Full ReleasePC

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Ubisoft Montreal · Puzzle, Action, Adventure

Overview

Amidst the scorched sands of ancient Persia, there is a legend spun in an ancient tongue. It speaks of a time borne by blood and ruled by deceit. Drawn to the dark powers of a magic dagger, a young Prince is led to unleash a deadly evil upon a beautiful kingdom. Aided by the wiles of a seductive princess and the absolute powers of the Sands of Time, the Prince stages a harrowing quest to reclaim the Palace's cursed chambers and restore peace to his land.

A technological masterpiece - Witness some of the most advanced programming in gaming history, pushing the limitations of consoles and raising the standards of games in all areas of production: physics, lighting, graphics, animations, and more!
An unmatched hero - Wielding powers of mythic proportions, the Prince returns to action-adventure gaming with gravity-defying acrobatics, ferocious fighting skills, and the ability to bend time to fulfill his destiny.
The Sands of Time - Ubisoft's Montreal Studio presents the Sands of Time - a technological breakthrough that will change the face of action-adventure gaming forever. Erase the past, behold the future, and freeze the present in real-time for unlimited gameplay variations.
Exotic worlds and vast kingdoms - Uncover the mysteries of a world never before explored in action-adventure gaming. Medieval Persia, mythical and deadly, holds a staggering array of landscapes and kingdoms to explore and conquer.
A sweeping adventure of betrayal and triumph - The epic legends and deadly creatures of mythic Persia burn to life in this suspense-filled tale, featuring more twists and turns than the labyrinthine Palace itself.

From the game's Steam store page.

THE GAMEQ VERDICT2,528 reviews analyzed

What players are actually saying

1. Summary

Players treat The Sands of Time as a classic that mostly survives its age, and what they praise has stayed the same across fifteen years of reviews: the fluid wall-running parkour and room-sized platforming puzzles, the storybook narration by the Prince (including the "no, no, that's not how it happened" line whenever you die), the banter between the Prince and Farah, a bittersweet ending, and Stuart Chatwood's Persian-rock soundtrack. The time-rewind dagger gets credit for making tough platforming forgiving. Many reviewers connect it to Assassin's Creed, and some say its traversal still beats games made a decade later.

The complaints fall into two groups. The first is the game itself: a camera that swings at the worst moments and a combat system many players find repetitive, with endless enemy waves, a finishing move required on every foe, and stun-locks. Plenty of positive reviews criticize the combat too. The second is this PC version: a fog bug that greys out the whole screen, no widescreen resolutions, clumsy controller support, physics that break above 60 fps, desynced and quiet audio, and bugs that can softlock progress. "Great game, terrible port," as one negative review puts it. Several players report it plays well after a few community fixes (turn fog off, a widescreen patch, a 60 fps cap), and some note paying about two dollars on sale. Negative reviews written in the first two hours more often cite these technical problems than the gameplay.

2. What keeps coming up

What players praise

Fluid parkour and platforming that still holds upHigh

Parkour and platforming come up in roughly a fifth of all reviews. Players describe running along walls, swinging from poles and chaining jumps across huge rooms as fluid, weighty and deliberate, closer to a spatial puzzle than the press-forward traversal of later open-world games. Several say it outclasses Assassin's Creed, which many recognise as its descendant, and a few newcomers with no nostalgia say the platforming alone won them over. The late-game climb up the tower, done without the dagger or save points, comes up both as a satisfying high point and as a punishing one. The caveat that runs alongside the praise is precision: wall jumps and downward wall-to-wall descents need exact timing, and the camera can throw a jump off (see below).

A storybook tale, charming banter and a memorable endingHigh

About a quarter of reviews praise the story or its telling. The framing device, where the older Prince narrates and corrects himself when you die, wins steady affection, and the opening "time is an ocean in a storm" monologue is quoted in ten reviews. The Prince and Farah's back-and-forth is called witty, and their relationship gives the game its heart; the bittersweet ending and the "Kakolookiyam" callback come up as highlights, and one review calls it "one of the best endings in gaming." Players compare the whole thing to an Arabian Nights fairy tale or a Disney film. The dissent is small: some find the plot thin and linear, a few call the dialogue cheesy or the Prince's early remarks about Farah dated and sexist, and a couple dislike the voice work.

Soundtrack, art direction and Arabian Nights atmosphereHigh

The music draws steady praise, especially the Middle Eastern rock soundtrack and the end-credits song "Time Only Knows." Players say the stylised, slightly cartoonish art direction has aged better than the raw graphics, and that the palace setting, lighting and cloth animations still create a dreamlike, cohesive atmosphere. A small minority find the battle music noisy or the soundtrack forgettable.

