Prince of Persia The Sands of Time Story
The Dagger of Time.
Passing through India en route to Azad, King Sharaman and his son, the Prince of Persia, defeat the powerful Maharajah of India with the promise of honor and glory. After looting the city and capturing a giant hourglass full of sand, a mysterious dagger, and the Maharajah's daughter along with other treasures, they continue to Azad. A dying Vizier, who had betrayed the Maharajah and aided King Sharaman in return for a share of the spoils, demands to have the dagger, as he was promised his choice of the Maharajah's treasures. But Sharaman refuses to take the dagger from his son, who captured it first. So the Vizier, who wishes to harness the power of the sands in the hourglass for himself, making him an immortal god and giving him control over time itself, tricks the Prince into opening the hourglass. When the Prince uses the dagger to unleash the Sands of Time from the hourglass, it destroys the kingdom and turns its populace into savage demons. Only the Prince, the Vizier, and Princess Farah, the kidnapped daughter of the Maharajah, remain unchanged due to their possessions; the Prince's dagger, the Vizier's staff, and Farah's medallion.
On a journey to repair the damage he has caused, the Prince teams with Farah to return the Sands of Time to the hourglass by using the Dagger of Time, which also gives the Prince limited control over the flow of time. Before they reach their destination, the Prince and Farah form a romantic relationship. However, the Prince knows that Farah has every reason to hate him for conquering her people, and he suspects that Farah plans to steal the Dagger of Time from him. While the Prince sleeps, Farah does at a later time take the dagger, as well as his sword, and attempts to return the sands to the hourglass herself, leaving only her medallion behind with the Prince. When the Prince catches up with her, she is being attacked by sand creatures, and falls through the ceiling of the hourglass chamber atop the Tower of Dawn before the Prince can save her.
Afterwards, the Prince uses the dagger to return the sands to the hourglass, and the timeline reverts to the point prior to the battle against the Maharajah. As a result, the relationship between Farah and himself is a memory that only he possesses. However, the Prince still has the dagger in his possession, even in the past. He goes to find Farah, to warn her of the Vizier's treachery before the sands are released, and to give her the Dagger of Time. But as the Prince shares his epic story with her, he is confronted by the evil Vizier, who still yearns for the dagger, and eternal life. After defeating the Vizier, and preventing the opening of the hourglass, the Prince gives the Dagger of Time to Farah, and leaves.
Gameplay features
The prince using his dagger in combat.
The game combines exploration and combat to create a unique synthesis. Both elements make use of the Prince's acrobatic capability and agility. Throughout much of the game the player must attempt to traverse the palace by running across walls, ascending or descending chasms by jumping back and forth between walls, making other types of well-timed leaps, solving puzzles, and using discovered objects to progress. The cultural setting of the game provides many linguistically interesting inscriptions to be found on walls.
During combat much of the same moves vital to the player in other situations can be put to use to overpower enemies. Such an example is the ability of the Prince to rebound off walls in order to strike enemies decisively. The player generally attacks enemies and blocks using a sword although other objects/factors such as the Dagger of Time and its time-control abilities eventually prove to be critical to victory.
The most interesting gameplay element is the Prince's dagger. It contains "charges" of the Sands of Time from the hourglass that allow the Prince to "reverse" time and travel up to ten seconds into the past. While using this ability, all sounds and previous action play backwards, and the play environment accurately resets to its previous state. For example, if the Prince was struck by an enemy attack during the rewind period, the health he lost will be given back to him, or a bridge that was destroyed a few seconds ago will repair itself. The player is simply able to "rewind" time back a few seconds prior to the event that led to their death and try again. The dagger also allows the prince to slow down time, and freeze his enemies, using it as a main-gauche to attack them directly.
The dagger does not come with an unlimited number of uses. However, defeated enemies leave behind piles of the Sands of Time, which can be absorbed by the dagger to replenish its stock. This encourages the player to confront and vanquish enemies (as opposed to avoiding them) in order to replenish the power to manipulate time during the more tricky acrobatic sections of the game.