is the same way many industry veterans have done it. They
created a set of mechanics and level designs, then wrote the story
around them. Unlike many other stories generated in this fashion, it
was very well received by those who played the game and stood out in
its own right, for a number of reasons.
One of
the smartest moves that the game made regarding the story was to
present the entire narrative as a tale told by the Prince to somebody
else after events have already unfolded. This alone serves multiple
purposes. First, it allows the Prince to explain details of the plot
that needed to be elaborated on, but the developers lacked either the
time or resources to delve into. Like any good storyteller, the
Prince is willing to fill in details and lampshade otherwise absurd
notions in the story through his narration. Second, this gives an
in-game justification for all of the countless deaths a given player
will receive in a playthrough of the game. Although the game does a
lot to keep players from reaching such a state, it is still possible,
and quite likely, that players will achieve a game over at some
point. When this happens, the Prince says something along the lines
of “Wait. That's not right. I didn't die. Let me start again.”
and the game gives the player the option to retry the section they
died on. Instead of doing what most games do and making death
something that never truly happens, The Sands of Time acknowledges
the fact that it can happen and framed the story in a way that
allowed it to account for player death.
Another
intelligent choice made by the writers of the game is to only have a
small cast of three major characters with only one or two minor
characters. The Prince, his captured princess turned unlikely partner
Farah, who players meet and befriend fairly early in the game, and
the evil vizier are the only real characters who drive the plot. This
allows the plot to be basic enough that any form of level or gameplay
design can fit around it. Rather than complex politic intrigue and
reputations with large factions, The Sands of Time chooses to focus
on interactions between these characters and how their relationships
and opinions of each other evolve throughout the course of the game.
Instead of a global, world-spanning story, it is a personal one that,
except for the prologue, takes place entirely with the Sultan's
Palace. The way Farah and the Prince grow to respect one another is
interesting, especially since they both have a snarky attitude that
makes it nearly impossible for them to just come out and admit that
they respect one another. Like the time reversal mechanics mentioned
earlier, this lack of characters would grow to become a recurring
element in the trilogy.
Lastly,
the narrative is bolstered by a strong Arabian theme that is present
throughout the entire game. Areas in the Sultan's Palace seemed
ripped straight out of One Thousand and One Arabian Nights. From the
castle terrace to the caged gardens, and even the top of the Vizier's
Tower all look distinctive in their own right while retaining a
continuity of theme and setting. Another notable way that the Sands
of Time establishes the Arabian theme is through the game's very
impressive soundtrack. While many tracks utilize an electric guitar
to an extent, they weave together Indian and Arabian instruments and
sounds, resulting in a musical score than further immerses players
into the story. Further selling the setting is the fact that the
Prince can only regain health by drinking out of bodies of water.
There are even special magical bodies of water players can stumble
onto throughout the game that will increase the Prince's maximum
health. In the desert, having a steady supply of water is very
important. Making water a resource that players will need to seek out
in order to keep themselves alive is a nice subtle touch that adds a
layer of plausibility to the world. Together with the titular Sands
of Time, these small, seemingly minor details form the gestalt of a
believable Arabian setting.
However,
despite the vast amounts of praise I can levy towards the game, there
are a couple of problems. The biggest issue I have with the Sands of
Time is its combat. The way combat works is that in certain areas of
the game, Sand Creatures, humans and animals possessed by the Sands
of Time, will spawn and strike out at The Prince. The easiest way to
defeat these enemies is to attack them until they are downed, at
which point The Prince can use the Dagger of Time to extract the
Sands of Time from them and add those Sands to Dagger's supply of
sand. Players can attack enemies with their scimitar in order to
inflict damage, but they also have access to the usual arsenal of
blocks, counters, and dodges. Since the Prince is an acrobat at
heart, he is able to dodge over most enemies and strike at their
blind sides. Furthermore, the Dagger of Time is given more uses than
simple extraction and time reversal, which can be used to recover
from battles that are not going in the player's favor. Other time
powers that utilize the Sands include a freeze attack that leaves the
afflicted foe open to an instant kill 2-hit combo and a move called
Mega Freeze that drastically increases the speed and power of the
Prince, allowing him to dispatch numerous foes in a short time.
Despite
common criticism, I do not have a complaint with the combat system
itself. In fact, I think it works. Enemies are not “bullet-spongy”
and can be downed in a few combos (at the same time, so can players
if not careful) and the system is enjoyable enough to make these
sequences entertaining. The problem I had with the combat is the
sheer amount of it that was thrown at players at any given time.
While the system itself is fairly solid, anything can become a
problem in excess. One of the first things I noticed when fighting
Sand Creatures is that the moment I had finished dispatching of two
or three enemies, another group had spawned in almost immediately.
This would continue on until I was defeating at least 20 and possibly
even 30 enemies in the same area in the exact same fight. Often times
I was getting tired of fighting at around half that number of foes.
The nature of the game's lethal play makes combat seem like it goes
on for far longer than it actually does, giving off the feeling that
combat is padding out the game. Although this seems like a minor
issue, over time it makes an otherwise interesting combat system grow
dull and repetitive very quickly.
The
other issue is, by comparison, not as big of a deal. Towards the
beginning and the end of the game, The Prince does not possess the
Dagger of Time. As a result, the time reversal mechanic is not
available to the player during these sections. This is an issue that
is not particularly noticeable towards the start of the game. Since
the game assumes that a given player has either no knowledge or
limited knowledge of the game mechanics, the platforming in that
section of the game is fairly easy to pull off. However, towards the
end of the game, the game no longer has these expectations. In fact,
some of the platforming segments towards the ends are some of the
hardest in the game. When cut off from the time reversal mechanics
that made failure states less of an issue, an otherwise simple
platforming section becomes needlessly frustrating. While it is an
interesting narrative and thematic choice to strip the Prince of his
time bending powers in the climax of the game, the gameplay itself
suffers as a result.
Overall,
the Sands of Time was a fantastic game released during the
PlayStation 2's lifespan. There are many, myself included, who would
go so far as to call it the best game in the trilogy, if not the
Prince of Persia series. So many things, both big and small, were
done correctly in this game that the things it and its sequels did
wrong strongly stand out simply by comparison. Going forward, all
Ubisoft really had to do is refine the template laid out here and
continue providing excellent platforming in an Arabian-inspired
setting, with some slight refinements to the combat. Unfortunately,
that is not what happened. As we will see in the next article, the
sequel decided to go in another direction. A very annoying and stupid
direction. Until then, see you next time!
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