A classic worth revisiting, and not only for nostalgiaHigh

Around a fifth of reviews frame the game through childhood memories of the PS2, Xbox or GameCube version: finally beating the fight that stopped them at age eight, playing it with a parent, or recognising Assassin's Creed's roots. Nostalgia colours many positive reviews, but some first-time players also say it holds up on its own, if you accept its age. The opposing view is covered in the split section below.

The time-rewind daggerMedium

Players credit the Dagger of Time with making a hard game fair: a missed jump or a bad hit can be undone in seconds, so failure turns into experimentation. Some call it revolutionary for 2003 and elegantly tied into the story. Complaints are minor: a few found rewinds inconsistent or occasionally unusable, and others note that losing the dagger near the end removes the safety net just as the hardest climbing arrives.

Clever environmental puzzlesMedium

The puzzle rooms (levers, mirrors, pushing blocks, timing traps) are a welcome breather between platforming and fights for most who mention them, and many call them fair and satisfying. A minority found some objectives cryptic enough to need a walkthrough, particularly the late mirror room and parts of the Tower of Dawn.

Short, focused, and cheap on saleLow

Players like that it is a tight 6 to 10 hour adventure with no padding, side activities or monetisation, and several mention paying about two dollars or euros on sale. A few wish it were longer or had more replay value.

Works well on Steam DeckLow

Steam Deck players generally say it runs fine, some after adjusting the controls or adding a community widescreen patch. One finds the controls worse there and suggests emulating the console version instead.

Where players are split

Does it hold up without nostalgia?Medium

This is the central disagreement. Many players say it still holds up, and some first-timers say it aged like fine wine and they finally understand its reputation. A smaller group, often people who first played Warrior Within or modern action games, say it "aged like milk," that only nostalgia carries it, and that they were bored or frustrated within hours. A recurring middle position is "you had to be there": recommended to returning fans, a harder sell to newcomers.

DifficultyLow

Reviewers disagree on whether the game is easy or hard. Returning players often find it easier than they remember and call the puzzles and final boss simple, while others describe the combat as brutal and some difficulty spikes (the elevator fight among them) as unfair. The split tracks combat: players who learn the one-shot moves (vault over, wall-dive, then dagger) find it trivial, while those who do not get swarmed.

Keyboard and mouse versus controllerLow

Some players say keyboard and mouse works fine or even better; others say keyboard controls are frustrating (eight-direction movement, climbing mapped to a held mouse button) and that the game only feels right on a gamepad, which is itself hard to set up (see frustrations).

What frustrates players

Repetitive, crowded combatHigh

Combat is the gameplay complaint negative reviews raise most, and it shows up in positive reviews too: about 190 reviews call it repetitive, tedious, frustrating or the game's weak point, against 28 that say they enjoy it. The complaints are specific: fights are long arena waves where four enemies attack at once and more keep spawning, with no indication of how many are left; every downed enemy must be finished with the dagger or it gets back up, and the finishing animation leaves you open to hits; enemies block constantly, teleport in, and can stun-lock you on the ground; auto-targeting locks onto the wrong foe; and the move set barely grows. Players who stick with it often "cheese" the fights with the vault and wall-dive attacks. The minority who enjoy it praise the acrobatic, parry-based combat and call it ahead of its time.

The cameraHigh

The camera comes up in roughly one in six reviews, including many positive ones, and among negative reviews it trails combat only slightly. The fixed and auto-switching camera changes angle mid-jump, so a held direction suddenly means something else and the Prince leaps into a pit or a trap. In combat it swings wildly, gets stuck behind pillars or walls, and hides enemies attacking from behind. Players joke about it, calling the camera "the real enemy," the biggest enemy or the true villain. You also cannot freely look up or down. Some cope by switching to the overhead or first-person view, and a few say they got used to it.

A PC port that needs fixing before it plays rightHigh

Technical problems are the most common theme in negative reviews, and they lead among players who quit in the first two hours. The recurring list: a fog effect that renders the screen grey or white on modern GPUs until you turn fog off (or edit Hardware.ini); no widescreen or 1080p resolutions without a community patch; controller support that must be bound button by button, still shows keyboard prompts, and cannot navigate the menus; game speed, cutscenes and physics tied to frame rate, so the game must be capped at 60 fps (or v-sync forced) to avoid sped-up cutscenes and broken wall jumps; some systems failing to launch at all, or refusing multicore CPUs; and no Steam overlay. Many reviews link PCGamingWiki, the Universal Widescreen Patcher or a YouTube fix guide, and several players say it runs well once patched. Others argue a paid Steam release should not need homework, and some recommend emulating the console version or buying it elsewhere instead.

