Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands

Sure, Ubisoft's not afraid to break things up with the odd clockwork puzzle, and it occasionally drops you down into a little enemy-riddled arena tucked in amongst the finials and rooftops. That's a small price to pay, however, especially when you discover that you can hop onto the heads of some enemies in an undeniably cheerful manner before goring them through the fontanel. Combat's brisk when it chooses to erupt, and the animations are pretty enough, but in the Prince's world swordplay can still feel a bit like the ironing: it's something you have to get out of the way before you can focus on things you really want to do.

The first half hour or so of the latest build makes a convincing case that Forgotten Sands will have little trouble delivering on the basics, then, which means the designers are relying on the newly-minted elemental powers to add a bit of variety. Variety, eh? This is where the game experiments with the formula, and that is generally the point - much as with that unfortunate German molecular chef who thought he could do a Heston Blumenthal - where it blows its own hands off.

As the name suggests, there are four elemental powers, based around the themes of earth, wind, fire and water. (Clearly nobody at Ubisoft knows that there are actually five elements, the last one being Milla Jovovich.) All are upgradeable throughout the course of the game, and most of them feature offensive and traversal-based uses, by the looks of it. In the preview code, only two are available, however: the ability to freeze water, and the ability to perform a nippy kind of dash.

Happily, they're both crackers. Dash is the easiest to master, providing a targeted double-jump that allows you to zip out of the air and head straight for a distant enemy. It's useful in a fight, but it's also interesting to see the way that Ubisoft's designers fold it into the gymnastics too, allowing you specific moments where you can essentially cover twice as much distance as normal.

Freezing water seems to have far more elaborate uses, with a squeeze of the trigger transforming any nearby liquid into something far more solid for a few vital seconds. Spurts become swing-bars, fountains become pillars, and waterfalls can be turned into walls - but only briefly, and you have to time things perfectly to take into account the subsequent recharge period.

Used in increasingly devious ways - it gets genuinely mind-melting when spurts start popping up and bubbling back down, and when water columns are threaded in alongside stone pillars - the freeze skill is there to add an element of split-second timing to the platforming. It's a brilliantly nasty idea, and tailor-made for a game that gives you a limited facility to replay your last few moves instantaneously when you seriously screw things up.

Tying the Prince's new powers into the part of the game that was already pretty good seems like a smart move, allowing Ubisoft to ratchet up the platforming complexity hand-in-hand with the spectacle. It will be interesting to get a sense of how the while thing plays once you're topped up with all four skills, however - whether you'll feel empowered, or confused.