Gameplay - Combat

One of the best things about the game is combat. The combat sequences actually come with some middle-eastern themed rock music which adds to the mood.

The prince is armed with a sword and a dagger - The Dagger of Time. The prince can perform an array of moves and it is surprising how the simple WASD keys and two mouse buttons can make such beautiful fluid combinations of combat moves. Kudos to the guys that did the programming!

The prince gets to walk around with the usual WASD keys while the mouse buttons are generally for slash and block purposes. However, not all enemy attacks can be blocked. When it comes to attacks that you can block, you can even do a counter-attack, right after blocking the attack!

The prince can vault or roll, depending on the situation. When he is facing an enemy, the Space key actually makes him vault over the enemy. However, the tougher enemies won't let you vault over them at all.

So, if surrounded by these enemies, you can move the prince in a different direction, where there is an empty space. In this situation, the Space key will make him roll instead. This move is rather tricky as there have been occasions where I intended to roll but ended up vaulting instead and got the prince hit badly in the process. If he gets completely surrounded, this usually means death.

Another fancy move is the wall-rebound attack. If you are backed up against a wall, you can actually bounce off it and slash the enemy!

The hostiles in this game are generally all slow and sluggish, like they just woke up. However, the bigger ones do pack a mean slash and their combo slash attacks can really take a lot of the prince's health away. They may not slash all the way but once they slash, you'd better be prepared! And to make things worse, they are really good at blocking your attacks.

Incidentally, once you make them kiss the floor, you will need to finish them off with a final move - stab them with the Dagger of Time to retrieve the sand from them which ends their existence. You will have a few seconds to stab them before they rise up again.

All in all, the hostiles do provide a nice challenge in the game. Fear not if you feel overwhelmed by the number of hostiles. You actually have a helper in the game!

Her name is Farah. She is an archer, which is rather helpful sometimes. On the other hand, she did force me to RETRY the game quite a few times as she is also vulnerable to the monster attacks. Do remember to take care of her as she likes to stay stationary.