First Impressions: Sand makes the Prince angry. You wouldn’t like him when he’s angry.
All hail the Prince, for he will be returning in this third and final chapter of the story that began with Sands of Time (but fear not: only the story is concluding, and Ubisoft has already stated that the Prince will return in new adventures). After kicking countless monster butts and saving his kingdom in the previous two games, the Prince just wants to settle down in Babylon with his honey bunny Kaileena, the Empress of Time. Unfortunately, upon his return he discovers evil lurking in the city, where his own people have mysteriously turned against him. To save the Prince, Kaileena sacrifices herself – and since she also is the vessel for the Sands of Time, those pesky granules are released upon the city once more. The sacrifice works in that it saves the Prince, but the Sands quickly contaminate and infect his people, his army, and the Prince himself. Fortunately, the infection doesn’t get a chance to completely take over, but now whenever the Prince becomes emotionally stressed, he undergoes a Hulk-like transformation into the Dark Prince. Prince smash! Fortunately, water will help him cool down and suppress the effects of the infection.
Appropriately, the Dark Prince will have a creepy look resembling a Sands-infected creature and will have different abilities from his normal self. Both versions of the Prince will share the same basic moves like jumping, wall running and so on, but the regular Prince will specialize in acrobatics while the Dark Prince is more keen on killing. For example, the Dark Prince is armed with the daggertail, a deadly chain with a nasty hook blade on the end of it that can be used to disarm enemies or yank them around like Scorpion from Mortal Kombat. Ouch. He can also use the chain to latch onto ledges and swing around like Spider-Man.
In between chopping up monsters, saving his people (again) and fixing the Sand infection (again), the Prince will get a chance to try out some new moves. For example, a new semi-stealth option will be available to handle those situations where you want to keep things on the down low. The game actually uses some of the same AI routines found in Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory but don’t expect to be a Babylonian version of Sam Fisher; being “stealthy” essentially will mean killing enemies before they can alert their buddies – and it looks pretty cool. For example, the Prince can wall run and jump at an enemy and snap his neck while still in the air; in another instance, the Prince can hang upside down from a ladder and grab an enemy Sam Fisher style and give him a permanent chiropractic adjustment. When the Dark Prince is being sneaky, he can use his daggertail to strangle enemies, or simply cut their throats.
However, it won’t just be a matter of sneaking up to someone and hitting the attack button. The speed kills have changed dramatically; if you catch someone by surprise, the action will automatically slow down and a prompt will appear on the screen. If your attack manages to kill the enemy within this time period, he dies – but if you screw up, you may end up on the wrong end of a sword. The new speed kill system will also be required to dispatch certain bosses, so it’s something the Prince had better be good at.
Another cool new feature will be the chariot races. Not much information has been released about this yet, but the prospect of going Ben Hur on some bad guys sounds pretty darn exciting indeed.
The game itself will be a blend of Sands of Time and Warrior Within. The levels will be open and free roaming, and will primarily take place outdoors in the massive city of Babylon. Babylon’s design, which was inspired by real Middle Eastern cities like Cairo and Marrakech, looks exotic and realistic thanks to Ubisoft’s preproduction team in Casablanca, who drew upon their own first-hand experiences to flesh out the design. I wonder if we’ll see Rick’s place in the game?
The city is designed in layers, with the top level providing ample opportunity to perform breath-taking acrobatic jumps from rooftop to rooftop. The upper levels are where the rich and prosperous reside, with the poor shunted to the dark, claustrophobic and maze-like streets below. You will even be able to pay a visit to the mythical Tower of Babel complete with the famed Hanging Gardens.
The gameplay will continue the free-form fighting and action/platforming/puzzle solving pacing of Warrior Within, but fans will be happy to know that the controversial music and voice acting from Warrior Within is toast and will instead be more like Sands of Time.
