In recent years Prince of Persia has re-emerged as one of the headliner franchises of the video-game industry, thanks to 2003's excellent Sands of Time. The follow-up, Warrior Within, met with mixed reviews (we were lukewarm here at GameSpy). But I'm pleased to report that the final game of the trilogy, Prince of Persia 3, seems solidly rooted in the mix of exploration, combat, and strong level design that made the original such a hot property. We saw more of the game firsthand at the Leipzig Games Convention, where we learned more about the hero and his dark alter ego.
The story has our Prince returning to his home of Babylon, only to find his city being occupied and terrorized. When the Empress of Time is murdered before his eyes, the sands of time spill out and infect everything nearby. This turns the occupying soldiers of the city into varying degrees of demonic monsters -- no surprise there -- but the twist this time around is that the Prince himself is infected.
This affliction manifests itself as "The Dark Prince," a physical embodiment of all of the Prince's weaker (and sinister) characteristics. The Dark Prince moves and fights completely differently from our hero, and possesses his body in times of emotional stress or weakness. It's kinda like the Incredible Hulk, but less incredible and more ... gruesome.
The steets and rooftops of Babylon are your battlefield.
As a player, you'll have no control over when you transform into the Dark Prince -- cataclysmic or emotional events will happen to trigger the change -- but you'll be able to change back by wading into the waters of life. It's important to find a healing pool fast, since the Dark Prince's health will slowly drop over time and can only be replenished by stealing Sands of Time from dead enemies.
The combat system has been tweaked for Prince of Persia 3, giving you more options for slaying foes. New to the game is the ability to "speed kill" unsuspecting opponents with a single, devastating blow if you're able to sneak up on them. This is handy if you don't have the patience for a fair fight, or in any of several areas where guards will call in reinforcements if they see you coming.
Of course, the Dark Prince has some combat tricks of his own up his sleeve. Or actually, as his sleeve, in this case: just prior to getting infected with the Sands of Time, a barbed chain known as the Daggertail wrapped around the Prince's arm. It stopped the infection from taking over his whole body, albeit at the cost of terrible pain. As the Dark Prince, however, you can pull off the Daggertail and use it in combat: whipping enemies from afar, using it to interact with the environment, or strangling guys with it from behind. The Dark Prince has no scruples.
The city of Babylon is your battlefield this time around, and one of the things that impressed us the most about the demo was the vastness of the city. Down below you'll be fighting in narrow, darkened alleyways littered with barrels and abandoned market stalls. Farther up is a maze of windows, balconies, and ledges. Above that you'll find rooftops of varying heights, the tallest of which provide panoramic views of the sprawling city below, under siege and burning. The Prince is at his finest leaping from rooftop to rooftop, coming down on unsuspecting enemies from above. Graphically, it looked spectacular, and from what we saw it looked like the level design might equal (or even surpass!) the original.
You won't just traverse the city on foot. Although it's not a major part of the game, there are a couple of chariot sequences in it. The designers really wanted to get across the feeling of the Prince being hunted, so in one sequence we witnessed, the Prince steals an enemy chariot and races toward the city and ultimately through a meandering maze of streets. The action here was blazing fast, like Ben Hur meets The Matrix: Enemies leapt from balconies to grab onto the Prince's chariot -- sometimes dragging in the sand behind him -- while he frantically beat them back. Later in the game you'll apparently need to fight a boss from the back of a chariot. It looks like these sequences will help break up the action, even if they won't be a major game element.
The big guy here is gonna require a little 'finesse...'
Speaking of boss fights, get ready for some pretty huge encounters. Many of the invading army generals have been corrupted by the Sands of Time, and during our demo we saw one of them camped out in a coliseum. That is to say, he filled the coliseum. He was several stories high. Our Prince dodged nimbly aside as he smashed the earth with a massive scimitar, then clambered up the walls to higher and higher platforms before leaping onto the monster's shoulders. While the General thrashed around, the Prince nimbly scampered along his shoulders and neck, then -- thanks to a swift speed kill move -- he leapt around the enormous head and stabbed out one of the creature's eyes. After a couple of these little maneuvers the Prince was fighting a blinded enemy, a much easier proposition. It was the kind of big epic conflict that reminded us of God of War.
But the real story here isn't about the Prince defeating tons of enemies. Prince of Persia 3 is about the young punk we saw in Sands of Time finally learning what it means to be a King. The people of Babylon are reaching out to him for help, and for once The Prince has to learn to think about someone other than himself. His way to becoming a savior to the people is a difficult struggle, filled with setbacks -- often taking physical form as the Dark Prince -- but the trilogy looks like it will end with the Prince finally earning his royal title and the respect of the people he governs.
We have high hopes for this one, which should be available late this year. Stick around to GameSpy for more coverage!
when i read the title of this thread...
