Prince of Persia 2: Crossing swords with Ubisoft's sequel

The Prince is dead, long live the Prince. That's right, you heard us because the Prince, star of the original Sands of Time, begins Prince of Persia 2 under the heaviest of judgements, the sentence of death.

Hunted by the Dahaka, an immortal incarnation of fate which seeks divine retribution for his interference with the Sands of Time, Prince of Persia 2 marks a new, more mature and indeed much darker incarnation for our Arabian Nights hero and we recently journeyed to exotic west London locale to make our own date with fate.

You'll have probably read our recent interview with PoP 2 producer Yannis Mallet, but now it's time to get down and dirty with some of the actual code itself.

Ubisoft, which is producing PoP2 in-house, has certainly listened to fans' criticisms of the original game and appears to have made every effort to address them. The three key areas it identified are the combat system, which it cited as "redundant, repetitive and superficial in depth", the lack of major boss battles and finally, improving the game's replay value. How has the company got on? Well a quick shufty at the game in action reveals... Well you'll just have to read on to find out more.

Prince of Persia 2 opens with an atmospheric cinematic on the Prince's ship as it sails through stormy fate-tossed seas. Suddenly, out of the mist another ship looms into view and it doesn't look like they've come to deliver some Turkish delight, as without further warning, they launch straight into a devastating ship-to-ship boarding action.

The first thing you'll really notice is the signifcant improvement in PoP2's graphics. The developer reckons it has cranked up the performance by about 25 percent over the original Sands of Time engine and from the off, it really shows, with much more detail and sophistication in the environments, improved character models and some excellent ambient and time-based effects.

Still, there's little time to admire the scenery, as while the prince's men repel boarders, the deck is enveloped in flames and rocked by explosions, we launch into the first combat sequence proper, as the Prince goes toe-to-toe with the invaders.

PoP2's new combat method, which has been dubbed the Free Form Fighting System, is soon very much in evidence. For starters, the Prince's left hand has been freed up by the addition of a medallion which collects the Sands of Time, so you now have an extra slot to grab opponents' fallen weapons.

There's plenty of variety in your fallen foes' armaments, with over 63 weapons up for grabs, in one of five distinct categories, and each has one special and rather devastating attack. Be warned though, blocking and fighting makes these weapons degrade, so you'll have to constantly search for secondary arms. However, if you are hard pressed, you can always hurl them at more distant foes.

The Prince also has some splendid disarming moves, so when he gets up close and personal, he can whip a weapon off an enemy and use it right back against them. Most astonishing of all though, are undoubtedly the new decapitation moves, where the Prince vaults and twists clean over his opponent, spins around and it's minus one noggin for the poor, unsuspecting grunt.

We also saw some rather nice wall bounce moves, where the Prince vaults Ninja Gaiden-style half-way up a wall and rebounds to thrust his scimitar into an opponent's vitals - ouch.

Fighting our way through the burning ship's bowels and up onto the fore deck eventually meant we came face to face with one of the Prince's tougher foes. And boy, that saucy, leather-clad-female-pirate-vixen leader sure could fight.

Occasionally, as we duelled with her, the camera moved into extreme close up, as we locked swords in one of PoP2's new interactive cinematic sequences. Here, you have to stab and wiggle on your stick, while engaging in some rip roaring dialogue and repartee. Unfortunately, the conversation pieces weren't enabled for the demo, so we can't reveal too much on how it works in practice.

But it does seem an admirable idea and should mean you're still deeply involved in the gameplay, while allowing the dramatic storyline elements to play out.

Skipping rapidly beyond this boss battle, next we plunged into a sequence where the Prince begins to explore the mysterious, forbidden island which forms the core locale of PoP2. Here we had a chance to check out some of the cool Sands of Time powers, where you can slow down the game world to perform astonishing feats of combat prowess. Ubisoft's intention is to "give more depth to the fight sequences, while keeping the control system accessible" and here it really shows.

As you'd expect, there's plenty of counter-moves, where you're able to launch devastating counters after successful blocks and dodges. However, there's also some choking strangulation moves, plus a time based shockwave which knocks opponents clean off their feet. A pleasing Fast Forward feature also allows you to rewind ten seconds of time, then cue up a series of combos against multiple opponents. The results are not nice, particularly if you happen to be on the receiving end.

We also saw some intriguing examples of how the game's environments will change, as you slip back and forth through the ages. Puzzles solved in one era, open up new possibilities in another, much like the recent Onimusha 3, although obviously without the assistance of Jean Reno.

The game environments change significantly as you journey back and forth through the ages, with ruined desolate interiors suddenly transforming into vibrant living palaces from a bygone era. There was plenty of evidence of a new and more vibrant attitude to puzzle solving too, with puzzles now fully integrated into the game experience, and enemies able to use environmental traps and effects against you as well.

We rounded off the demo with a final look at one of the bigger battles from the first section of the game. Although Ubisoft still wouldn't divulge too much about the boss battles, it has tried to add more variety to your opponents with 12 diverse enemies to face. However, one rather nice section which it did show involved the Prince's battle with a rather large golem.

The golem is definitely not one of the boss characters, but fits in with Ubisoft's intention for more "exotic" standard gameplay and it soon became apparent that normal weapons had no chance of defeating our iron-clad chum. Fresh tactics were required, so avoiding his attacks, the Prince picked his moment and then leapt onto its back, clinging on and riding it like a bucking bronco, before attacking its one weak spot. We'll say no more, but leave the rest to your fevered imaginations.

Anyway, combat over, it was time to check out some of the variations between the various PoP2 versions you'll get to play. The Xbox version of the game will feature dynamic lighting and shadows, as well as two new multiplayer modes for you to enjoy.

Time Attack offers a chance to sweep through the levels, clearing as many enemies as you can in the time limit, while Survival mode is a fight to the finish as you endure waves on enemies and try to be the last man standing. Both modes will allow you to upload scores and achievements to an online game ladder, and Ubisoft also haven't ruled out making extra PoP2 content and maps available via Xbox Live.

We mentioned three improvements in our introduction and the last one to cover was in the area of replay value. Here Ubisoft has implemented four difficulty levels, ranging from the average to the unbelievably insane, which should certainly provide some more challenge.

More mysterious though, was producer Yannis Mallet's comment that "We have a huge thing which we can't talk about yet" and although our best entreaties wouldn't move him, we suspect that it might be something to do with the fact that the Prince won't be alone for the whole game! That's right, don't ask us how we know, we just know, it's our job okay, so let's leave it at that. But we'll be sure to bring you more, once we have complete details.

So, from what we've seen so far, there's every sign that Prince of Persia 2 is shaping up very nicely indeed. The developer has certainly taken on board fans' criticisms from the original Sands of Time and seem to be pushing the boundaries in all the right areas.

The new graphics are certainly show big improvement, the combat system seems to have benefited from some heavy revision with some splendidly gratuitous violence and there's a real impetus to add even more variety, interest and replay value to the normal gameplay.

The game's marketing tag line currently reads "a warrior re-born" and we'll have a chance to check out the final result when Prince of Persia 2 debuts across all formats this very November.

John Houlihan