Prince of Persia®: The Sands of Time

It clearly doesn't have REAL controller support once you try to map gamepad controls and it literally can't get any input from 3 different controllers.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of TIme could have been an ordinary 3D platformer. Tricky jumps. Deadly obstacles. A simple battle system. A couple of puzzles. A story that exists only for the purpose of having a motivation to go from point A to point B. And that's about it. Nothing bad, but nothing worth mentioning either. But these simple ideas are considerably improved by the introduction of time-altering abilities. Suddenly, you have to overcome seemingly-impossible tasks such as several death traps combined over a whole room and massive groups of undead enemies surrounding you. If you fail, you can rewind time. If it's too hard, you can slow down time. When you save, you can have visions of the future. And so on. But don't overuse your powers, because you only have a limited amount that you can store. Unfortunately, this game has several flaws. The main one is that the enemy AI is too predictable and is way too easy to defeat. Also, the voice used for main protagonist (at least in English) does not fit at all with the character. And finally, this game is a bit on the easy side because of the rewinding ability that can be abused easily. Despite that, this game is quite enjoyable and is a breath of fresh air compared to similar products. Recommended.

It's a really enjoyable platformer with lots of great features and two flaws. The story is good, the prince's wall-walking, pole-vaulting acrobatics are impressive, and the ability to rewind your blunders fits so well with the genre you wonder why nobody had though of it before. But the combat system is cheap. Learn a simple technique and you can defeat three quarters of the enemies in the game. Learn a second one and you can defeat all. Fights with multiple enemies can be tricky, but it always the same two moves over and over. Secondly, the replayability value is low. Once you finish the game, that's it - you know how to solve the puzzles and surely you won't replay for the combat, right? Additional difficulty levels or some trick modes would really be useful. But since you are buying the game cheap, it doesn't matter that much.

The game certainly feels interesting and challenging to play but in my opinion it has severe mechanics issues. There is non-linear camera movement, for example when you are in a corridor you can look left and right within a single swipe on the touchpad but when you need to turn around, once you are facing the wall the movement become so slow that it takes several swipes on the touchpad to get through, then again the camera movement suddenly accelerate when you are again facing the depth of the corridor. The movement keys seems to switch directions depending of how the camera is positioned which is very confusing both during walk/stunts and in battle. Regarding the battle, many times you land in a position when you don't see your avatar, the action happens behind a pillar, plant, etc. and it's hard to get away from that place. Anyway, the game doesn't respond well to the keys during battle, I really find it hard to understand the battle strategy. What's worst, you cannot save your game before the battle, there aren't any battle training mode easily available so I got stuck in the game as now it takes me about 10 minutes to get to the battle from the save point where I usually play 15 to 20 minutes in a row, no more.

What a fantastic game. I couldn't resist replaying this classic after so many years since my first magical playthrough. This game still has lots to offer even today. At the time of its release, it was nothing short of spectacular - time rewinds, solid combat, story, and many hidden things, all on top of what is mostly a 3D platforming puzzle game. I'll only mention one thing that can be pretty irritating, especially considering how the game lacks some of the more modern QoL elements - the automatic targeting system can sometimes pick someone else than you'd want, so in combat, one of the most important things to learn is how to divide and lure enemies around so that you know who you're fighting. Other than that, it's an absolute joy to play, full of fun memorable moments. Gameplay neatly tied to the story, a captivating tale about personal growth, friendship, love, regrets... it does everything well! Out of all Prince of Persia games, this one is right at the top together with the very original title. Full of creativity, imaginitive and memorable scenes, that other games copied and people started taking for granted. This game does everything well, and doesn't have many weak parts - an example of great design from all aspects. Worth every minute!