Overhauling a franchise as celebrated and popular as The Prince Of Persia was always going to be a risky endeavour. Warrior Within garnered a lot of undeserved criticism for darkening the Sands Of Time’s whimsical tone and placing slightly more emphasis on combat, rather than acrobatic puzzlesolving, even though – essentially – both games adhered to the same formula. So kudos to Ubisoft for taking an even bigger risk with the Prince’s fi rst next-gen jaunt. Everything from the graphics to the gameplay of Prince Of Persia 4 has been drastically rethought – there’s even a completely new Prince.

Okami is the fi rst game that springs to mind when glancing over the Prince’s cel-shaded, water-colour aesthetic. Ubisoft’s developers were so impressed with the concept art for Prince Of Persia 4 that they wanted the game’s graphical style to follow their artist’s 2D paintings as closely as possible. So, although POP 4 is using a modifi ed version of Assassin’s Creed’s Anvil engine, its style is still very much rooted in the lavish fantasy world of Arabian Nights and Persian miniatures, rather than the austere realism of Assassin’s Creed.

The Prince himself has also had a drastic makeover. Gone is the impetuous and arrogant glory boy from Sands Of Time; the new nascent Prince is a drifter, traversing the deserts of Persia, and his ragged, swashbuckling appearance refl ects this. Ubisoft says the new Prince is inspired by a variety of characters, including Han Solo, Sinbad, and Aragon from The Lord Of The Rings trilogy.

The Prince’s inspirations may be diverse, but POP 4’s story is rooted in Persian/Iranian mythology – far more so than in previous games. Drawing on the ancient Iranian religion of Zoroastrianism, the narrative is set against the backdrop of a struggle between the Zoroastrian god of light, Ormazd, and his evil brother, Ahriman. The Prince fi nds himself caught up in this fi ght and has to cease the tide of Ahriman’s corrupting infl uence on the world around him. Ahriman’s infection blackens and degrades the area in which it spreads, and once it is pushed back colour and vibrancy seeps into place. It’s a very similar system to how you cleansed Okami’s world from Orochi’s corrupting infl uence, and herein lies POP’s biggest evolution: it’s gone open world.

So instead of embarking on a linear adventure, the player can progress and heal sub-sections of the world in any order they choose. This doesn’t mean we’ll be seeing GTA-style free roaming, and Ubisoft is making it clear that the series’ trademark tight acrobatics and puzzle solving will still be in place. But the story will unfold in a nonlinear manner, with the player deciding which regions of the game world they visit and cleanse.

Combat was always POP’s weak point, and Ubisoft admits that this area of the series woefully trailed behind God Of War during the last generation, so with POP 4 the developer is keen to change its approach. Instead of fi ghting multiple enemies with elaborate combos, POP 4 will focus on one-on-one duels with a solitary, but challenging, opponent. Ubisoft wants every fi ght to feel like a boss battle, with enemies so tough that it’s a task to simply get past them, let alone send them to the grave. And if an enemy is driven off during a fi ght, it may return later to stalk the player and ambush him once again.

POP 4 certainly has some great ideas, and it’s refreshing to see a developer as big as Ubisoft refusing to rest on its laurels with one of its most important IPs. We just hope all the features that endeared POP to gamers in the fi rst place don’t get sidelined in this ambitious overhaul.

Prince Of Persia is being developed by Ubisoft. Check the website for more details: http://prince-of-persia.uk.ubi.com/home.php