Like its recent predecessor, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, PoP:WW is a platform and combat focused adventure game that continues in the tradition of the original classic. It continues the story of Sands of Time, recounting the further adventures of the ill-fated prince.

If the demo is any indication, this will be an excellent game. You cut straight to the action at the very start - the tutorial areas fit well into the story and have you feeling like a swashbuckling hero from the get go. The combat system is ridiculously deep, with attack combinations, different weapon combos, holds, throws, wall jump maneuvers, spinning attacks, and more. If you get tired of swinging your scimitar like an Arabian ninja master, there are tons of fiendish traps and complicated puzzles to figure out. And you can turn back time if you don't manage it the first few times. You'll be running up walls and dashing past spinning death traps in no time.

The game looks fantastic. Diverse areas (from a burning ship to an Arabian dungeon and places in-between) are all gorgeous to look at and interactive. The various enemies are convincingly menacing and more than a little disturbing (the gigantic Brute for instance), and all show polished character design. The prince himself has action movie style and moves with a fluid grace that is a beauty to behold. It does suffer a bit from the dark tone of the story, though - the colors are muted and you may become tired of seeing various shades of brown.

The sound is well done, with fair voice acting and spot-on sound effects. The various environmental sound effects (rain on the burning ship, crackling of torches in the dungeon, etc) transport you firmly in the story and provide a convincing illusion of place. The music, with its heavy-handed metal themes, leaves something to be desired, but I'm hoping that either the musical segments are brief or that it can be turned off.

The one weakness of the demo was the story. The brief cut scenes confused rather than explained, and the dialog was heavy-handed and overly-simplistic. I had no idea what had happened between the previous title and the current one until I went to the website and read the back-story ( http://www.princeofpersiagame.com/us/agegate.php?destURL=index.php .) While this isn't at all unusual for the genre, it is a little disappointing. Also, PoP:WW is much darker than its predecessor - there is a great deal of blood and there are some definite horror overtones that make this game inappropriate for younger fans of the previous release.

Overall I'm really looking forward to this game. There are a few bugs in the demo that I'm sure will get ironed out before release, but the game play was a fast and fun to go through. It looks like Ubisoft will have an outstanding follow up in the Prince of Persia series.