Let's be honest. Whether you're a die-hard games vet of many years or a first-time console owner with no prior gaming knowledge, everybody has, to some extent, at least heard of the Prince Of Persia series. The first game was launched way back in 1989, and it reinvented the side-scrolling platformer into something that required a little bit more thought and skill. Thus the adventure game was born. The title set a benchmark for the future of gaming, in terms of both game content and stunning on-screen visuals. By animating over video footage, players were enthralled by a realistic character actually running, leaping, and skidding to a halt. Much like the titular Sands Of Time enable us to in the game, we'll now fast forward 15 years to the latest instalment in the series, where again the game sets out to further push gaming innovation.

First impressions bode very well. The backstory is teasingly introduced through lush-looking cutscenes, and this sets a precedent for the rest of the game. Told from the Prince's point of view, the story unfolds in dramatic, cinematic episodes interspersed between levels. Events play out in an ethereal, almost dream-like state, and this is brilliantly mirrored by the in-game graphics. The music is more captivating than a snake charmer’s flute, with the scale of the battles on a par with Lawrence of Arabia.

The story begins with our Prince aiding his father (the King, obviously) in his quest to conquer the lands of, well, Persia. After a successful raid on the city of a wealthy Sultan, assisted by a mysterious Vizier within the city walls, the Prince is assigned to locate the Maharajah's treasure, only to have the walls collapse behind him as he enters the palace.

And so begins our hero's quest to locate a mysterious dagger, the centrepiece of the treasure trove, and escape from the entombing palace. The first thing you'll notice upon entering the palace is the size of the levels. Each room is truly immense, with huge dimensions often numbering hundreds of feet long and high, with each individual setting or group of connecting rooms acting as an individual set of puzzles or tasks. These range from the relatively simple (get to the other side of the room using a multitude of ledges) to the more taxing. The huge amount of space is put to great use, and the fab level design means you get to experience every inch of it. You're led by the hand through early levels, thanks to the hints that pop up as and when you need them. If any hardcore gamers out there scoff at this, they should think again. The huge variety of moves at your disposal and sheer scale and complexity of each level mean this is initially vital. The pointers eventually peter out, but so subtly the player doesn't really realise they're being forced to think laterally, to solve puzzles, until afterwards. This really is an intelligent way to introduce new ideas into the game without spoiling the learning curve.

The character animation is astounding, with our hero's movement smooth and remarkably lifelike. The Prince’s gymnastic ability is one of the pivotal features of the gameplay, enabling him to access areas unreachable by any other human being. These are elegant and graceful, and look fluid enough to almost seem accomplishable in real life, like the way the Prince scampers along walls in a Matrix, Trinity-esque way to cross large gaps.

Combat, too, benefits from this fantastic movement. The Prince's fighting moves are based around his athletic prowess, and are easily pulled off with simple one-two-button combos. Rebound off walls, roll out of danger or, impressively, perform an outlandish, and very theatrical, bullet time vault over the Prince's opponents. Has this guy got a thing for Trinity or what?

As well as looking cool, this gives you the chance to get out of a sticky situation and attack enemies from behind in a very effective way. But beware, because the opposition's AI is surprisingly good and they get wise pretty quickly if you frequently repeat attacks and moves. Although this means the actual action of fighting remains relatively rudimentary, the technique is pretty complex. Block their attacks with the handy guard move, then time a counter attack between their blows.

And so the story continues. After you find the dagger, the King is given an hourglass which, we discover, contains the titular Sands Of Time. The Vizier encourages the Prince and King to unlock the hourglass using the dagger, but they're unaware of the power that will be unleashed. The King, caught in the blast, is instantly turned to sand, while all others are turned into vicious undead beasts (think the skeletons from Jason and The Argonauts, only well animated), all keen to get their rotting hands on your dagger. And here, now the Sands are released, is where the gameplay is significantly enhanced. Because you possess the sacred knife, you are able to control the sands themselves, and the repercussions of this are many and wide-ranging.

Firstly, you now have at your disposal the ability to rewind short periods of time. The dagger has several ‘sand tanks" which can be filled either by dispatching an enemy and drawing out the sand from within them, or finding it scattered throughout the levels. The dagger can hold three tanks, which can be upgraded to five by collecting 16 quantities of sand in a row. If you make a mistake whilst traversing a wall for instance, or fatally come up short on that leap over a pit of spikes, then a hold of the Left trigger results in the last few seconds of the Prince's life being rewound faster than you can say C-raaaig David. Because each use consumes one you theoretically have three, four or five chances per level to get past a problem. This really does enhance the gameplay, made all the more impressive by the fact the Xbox hard drive continuously records the game as you play through, facilitating an instant playback at any given time. Believe us, Blinx never looked this good.

