You'll find a number of reviews on here that will classify Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time as 'extremely difficult' and 'overrated'. I am definately in those camps. I honestly have no idea why this game is so highly rated. Maybe it was so much better than anything else that was out at the time? Maybe people were stunned by the graphics or the *unique* gameplay? (I pained me to use that phrase.) Whatever the case, this game does not hold up. AT ALL.
I tried PoP:SoT a few years ago, as a retro gamer, I it didn't take long for me to become extremely frustrated with the gameplay. You had to be so incredibly precise in order to pull off feats that are so much easier in modern games. Jumping from wall to wall to get up a narrow corridor requires machine-like precision. Lesser enemies can only be killed by vaulting over them, but you can only do this when you're facing them in a very precise way. There is absolutely no clear indication of when you are perfectly in the right spot 'in front of them' to achieve this. Most of the time, when you think you are, your character just jumps in the air like an idiot. And what were they thinking making the roll away button and the jump button the same? This makes things incredibly frustrating. I've never played a third-person adventure before that didn't make the roll-away the circle button. This one has that button put your sword away? Why is this even an option when it just makes it easier for enemies to kill you? And who designs a game where pretty much ever interaction is one of the tigger buttons? Specifically R1. You know there are more button that can be used, right? Spread it out for god sakes. And don't try to be different and assign functions to buttons that nobody else does. There's a reason why it works that way and people like it that way.
When I tried PoP:SoT a few years later, I got a little further, but still had the same frustrations. You can never tell when the guy is going to run or walk when he needs to. You can never tell if he's actually going to jump onto and off the wall at the right time, or do it at the wrong time and accomplish nothing, or not jump onto it at all. Your character feels like he's made of rubber, he's constantly bouncing off of things when he shouldn't be. This just makes the game way more difficult than it needs to be and completely takes the fun out of it.
What did it in for me this time was the battle with your father (spoiler alert), which is maybe 45 minutes into the game. If you try to roll away from an enemy, you roll into them. Not only do you have to deal with the precision of trying to vault over the easier enemies, but that won't work on the tougher ones. Those I guess you're not supposed to attack from head on, but from the side or back? Not exactly sure how this is accomplished when the graphics are so clunky that, again, there's no clear indication as to what consitutes the 'side' or 'back' of an enemy, or, at the very least, how to access that part of them. Especially when they're constantly turning in your direction. On top of that, if the enemies surround you (which they constanly will, since you have to sit still to 'finish' all the enemies permanently), you will get swamed and have no way out. They will just pummel you until you're dead. And your moron character will do nothing to try and get up or roll away. And the button assignments being in such weird places compared to most other games just makes things even worse. From what I"ve heard, if you do make it to the father, he's even harder.
This series' gameplay just did not speak to me at all. I have no idea how people get through it without complete and utter frustration. The graphics are nothing special and neither is the story. The rolling-back time feature is inventive, but is ultimately poitnless, as, if you die, you just start from a recent checkpoint anyway. Some of the parkour stuff has it's moments, but that's about it. They rest is pretty much garbage.
I think I may have played a bit of the others in the series and remember it just being more of the same crap. To me, there's work and them there's play. Video games are playtime. Once it becomes work, then there's no point in playing it. If you're part of the Dark Souls crowd and love a stiff challenge, here's your series. If you just want to have fun, like a game should be, look elsewhere, because the developers of this series left that component out.