Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time/The Maharajah's Treasure Vaults

You’ll now be facing a long gap, go to the wall to your left and use it wallrun across to the other side. Turn right and move forward to the edge of the next gap. Use the right hand wall to wallrun and at the end of the run press the jump button to leap to the next pathway. Now wallrun along the right hand side wall until you get to the enclosed platform. Turn right and face into the wall then run up it and jump off at the peak to grab the lip of the left upper platform. Pull yourself up and go through the curtains.

A cutscene will show you the Dagger of Time behind a glass window and the Hourglass housing the Sands of Time beneath it, finally it will show you the doorway you have to get to leave this chamber. Turn right and wallrun along onto the next platform then wallrun from this platform and jump at the end to land on the platform above the Hourglass. Face the window which looks onto the Dagger and turn left. Run up the wall and pull yourself onto then turn left onto the outcropping part of this platform. Wallrun along to a central platform and from there to the doorway from the cutscene. Pass through it.

A cutscene will play introducing your first trap: A set of three spiky poles moving back and forth along the path you need to follow. The two outer ones move in unison while the central one moves in the exact opposite path. They meet in the middle at each crossing. Just to make it quite clear the tips section will state: AVOID SPIKY POLES. Drop down twice until you’re on the path directly in front of them, pick one and wait for it to reach your end as it’s starts heading back towards the other end follow it, it will reach the end and start coming back – this means the path next to it is of course clear so sidestep into it and run along to the end. If you did take any damage you can drop down via a couple of ledges and replenish your health in the waters below.

Either way you need to position yourself at the left hand wall with your back to the traps. Wallrun along and you’ll land on a ledge on the other side. Walk along to the right until your path is blocked then angle to the right and press the jump button to reach the ledge on the opposite side. Walk forward as far as you can then leap back onto the ledge on the left hand side. Move forward a little on this ledge towards the next platform and two spiky poles will pop up out of the ground. They run back and forth across the edges of the platform, moving in opposing directions. Wait until the one facing you reaches the wall your hugging and starts to move away then step into the space between the two poles. Stay on the left hand wall and move forwards as far as you safely can, again wait until the pole endangering your path reaches the left hand and wall and begins it’s return before moving. Wallrun along the left hand wall when it’s safe and press jump at the end of your run to land on a ledge on the right hand side. If you fall of for some reason you can make your way back to the platform with the two poles on it and use a ledge to get back up and try again, be careful as the poles will still be in motion. Once you’re safely on the ledge move forward onto the platform and go up to the archway.

A cutscene will play showing that the path has been completely destroyed and then moves along the broken wall with three sets of ledges beneath you to show that you’ll have to manoeuvre along it. When it ends drop down to hang of lip of the path and then drop again onto the ledge below. You’ll need to drop again to hang from this ledge to get past the half pillar blocking you from walking along it. As you do this the part of the ledge below that is directly beneath you will crumble and fall away as will a part to the left of the pillar you need to navigate past. Pay these no heed as all of these are timed to be harmless to the Prince and monkey left until under the pillar and keep going left as far as you can. When you reach the break drop down through the break in the middle ledge to grab the bottom one. Pull the Prince up onto it and carry on going left. The ledge will give way before you go very far – when you reach the break climb up to the middle ledge, again left while it gives way until you reach the edge then jump to grab the upper ledge. Keep shimmying left as far as you can – another piece will fall out so you’ll need to drop once more to the middle ledge. Left still until it breaks again and you have to drop to the bottom one, keep left here until it also breaks then back p to the middle one. Left a little bit more then you’ll have to drop the bottom ledge one last time. Walk left along it until you run out of ledge.

A pole should now be visible in the screen to the Prince’s back angle towards and jump from the ledge onto it. Another Cutscene will start by showing you the Dagger atop a massive statue, then coming back to the Prince along the path of Pillars you’ll need to follow to reach the area in front of the statue. Press in the direction of the next pillar and press jump to leap fluidly from pillar to pillar until you reach the fifth one. This one has a base low enough down it for you to be able to jump to the ground so slide down and leap off.

You’ll be in a wide landing area with a low flight of steps up to a plinth on which the statue rests. Use your fps camera view to look at the statue. It’s a man from the torso up with his arms across his chest one hand raised above the other. You’ll need to navigate up these hands and then onto his right (screen left) shoulder to get up to the top of his head. OK, run up the stairs – there’s a fountain to the right at the top them if you’ve taken any damage that you haven’t had a chance to heal yet. Run up the edge of the plinth and pull yourself up onto it. Go and stand in front of the statue’s lower hand. You might want to break the box on the ground here as well. Run up it’s wrist and onto it’s forearm. Turn right to face into it’s elbow and run up the wall made by it’s inner upper arm, at the peak of the run jump to land on or at least grab hold of his other hand. Run left and then up the wall made again by it’s inner upper arm and pull yourself up onto it’s shoulder. Mover around and stand next to and facing it’s head. You now need to run up the side of the head and leap at the peak, when you hit the wall on the other side you need to jump again, carry on triangle jumping up the side until you reach the top of the statue’s head, it shouldn’t be more than seven jumps tops.

When you get to the top move towards the Dagger of Time and you’ll trigger a cutscene showing the Prince pick it up and a boulder start to fall towards him. Thanks to him fiddling with the Dagger he’ll trigger the Power of Revival and rewind just before it hits him. Forewarned he jumps back and lets the boulder simply destroy a part of the platform. Picking up the Dagger has caused the place to start collapsing but it’s all timed so the Prince won’t take damage however long you wait. Still there’s no point in sticking around so jump through the doorway to the left of the statue’s head and you’ll land in a corridor. Most of the floor will now collapse revealing a field of spikes down below. Go out to the end of the part you’re on and wallrun along the left wall. Leap from the wall when you can onto a central remaining part on the right hand wall. Now use the right hand wall to run along and jump off onto a more stable corridor. As you land two sets of spiky pole traps will wake up. The first one you have to deal with consists of three spiky poles moving back and forth across the path. They’re quite slow and there’s a lot of space in between them so just pay attention and you’ll be fine. You also now have three sand tank to rewind with if you do mess up. Navigate past this first set by again waiting for them to be leaving where you’re standing to give yourself the most time to make it across. Once past this trap you’ll now be facing the second – this one is a wall of five spiky poles moving in unison up and down the corridor. Go to the right hand wall and wait until they reach your position Then as they move away from you follow them until you reach an alcove on the right and duck into it. They’ll start their return and when they go past where you are run out and past them. Drop down and you’ll be next to the very first set of spiky pole traps that you encountered. Renavigate past them and climb up the wall you first dropped down to re-enter the Hourglass room. Trigger a long Cutscene during which the Prince and co travel to Azad, Unleash the Sands of Time and generally **** everything up. After the pre-rendered cutscene gives way to the in-game one watch to see where the only person smart enough to try and stop the Sands being unleashed runs. When she and a couple of other as yet unaffected people have left the hallway you’re in you get your first fight against Sand Creatures. This is a very simple fight with never more than three enemies at a time. There’ll be a short break in between the first five and the remaining seven as well so if you can move the fight down to the end of the room in front of the bay windows you’ll find a pool you can take advantage of. In this fight you’ll get a wave of three short brown wearing sword bearing opponents and two red wearing spear carriers, a lull then five more of the swordsmen and another two of the spear carriers. As you fight the women who tried to stop the release of the Sands of Time will call out to you telling you how to finish off your enemies once you’ve knocked them down. When it’s over a cutscene will take over and the Prince will enter the Sand Storm under his own control. You’ll be shown a vision of some upcoming platforming and then be given the option to save.