The time manipulation again comes into play during combat. Tapping the Y button will stab any nearby opponent and leave them frozen, unguarded to your attacks. The Left trigger slows everything down as the screen takes on a dream-like haze, although this isn't of that much use, because you too are proportionally slowed down, so attacks are just as tricky. Once you have five full sand tanks however, both triggers will freeze everything on screen, letting you dice the bad guys at your leisure. Although this may sound like an easy cop-out of basic swordplay, the intelligent AI and the multiple enemies mean this is no easy feat, plus one use of the multi-freeze drains your entire reserve of sand. For the more impatient types among you, the Power of Haste allows the Prince to move and attack at double-speed as well, yet thankfully the speeded-up fights look more Blade and less Benny Hill.

Now you are attuned to the ways of time, level exploration becomes easier. At each save point are glowing beams of light and sand that, when passed through, give a brief glimpse of the future; the future that is, of you successfully completing the level ahead. Drenched in stylish sepia, these teasingly short series of split-second images effectively show you what is required to get past the upcoming traps. They're invaluable for making rapid progress and, although the player may know what to do, the execution is an entirely different matter. You could bypass these visions and work things out for yourself, but the later visions are vital.

To get an alternative POV for our POP, two additional cameras are available. The first-person perspective can pick out every detail of the room, whilst a second camera gives a general overview of the room. However, these both suffer from one major drawback; the camera is operated via the Right thumbstick, but due to the positioning of the buttons on the controller, it's very awkward to keep the button depressed whilst looking around the room. It's instinctive for the player to look around with the Left thumbstick, but this only reverts back to the normal view, causing several frustrated attempts at looking around and it can become tiresome.

In addition to the future flashes, the game's scenery and environment really help the player to make substantial progress. Clues of what to do next are in the game, when a sometimes slightly restrictive camera won't let you see exactly where to go or what to do next. If you're eyeing up that pole in the distance to swing onto, think again, because the part of the bar that is sticking out perpendicularly is there for a reason. It may well turn out than you need to head in that direction to safety, although, once again, awkward camera angles don't really help.

The story continues, with the mysterious and beautiful Farah (who also survived the sandy explosion) rapidly becoming the object of the Prince's affection. The great voiceover helps this immensely and the dialogue is intelligent and well scripted, without even the merest whiff of stilton about it. After pursuing her through several levels, you quickly team up, and work together to get through many more puzzles. The dialogue keeps things snappy, and successfully conveys the way the Prince is torn between love and mistrust.

So what's wrong with Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time? Surely a platformer can't be that interesting? Well, not that much really, and actually, it can. Sure, the camera can cause a bit of a problem sometimes, but all third-person actioners (with maybe the exception of Splinter Cell) suffer the same fate to varying degrees. The combat can be a bit frustrating, like when you're trying to fight multiple enemies, and draw out sand from the fallen ones, only to be left completely open to attack as you do. This all pales in significance, however, when you start to appreciate both the huge scale and sheer beauty of the game. The levels are massive, and there are 42 (count 'em) of them. The graphics, from the hazily lit, gorgeous-looking environments to the fantastic character movement, are some of the best we've seen on Xbox, and really do enhance the experience of playing the game. The puzzle-solving side of things is taxing without being annoyingly hard, and varied enough to not become tedious.

If you're after intriguing and innovative gameplay complemented by gorgeous graphics, or you just have some fond memories of the earlier games, then you'll not do any better than this. The Prince can now take his rightful seat as the new King of platformers. Truly outstanding.

1. Amazing graphics
2. Very cinematic and atmospheric
3. Fluid animation
4. Looks incredible!
5. Fantastic use of time manipulation

1. Camera can be a bit awkward sometimes

Power
Gorgeous environments, fantastic animation and play is recorded for instant playback. Top marks.

Style
Dreamy visuals, intelligent voiceover and cool incidental music, all creating a great atmosphere.

Immersion
Extremely well-balanced mix of gradual tutorial and player intuition. You'll be hooked.

Lifespan
Fairly linear gameplay means there is limited replayability, but it take a fair while to get through it all.

Summary
A consummate adventure that is made all the more impressive by the novel time twisting gameplay.