Prince Of Persia - updates

Ok here's the latest dope on Prince Of Persia 2008... I just saw a developer explain the difference between this game and the Sands of Time trilogy in detail; so I'm sharing the latest developments with you now.

Gameplay has undergone several changes, as listed below.
#1 Prince: The most significant among these is the fact that the Prince no longer has a life meter: if ever he gets beaten to death, Elika (secondary charachter) will restore him to the last safe landing that he reached. This forms a kind of running checkpoint system and the Prince never runs out of stamina. Now I found this kinda odd, cos role playing games in which the player could die have a charm of their own. Lets see how this affects the game. I think it should significantly shorten gameplay for people with advanced neurokinetics.

#2: World: The Sands of Time trilogy had only 1 path the player had to follow in order to complete the game. The new POP game has a world with different sectors; kinda like sectors in the NFS world. And the player can choose which area he wants to cleanse Ahriman's corruption (read storyline from previous post). So one is free to choose his own path to finish the game. The areas unlocked are also subject to the magical abilities of Elika.

#3: Elika: For the first time we have a secondary charachter, who works as a life-saver, guardian, guide and secondary attack assist for the Prince. Not only does she help him unravel the world with her magical abilites (she is one of Ohrmazd's chosen warriors: again read the storyline), she is integral to providing a complete background of the game and charachters. Some of her inherent magical abilities include the teleport, the guide and her co-op jump ability; the last allowing her to project herself while the prince is jumping, to allow him to scale larger distances. Her magical abilities are enhanced by collecting a currency of light spheres in the game, and then trading them in at the tree of life for new abilities for Elika. Not to mention that the game now features more enhanced fight combos and sequences... the developer said it was possible to do a 15 hit combo on the new fighting system.. jeepers!

#4: Fighting system: No more unlocking any athletics or secret weapons; the Prince starts out with a full knowledge of all his abilities and the most powerful weapon he can afford. The developers have also removed the concept of an all-powerful combo, which means the player has to figure out what attack combo to use in what scenario. This makes for more interesting gameplay. Also, bosses aren't killed outright in this game; the hunter (Ahriman's bounty hunter) confronts the Prince at numerous points in the game, and each time the Prince has to bat him off the edge of the cliff, cos killing him is notoriously difficult. The Prince uses a sword and a claw in battle, making the game more Devil May Cry:4 like in its combos; however the combos he does while jumping and along with Elika are a new benchmark in this genre of game. Understandable too, if one considers the fact that Elika is as skilled as the Prince in combat, in addition to being a powerfully magical person. Using such a person as a secondary weapon can produce quite a deadly set of combos.

Watch this space for more updates. In the meantime, for those of us who liked the old POP artworks, theres a new developer video in which artwork of the Prince, Elika and the hunter is done. Check them out!