Prince of Persia 3D Preview

Weapons and Fighting

Thresh's comments in BLACK

CalBear's comments in BLUE

Combat!

As for the fighting element, the prince will have several weapons at his disposal, once he finds some that is (you start off with no weapons). One of these is a bow with a variety of magical arrows. These include sandstorm arrows to blind enemies, swarm arrows that call in wasps (sorta like Requiem's angelic power), possession arrows to control an enemy, and ice arrows to freeze enemies.

A leap of faith

The rest are hand to hand weapons like swords, staff weapons, and what the designers call "double blades." The double blades are more or less equivalent to two short swords, but the ones we saw featured long crescent blades going crosswise over the knuckles with spikes on each end. Each weapon has it's own strengths and weaknesses. The bow is more or less a sniper weapon, but is not appropriate for hand to hand battle. The swords are good all around weapons, while the staff weapons have extra long range, but are slower. The double blades are quick, close in weapons, but lack range.

Fighting Strategy

The designers' aim was to make combat simple, but force you to use real sword fighting techniques. You're not going to find yourself having to do complicated button combinations like Street Fighter or Bushido Blade, but button bashing won't help you either (**cough**Killer Instinct**cough**).

Don't slip!

There are about 3 different ways you can attack with your weapon - left, overhead, and right. You can also initiate feints, and of course, block. Doesn't sound that complicated but each enemy will have a specific kind of AI that needs to be attacked differently. Some will be hyper aggressive, so you just have to block block block and wait for an opening. Some enemies are really passive and block all the time - you'll need to rely on feints to catch them off guard. Don't forget that each weapon has its own strengths and weakenesses so you'll need to keep those in mind too.