Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time introduces us to a new incarnation of a great line of games begun way back in 1989 (the original title also marked the first time characters where fully animated; a great accomplishment back the day). In keeping with that tradition, The Sands of Time presents new features in this fourth installment of the series. The game once again sees the player resume the role of the nameless prince in a new adventure - who has to right a tragedy which has occurred at his hands through the deception of an evil wizard. After you and your father's army defeat a powerful King, you attempt to claim the beaten King's treasure. Among the treasure is a giant hourglass. The evil wizard dupes the prince into releasing the sand within the hourglass, destroying the palace and turning all its inhabitants into zombie-like creatures. It's now up to you to recover the dagger that can control the sand and correct what you have done before the plague spreads across the entire world. Along the way, you will encounter the beautiful and mysterious daughter of the vanquished King, Farah; battle the evil inhabitants of the palace; learn to control the dagger and its power over time itself; and have a final showdown with the wizard Vizier.

Ubisoft has created an entirely new concept for PC games with this title: the manipulation of time. With the dagger of time, the player can slow, stop, and even reverse time in order to battle bad guys and re-attempt failed actions. The execution of this feature is really amazing, letting you literally rewind the game as far back as the sand lasts in the dagger. You can collect sand from defeated enemies, or from glowing deposits left sporadically around the environment. The more of these deposits you collect, the move "super moves" you can unlock to allow your character to dispatch his enemies in a variety of different ways (i.e., freezing them all in place while you can move a super speeds).

But the main concept of this game is to solve the seemingly never-ending puzzles you are presented with in order to move around the now-toppled palace. While some puzzles are simple, a vast majority of them are quite long and very complicated. The solution to most puzzles, such as figuring out where to leap or what levers to pull, sometimes require a lot of trial and error. This is where the manipulation of time comes in. Miss a jump? Just rewind time and try something else. The multiple save points are also very frequent making redoing a level a lot less annoying and time consuming. When you encounter a save point, you are struck by a vision of challenges to come. Make sure you are paying attention, as these always present invaluable clues to upcoming puzzles.

The graphics and camera work are really excellent. The visuals in this title are really well done, and pay a great deal of attention to detail in the objects, and environments. My favorite has to be the outside environments, where the palace truly looks endless. The player's animations are also exceptionally smooth and realistic, from running to swinging. The use of cameras in the game is also worth noting. Besides the now-standard fully movable views, you also have both a first person perspective and an opposite view perspective; where the camera pans to the far end of the environment to give you a long look back on yourself. These views are indispensable when looking for your next move in a tight spot.

The audio work in the game is also second to none. The soundtrack is an exciting mix of hard rock and eastern Indian-style music. The soundtrack also morphs depending on the situation you are in (i.e. draw your sword, and the soundtrack will shift to a more tense battle theme). The sound effects are also outstanding, and furthermore necessary to solve some of the puzzles. For example, the sound of water drips indicates which doors to walk through in a particular puzzle. Dialogue is also great, as evident by the occasional banter that takes place between you and Farah. My only complaint in regards to audio is that I found some of the gameplay dialogue to be very hard to hear.

The only evident shortfall in the title has to be the fighting, which I found got a bit stale due to its repetitive nature. Enemies in PoP are hard to beat, and they rise from the dead at least twice. As the game progresses, enemies don't necessarily get harder to beat, there are just more of them. Not only that, but you have to defend Farah, who, armed with only a bow, is a rather easy target. Thankfully, fighting isn't the main feature of this title, and there are a few neat tricks you can pull off if you have enough sand saved up to make the combat a little easier, but it's the spots that typically had me grunting that I had to repeat. Most save points come directly after a fight, so they are usually the longest stretch you have to repeat; another annoyance.

In all, this is a fine title, and highly recommended for anyone who wants to try something a little different. There is a lot of help out there on the net for the tough spots. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is in stores now.