After reinvigorating the classic Prince of Persia with Sands of Time, this new version doesn't add much mechanically (unless you count sporadic battles) but builds more on the aesthetics. Much has been made of the painted art style featured in Prince of Persia, but while the visuals are demonstrably attractive, it's the Prince's new partner Elika who really takes our breath away. Part of this is because of her endearingly animated interactions with the Prince, but she also holds her own during combat and fills a crucial role in the overall gameplay.
The Heart of the Matter
As opposed to Sands of Time's temporal roll-back mechanic to keep the Prince from plummeting to a torturous end (always a risk with the acrobatic style of platforming common to the series), Prince of Persia has Elika to pluck the Prince back from the abyss. Elika can also pitch in by extending the Prince's jumps by giving him a boost mid-leap as a modified sort of double-jump.
If you are confused about where to go next, Elika can help direct you by conjuring a luminescent globe that floats along the most reasonable path. And during the infrequent combat sequences, Elika serves a fundamental role by providing magical attacks that can be woven into the Prince's combos, sometimes extending them.
Elika's assistance is great, but it's her interactions with the Prince that flesh out both of their characters and make them feel human. Elika shadows the Prince closely, so they have to switch places fairly routinely (like when the Prince has to backtrack along a precarious cleft in a sheer cliff face). Elika will clutch the Prince's hand and swing beneath him to get to the other side, maintaining eye contact with hin the entire time. When perching on a thin beam, the Prince and Elika will clasp each others' hands and twirl in a half-circle to shift positions in a move that seems more like dancing than repositioning. Whenever the Prince climbs onto vine-coated walls, Elika wraps her arms around his neck and clings to his back, which usually elicits a, %26quot;wow, you're heavier than you look%26quot; from the Prince.
The Prince's snide comments are actually a pretty common occurrence, and it seems that this new Prince is flippant in most of his responses and general attitude. He's always complaining or whining about something, but his slightly coy demeanor hints that his comments may be an ineffectual stab at flirting with Elika. Ultimately, the banter and physical interaction between Elika and the Prince go a long way in characterizing both as individuals.
While Sands of Time followed a linear path for progression, Prince of Persia offers some degree of freedom. There are four major areas that stretch out from a central hub; we played through the one called the City of Light. Consisting of six zones, the City of Light offers yawning canyons and crumbling towers ripe for the kind of gymnastic traversal that should be familiar to fans of the series.
While all of the four major areas are open to you from the beginning of the game, you will need to earn new powers for Elika in order to proceed deeper into most of them. The Temple of Ormazd (named for the deity that provides Elika's magic and is supposed to be watching over the land) serves as the hub from which the major areas extend, but it also serves a secondary purpose.
Once you've cleansed an area of the taint left by the evil Ahriman (the game's chief antagonist), glowing balls of energy will appear that can be collected and redeemed for new powers back at the Temple of Ormazd. There are four powers that Elika can earn: Breath of Ormazd, Wings of Ormazd, Hand of Ormazd and Step of Ormazd. These powers are designed to help the Prince and Elika reach places they wouldn't ordinarily be able to get to. The Breath of Ormazd gives the Prince the ability to sprint along walls, defying gravity for a short period of time, while the Hand of Ormazd functions as a kind of magical grappling hook which Elika can use to swing the Prince around corners. So, although you generally have your run of the environment, Prince of Persia still requires you to spend some time searching around in order to unlock all of its nooks and crannies.
The City of Fight
Each of the zones in the major areas has at least one combat opportunity, and in contrast to previous games, Prince of Persia's battles feel more like boss or mini-boss fights. Due to the rarity of these physical altercations, the combat system has been expanded to make fights more of an event in and of themselves. As a result, Prince of Persia's encounters feel more intimate than in previous iterations.
The Prince has three main attacks, consisting of a sword slash, a glove grapple and an acrobatic leap, and Elika supplies a fourth magical attack. These attacks can be chained together as in most combat systems, but Prince of Persia gives you significantly more freedom because it doesn't necessarily limit the length of your combos. Once you've begun a combo, you can follow the prescribed combination of attacks to the combo finisher or you can get creative and use an alternate attack to branch into a new combo.
The flow of combat has been slowed somewhat to give you enough time to decide what your next move will be. Dilating time a bit between each attack slows the pacing, lending Prince of Persia's combat some gravity and generally making the whole experience feel nuanced and deliberate.
Having Elika at your back means that you are almost never in any real danger though, so at worst you are only blocked from progressing any further. If one of Ahriman's henchmen pummels you into submission, Elika will leap in between you to magically block the coup de grace. This effectively nullifies the consequences of failure, so we're a bit worried that this mechanic might end up making the combat system too easy.
After several hours with Prince of Persia, we emerged victorious from the City of Light, having soundly trounced six of Ahriman's monstrous minions... but we were still ready for more. This intoxicating blend of well-paced combat, intricately engineered environmental traversals and witty banter between the Prince and Elika seems very promising. Still, keeping the action fresh over the entire game could prove difficult, so it remains to be seen if the new Prince of Persia can pull that off.
Can't say i agree with you Astaldar, personally I hate punishing gameplay and liked both the Vita-chambers in Bioshock and the Knock-out system in Fable II.
although no punishment whatsoever for failure might be a bit to much, i prefer that to retrying a thousand times.
I don't get the lack of a death penalty in some of these games...Bioshock had the VitaChambers of course, but the game's greatness overshadowed that problem. I'd like to hear Ubisoft's reasoning behind this...is it simply just an attempt to appeal to casual gamers?