Prince of Persia®: The Sands of Time

15% into the game and the glitches have been so many and so severe that I rate the game UNPLAYABLE. You get stuck in corners, you get stuck on pressure platforms, you get drawn into corners next to pressure platforms and cant get out, you get stuck on bridges. The final let down came when I over and over got stuck on the last part of a bridge and could not progress any further. As of 2024, this game is completely unplayable. You will be paying for 15% of the entire game. Complete waste of time.

The Sands of Time, a fun & quick classic game. The ground breaking ability to rewind your mistakes through the collection of sand/defeating sand zombies... amazing! That being said the PC version does have a few flaws that need to be fixed before being able to play it. The fog and the ability to move diagonally were the most concerning aspects that I felt needed to be addressed. After that the game is playable... I will say the camera does tend to do some janky things but you learn how to play around it. I did find a way to alter the screen resolution to fit my moniter better but it played well before I found the fix. I used an Xbox One controller and everything worked fine for me.

I can't rate this game any higher because the camera implementation is godawful which makes the rather clunky combat a chore to get through. It's honeslty amazing how bad the game feels to play considering that, by 2003, the world had figured out how to do cameras and controls in 3D games. Yeah, the art style has aged well, the music is nice, many of the navigational puzzles are interesting to figure out, but when you're consantly fighting against the camera, the generally poor mouse and keyboard controls (the game won't recognize my Xbox gamepad despite supposedly supporting gamepads) and the uninspired combat design, the game soon turns from fun to frustrating.

Story holds up solidly, and the gameplay dispite the sensitive bug only ruins some of the puzzles. This game does have resolution issue where the display will strench to fill the screen and is capped at 4:3 ratio 1024 x 768. But no biggy, What is a biggy is at least on my graphic card AMD Randon 5500XT ASUS OC the fog is completely broken so I had to disable it, which does change the look of some scenes completely. While I remember most of the set piece moments it's the moments in between that had me at was that there? And the prince is as charming as ever. The only thing preventing me from giving 5 stars is the technical issues of this port on modern hardware, it's not deal breaking certainly more than playable but sadly does take away from the game.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a fantastic action-adventure game that still holds up in many ways. The story is excellent, with a well-crafted narrative that keeps you engaged throughout the journey. The time-bending mechanics and platforming sections are the real highlights, making for some truly satisfying moments when everything flows smoothly. However, the game isn’t without its frustrations. The controls can feel a bit wacky at times, with the Prince not always responding the way you’d expect, which can lead to some annoying mistakes. The camera doesn’t do you any favors either, especially in tight corridors where it makes combat more difficult than it needs to be. Speaking of combat, the hitboxes and animations don’t always line up, which can make fights frustrating. That said, the color-coded enemies are a nice touch, making it easier to remember the best way to take them down. Overall, Sands of Time is still a great game with a compelling story and fun platforming, but the combat and camera can be a bit of a struggle. If you can look past those flaws, it’s definitely worth playing.