Prince of Persia Sands Of Time Remake Preview (Topic)

There has been a lot of speculation and rumors surrounding the rework of the first Prince of Persia from the Sands of Time trilogy over the past few years. As it turned out for a reason, since at its Ubisoft Forward exhibition, the French developer presented us a remake of Prince of Persia Sands Of Time. This practice will be the first in Ubisoft's history to follow the current trend of remaking classic games. Many are already joking, guided by the footage shown to us, that this remake looks like it already needs a remake. But is it really that bad, can the remake live up to its legacy?

In fact, it is quite symbolic that the choice fell on Sands of Time, since at one time this game gave the studio great popularity and thanks to it, in the future, their flagship franchise, Assassin's Creed, appeared. Also, this action on the part of the developer is a good step after spitting in the face of fans in the form of a quest for VR called Dagger of Time.

Journalists from Gamepressure managed to talk to the developers even before the official announcement of the game was made. Their interlocutors were Pierre-Sylvain Gir, the lead development manager, and none other than Yuri Lowenthal, the original voice of the prince. Based on this, they tell what became known about the remake

Prince of Persia Sands Of Time.

Time is a storm in the ocean. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a classic adventure action game from 2003; there is a whole generation of players who have never played it or have simply forgotten. This is the story of a young, slightly arrogant Persian prince who, together with King Sharaman, his father, and with the help of a traitorous vizier, conquers a city belonging to Maharaj, the Indian king. The Vizier lets the invaders through the city gates in exchange for access to the Maharaja's treasures.

During the siege, the prince, possessing unsurpassed dexterity, like running on walls and other acrobatic stunts, reaches the sanctuary containing a strange artifact - a dagger, which gives its owner the ability to control the passage of time. This is contrary to the plans of the vizier - he is a dying old man and believes that the artifact will help him gain immortality. As soon as he learns that the young Persian prince has grabbed the dagger, he embarks on Plan B, tricking the prince into releasing the Sands of Time.

However, this leads to disaster and all living things turn into sand monsters except for a few people. Among them is Farah, the daughter of a defeated Indian ruler, who eventually teams up with the prince to help him undo his foolish act. And all this is spiced with a pinch of romance.

“Like our fans who come back to this game over and over again, we wanted to work with this story again. Ubisoft decided to meet the fans halfway by creating the first full-fledged remake in its catalog. We chose The Sands of Time because this game kicked off the prince's great adventure, which at the time set the bar for many video games to come, ”says Pierre-Sylvain Fat.

When you hear about the upcoming remake, one of the first questions that comes to mind is: "Does Jordan Mechner, the father of the Prince of Persia series, have anything to do with it?" Although he is no longer officially affiliated with Ubisoft, he did have a say in the early stages of production.

As Pierre-Sylvain Fat says:

“We got in touch with Jordan early on in the project to get a clear understanding of his vision for the game and to get some information on what he was about to change - and there were actually quite a few things he wanted to improve. Jordan served as a consultant during the pre-production phase, but when that phase ended, we were in full control of the project and he was no longer involved. ”

By the way, although Yuri Lowenthal returns as a prince, Farah's voice will be different. The daughter of Maharaj [ex Joanna Wasik] will play Supinder Rache, a Canadian actress with an ever-growing portfolio but not too many high-profile roles under her belt. The actress made a guest appearance as Thalyssa in the third episode of the third season of The Expanse.

Not a remaster, not a reboot - Remake!

During the presentation and interviews, the presenters repeatedly stressed that Sands of Time will be a remake, not a remaster - the graphics will be improved, but this will be just one of a set of changes to the original formula. The game will, of course, maintain high fidelity of the original material, but Ubisoft is creating completely new resources and making changes to the gameplay to make the game look modern.

The Sands of Time Remake uses Ubisoft's flagship engine that powers Assassin's Creed Origins, among others. This probably means that they are using this particular iteration of the engine, presumably without some of the improvements introduced during the development of Odyssey and Valhalla.

How will the gameplay be modernized? First of all, there will be changes to the camera, which was problematic in the original. We will now have full control over it. There will also be improvements to the combat system, which should be deeper, more varied and responsive. According to the developers, the battle should be difficult, but at the same time more varied than in the original. Interestingly, the Sands of Time remake will introduce difficulty levels. This is new from the original, although the sequels Warrior Within and Two Thrones have already done so.

In addition, small surprises await people who know The Sands of Time inside out. At the pre-production stage, the creators used the original scenario of the game, which included dialogues that were never included in the game. And since all the lines had to be rewritten, the team decided to diversify them and add some passages that were not previously in the game. In addition to this, the actors spent a lot of time in motion capture costumes, when in the original they were just voicing the characters.

“One of the most important things for me was the ability to prepare cinematography with motion capture and performance capture - which we couldn't do the first time - all the animations were done by hand back then. So we had the opportunity to go back - basically, turn back time and do it again, only better. Plus, reliving this story with another actress as Farah ... our conversations are still the same, this relationship will be very similar, but Supinder has brought some amazing things to her character and I can't wait for people to see what we are. reached "- says Yuri Lowenthal, the voice of the protagonist.

So what to expect?

Development of the original Sands of Time began in 2001 at Ubisoft Montreal, now considered the leading studio of the French publisher. The remake, however, was handled by two divisions - Ubisoft Mumbai and Ubisoft Pune, which are still working on games like Just Dance and Steep; However, Montreal helped in some stages of the work - for example, according to Lowenthal, the motion capture was carried out in Montreal.

Also the developer told a little about music:

“In terms of music, we redesigned everything. The original soundtrack is so iconic and beautiful that we just had to bring it back into the game. We changed the soundtrack a bit, adapting it to modern sound systems, but the music definitely brings back the nostalgia, ”says Pierre.

Many are excited about the announcement of the remake, but we must moderate our hopes, so far the game looks very raw [it's not for nothing that they joke about it]. The first fragments of the gameplay made me think about whether the unit can work with the engine. Changes to camera and combat seem to be good, and changes like the new voice for Farah shouldn't have a negative impact. The creators sound very encouraging, and I hope they will be smart about modernizing the game without changing the basic formula too much.

We just have to wait for the release, and we, in turn, will analyze the original game in our heading "game archeology". Keep our fingers crossed, if the remake burns out, who knows, we might get more polished versions of Warrior Within and Two Thrones.

The Topic of Article: Prince of Persia Sands Of Time Remake Preview.
Author: Jake Pinkman