Prince Of Persia Preview

by Ashley Buxton - 2008/10/03 4:23am

When Prince Of Persia first appeared on the Apple II back in 1989 you took the role of a young boy, known only as ‘The Prince’. The game spawned two sequels, the third being in 3D and a recent remake of the original known as Prince Of Persia Classic.

Fast forward to 2003 where Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time was released, bringing with it a new prince and exiting new features. These features were the defining features of the game, the ability to run along walls and perform various athletic feats as well as the ability to reverse and slow down time. Once again, the game spawned two sequels both featuring the same time control and athletic abilities, these became known as ‘The Sands Of Time Trilogy”.

We now find ourselves in 2008, with a new Prince Of Persia game on the horizon. This is, once again, a fresh start to the series, featuring an all-new prince an all-new graphic style and new gameplay.

When we found out that Ubisoft were working on a new version of Prince Of Persia,we were ecstatic. That was until we saw the redesign of the main character, a more anime inspired Prince with cel shading to boot. At first there was sceptism, but after seeing the new style in action, we can confirm that the style works incredibly well.

The story begins with The Prince, whom is actually not a prince, but a thief, returning from an adventure, bringing with him a hoard of treasures in which he wishes to use to indulge himself with. Unfortunately for the young thief he is caught up in a major sandstorm. When the sand clears, The Prince finds himself in a strange garden, with a young woman named Elika. This young woman and The Prince agree to partner up as they try to find a way out of the garden.



In the very centre of the garden is a tree of life, however, this tree is destroyed as Ahriman, the God of darkness who begins to spread darkness upon the land. The Prince and Elika then take it upon themselves to defeat this evil and cleanse the land to return it to it’s former beauty.

Possibly the biggest gameplay overhaul would be that the game is no longer a linear affair, you can pick which path to take, this will evolve the story and game in a different way, depending on which route you take. This will surely add a truckload of replayability to the game. Ubisoft promise that no two people will have the same game experience, a bold statement; we can only hope that it lives up to it’s expectations.

Another new feature of the game is the inclusion of your partner, Elika who is with you through the entirety of the game. Elika is promised to be a true partner, unlike previous games where the partner became a burden, Elika will always stay with you and is just as athletic as The Prince himself. With the addition of Elika, The Prince can now pull off new moves, including a type of double jump where Elika will grab you in the air and throw you further.

The game will also implement a “Save Me” system. This means that whenever The Prince is about to die, Elika will come to his rescue and take him back to the last stable platform. The developers state that this is to keep the flow of the game whilst still giving you the feeling that you have died. This ensures that whilst you do not have to look at a “You have died” screen, you still feel the disappointment that every game feels when they fail at making that jump or defeating that enemy.



Which brings me onto my next point, enemies. The battles in Prince Of Persia, unlike the Sands Of Time Trilogy, are only ever against one opponent. This style is much more like the original Prince Of Persia game, where you would have One on One sword fighting duels with enemies. Ubisoft have promised that the enemies will defiantly prove a challenge to the player as they will be just as strong, if not more so, than The Prince and Elika combined. Ubisoft also stated that the reason for this type of battle is to avoid the player from thinking "just another enemy".

The health system works in three stages. The first stage is full health, this is where The Prince is as agile as ever, he is quick and powerful. The next stage is weakened, this happens when The Prince has taken some damage, he will be slower, less agile and weaker. Finally, if you are damaged too much, you will be grounded, Elika will hold off the enemy until you have recovered, however, the enemy will also have recovered. This is another case of getting a game over without interrupting play. Just like when Elika takes you back to a stable platform, it will be like you have gone back to the start of the fight.

Elika will also be around when you are in combat, she will fight along side you to defeat your foe, she fights independently, however, The Prince can unleash a number of deadly attacks with Elika in tandem.

The prince uses a long sword as his primary weapon, this is what you will use to defeat your foes. But with no Dagger of Time in the game, what will The Prince use as a secondary weapon? The answer, spiked gauntlet, worn on his left hand. This gauntlet will be uses for a number of abilities, one of which being the ability to slide down walls, using the claws of the gauntlet, The Prince can grip to the wall, providing a slow and controlled descent.



The game will be using a modified version of the Scimitar engine, the same engine that was used in Assassin’s Creed. This allows more open worlds, giving the non-linear style to the game. Whilst there will be other human characters in the game, there will not be full cities of people like in Assassin’s Creed. Instead, these people will be vital to the story.

With so many changes to the game, it is hard to determine if this game will be the chart topping success that the Prince Of Persia series would be proud of. We certainly hope so. With so many first person shooters flooding the market, it’s getting difficult for games with true originality to stand up to the masses of hyped up sugar junkies looking for some gory frags.

Look out for Prince Of Persia, coming to PS3, X360 and PC this December.