Bugs and softlocksMedium

Beyond setup, a distinct group reports progress-blocking bugs, and these account for some of the negative reviews from players who got deep into the game. The same spots come up repeatedly: pushed crates flying across the room around the 81% mark, a broken-bridge wall jump that will not register, a door after acquiring the final sword, the mirror puzzle, ropes that swing diagonally, the Prince bouncing off ledges or clipping into floors, and invisible enemies spawning. Several reviewers found that capping the frame rate or enabling v-sync resolved them; others lost saves or gave up. A few report corrupted or deleted save files.

Clunky, imprecise controlsMedium

Separate from the camera, players say inputs do not always do what they intend: the Prince rolls when you meant to jump, leaps in the wrong direction off a ledge, drops to hang instead of jumping, or will not run diagonally with some controllers. Wall jumps and descending between two walls draw particular complaints as unforgivingly strict. Many accept this as 2003-era design, and for others it is the dealbreaker.

Muffled audio and no subtitlesMedium

Cutscene and in-game dialogue is far too quiet relative to music and effects, audio desyncs from cutscenes (often a frame-rate side effect), and there are no subtitles, so players miss the banter they came for. Turning off the game's 3D and EAX sound options helps some.

The elevator fight and Farah's escort AILow

A late-game battle on a moving elevator is named repeatedly, usually with dread: a long wave fight where Farah must survive and the camera fights you. More broadly, some find Farah a liability: fragile, prone to standing in harm's way, and capable of shooting the Prince with her arrows. Others like her as a companion.

Checkpoints, save points and unskippable interruptionsLow

Some players dislike that progress is lost if you quit between save fountains, that the dagger-less final climb has sparse checkpoints, and that short unskippable sequences (the Prince sheathing his sword after every fight, the vision at each save point, room-entry camera pans) break the flow. Others find the checkpoints generous.

Few and underwhelming bossesLow

Players note there are only a couple of real boss fights and that the final boss is surprisingly easy after the hardest wave fights, which some find anticlimactic.

3. The player conversation

The tone is warm and reverent, with an undercurrent of exasperation. Positive reviews range from one-word "classic" and "peak" posts to long love letters about childhood, and they make up 84% of the total. The positive share has stayed between 77% and 87% every year since 2014, after a near-unanimous first few years on Steam. Review volume more than tripled in 2020 and has stayed at that level since, and the mix of praise and complaint barely changed as the audience grew.

Many negative reviews separate the game from this version of it. Roughly half of them cite port or technical problems, and more than half cite gameplay complaints (combat, the camera, controls, or a sense that it has aged badly), with plenty citing both. What they raise depends on how long they played. Among negative reviews written in under two hours, technical problems (fog, resolution, controllers, failing to launch) come up more often than gameplay; these are players who bounced off the setup. Among negative reviews from players with five or more hours, gameplay leads: combat waves, the camera and late-game softlocks. Many recommenders attach a disclaimer: fix it first, use a controller if you can set one up, and buy it on sale.

4. What the developers could do

Ship an official compatibility patch that fixes fog, adds widescreen resolutions and locks the simulation to 60 fps. These three fixes are the advice players pass along in the reviews and community guides, and the frame-rate cap alone is credited with curing the sped-up cutscenes, audio desync and many physics bugs.
Add proper native controller support, including menus and on-screen button prompts. Players repeatedly describe binding every button by hand, keyboard prompts in tutorials, and a mouse still being required for menus in a game designed for a gamepad.
Fix the known progression-blocking bugs. The flying crates around 81%, the broken-bridge wall jump, the door after the final sword and the mirror puzzle are named again and again as the points where players were forced to quit.
Give players more camera control and a way to choose their combat target. The camera is one of the most common gameplay complaints, and auto-targeting that picks the wrong enemy compounds it in every fight.
Rebalance combat waves. Players ask for fewer respawns, a visible count of remaining enemies, and protection while performing finishing moves, since stun-locks and endless waves are behind much of the frustration, especially in the elevator fight.
Remix dialogue volume and add subtitles. Players report that the story they love is hard to hear and impossible to read.
Let players skip repeated animations and add checkpoints to the dagger-less final climb. The sword-sheathing, save-point visions and sparse late checkpoints are small but recurring irritants.
Restore Steam overlay support and fix launch failures on modern multicore systems. Some players could not start the game at all without disabling CPU cores or compatibility tweaks, and others list the missing overlay among the port's shortcomings.