Prince of Persia Preview
The types of threats the Prince and his comely companion will face are going to be different this time around too. The newly outfitted Prince wears a steel gauntlet on his left hand which affords him new moves and manoeuvres, such as grip-sliding down vertical walls. It probably ensures he packs a mean left hook too.
Combat has been juggled about this time too, thank Ormazd. Fighting has unarguably been the Prince’s weak point in past adventures – whether it be the arena-style battles of Sands of Time or the gimmicky stealth attacks of Two Thrones. This time though Ubisoft Montreal is hoping that battles will feel more personal and engaging and the number of enemies is being dialled back to a mere handful.
The new Prince will only be tackling The Corrupted in ones and twos, with fights lasting longer and promising increased drama as the viewpoint jumps around through pre-set cinematic viewpoints that try to showcase the violence in the most stylised way possible.
Of course, the biggest change in the game hasn’t been made to the Prince so much, but is actually the presence of Elika. Elika’s light-based magic attacks are vital in defeating Ahriman’s forces and her agility and independent personality means she’ll never be a burden on the player and will always be there to help out, never to slow down.
Besides, even if she does get in the way once or twice she can just be moved aside with the help of what the developers call the ‘Elika button’, which is how the player will interact with her character for the bulk of the game.
All in all then, the new Prince of Persia looks like it could be the best game in the series yet and if the developers can hold true to their promises and roll up the best of the Sands trilogy with their new highly detailed cel-shaded style and the extra personality afforded by the redesigned Prince and his companion then this could be yet another title to enter our must-have list for this year.
Granted, there’s still a lot of detail to be cleared up in the game and we’re fuzzy on whether the Prince’s arsenal of moves and swords will be upgradeable or completely open – finding a new sword was something we liked an awful lot in the past games – but these are trivial details at best and when the soul of the game seems to be glowing this brightly then we’d be more than willing to accept a dark spot or two.
The new Prince of Persia is set for release on PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 towards the end of this year.
Combat has been juggled about this time too, thank Ormazd. Fighting has unarguably been the Prince’s weak point in past adventures – whether it be the arena-style battles of Sands of Time or the gimmicky stealth attacks of Two Thrones. This time though Ubisoft Montreal is hoping that battles will feel more personal and engaging and the number of enemies is being dialled back to a mere handful.
The new Prince will only be tackling The Corrupted in ones and twos, with fights lasting longer and promising increased drama as the viewpoint jumps around through pre-set cinematic viewpoints that try to showcase the violence in the most stylised way possible.
Of course, the biggest change in the game hasn’t been made to the Prince so much, but is actually the presence of Elika. Elika’s light-based magic attacks are vital in defeating Ahriman’s forces and her agility and independent personality means she’ll never be a burden on the player and will always be there to help out, never to slow down.
Besides, even if she does get in the way once or twice she can just be moved aside with the help of what the developers call the ‘Elika button’, which is how the player will interact with her character for the bulk of the game.
All in all then, the new Prince of Persia looks like it could be the best game in the series yet and if the developers can hold true to their promises and roll up the best of the Sands trilogy with their new highly detailed cel-shaded style and the extra personality afforded by the redesigned Prince and his companion then this could be yet another title to enter our must-have list for this year.
Granted, there’s still a lot of detail to be cleared up in the game and we’re fuzzy on whether the Prince’s arsenal of moves and swords will be upgradeable or completely open – finding a new sword was something we liked an awful lot in the past games – but these are trivial details at best and when the soul of the game seems to be glowing this brightly then we’d be more than willing to accept a dark spot or two.
The new Prince of Persia is set for release on PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 towards the end of this year.
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