Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher: Ubisoft SCEJ
Rrp: £6.99
Available on Steam, Uplay, and Gog.com
To me this game is one of the pillars of gaming history. The game that really showed how a game could have depth, well written characters and still be engaging and challenging. Even though it’s now a little over ten years old this game still holds it’s own. Oh, admittedly the graphics aren’t anywhere close to the likes of The Last of Us but when you consider how old it is, it doesn’t look too bad.
Where this game shines however is the banter between Farah and the Prince. It actually feels natural, like two actual people having a discussion or disagreement. I also love the fact that Farah isn’t some damsel in distress, there were a number of times where she came to my aid, and no I don’t mean in a scripted scene I mean in actual combat. It’s refreshing to see a female character who isn’t just an escort quest (looking at you Ashley) or a reward at the end of the game.
The combat in this title is generally very fluid and new moves are revealed over the course of the game. That isn’t to say that this game isn’t without faults. There were times where I found that the camera angles were my worst enemy, sometimes placing itself inside a wall so I couldn’t see what I was doing.
The combat also has a few annoying quirks, such as the ‘lock on system’ (as I like to call it). When in combat the Prince automatically locks on to one enemy, that’s great and all but there were several times where I had just knocked an enemy down and wanted to finish them off but the lock on system had decided I need to take on another. It’s very difficult to make the system return back to that enemy for the final blow and if your not quick they’ll get back up with full health again. This is one area where the games core mechanic comes into its play in a glorious fashion. If you fudged a move, or simply were killed by a swarm of sand creatures, you can reverse time and try again with some limited foresight.
But it doesn’t stop there! Oh, no, no. The dagger of time (which as you may have guessed from the name is what allow you to mess with time in a manner the Doctor would be envious of) also allows you to slow time or if you’ve filled enough of the power bar even perform instant kills… at the price of draining all of the power bar.
The puzzles are varied and creative but the learning curve is gentle, you won’t find any puzzles that need you to do moves you haven’t been shown yet. The game takes great care not to overwhelm you with new mechanics. Those puzzles will however, occasionally leave you scratching your head trying to figure out where your next move should be.
Speaking of the acrobatics, the list of moves you can perform is quite varied and well implemented. That being said timing is your friend and enemy here. Thankfully the reverse time mechanic makes the act of failing less painful and punishing. If you misjudge a jump simply reverse time to allow you to try again, no loading screen necessary. Of course once again you only get as many chances as you have filled sand tanks.
Due to the age of the game certain more modern features don’t work or exist. For example there isn’t any form of extended play, no new game plus mode or nightmare mode and there isn’t any form of collectible (thank goodness). 5.1 3D surround doesn’t work too well either causing dialogue and sounds get lost. If that happens I advise setting your system to stereo before starting the game. Another problem I encountered is that the game didn’t seem to like my controller, it has options to rebind the buttons but for some reason doesn’t recognise several key ones. Although from some online searches it may have been the controller I was using as others have reported using one without issue.
All in all I find that this game is well worth the price, you can, if you really want to, complete it in a day. But it’s a piece of gaming history and in my mind one of the best adventure platformers ever to have existed. Just try to ignore the movie they made….
