With more swashbuckling than the whole Indiana Jones trilogy combined, Ubisofts super-slick Prince Of Persia was one of last years most fun and inventive platform games. But by introducing a darker story and forcing his royal highness to fight for his life at every turn, this moody sequel has lost a little of the series daredevil charm.
This time the gameplay is more focused on fighting than exploration, evolving the frustrating swordplay of the first adventure and allowing players to link together acrobatic moves and create graceful, Matrix-style attacks where running along a wall, backflipping over an enemy and slicing their head off mid-
jump is perfectly possible.
But even though the tweaked combat makes for a more exciting adventure, fans of the series may long for more of the intrepid exploration and puzzle-solving that made earlier Persia games so spellbinding.