It’s impossible to talk about the Prince of Persia series without mentioning the original Prince of Persia, born in 1989. It was created by American programmer and game designer Jordan Mechner, who influenced the gaming industry with his creation. In those days, when launching Prince of Persia, the first thing that caught your eye was the amazing (for those times) animation, but it was not the animation alone that earned the game respect. Jordan Mechner offered players an interesting mixture of puzzle and platforming that, among other things, included interesting sword fights. The original was very difficult and not everyone could pass it. Acrobatics and battles were many times more difficult than what we are given in the latest parts (hello Prince of Persia 2008). And at the same time, we were all given only an hour of real time to complete the passage – if the prince is even a minute late, the evil vizier Jaffar will execute the protagonist’s beloved. Also, relatively recently, an improved port for mobile platforms was released.
3 years after the release of the original, a sequel comes out – Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame (not to be confused with the recently released remake for the android and iOs platforms). The sequel became even more colorful and original visually, but not all players liked the shift in emphasis from acrobatics and puzzles to the combat component. but nevertheless, the atmosphere of an oriental fairy tale did not allow me to move away from the screen without completing the game to the end. As mentioned above, just a couple of days ago a remake for mobile platforms was released which can already be purchased on iTunes or Google Play for $3, or as most likely half will do – pirate it (I am in no way promoting piracy, but simply telling the truth).
The next part did not come out as soon as expected and was such a failure that it seemed we would never see the Prince of Persia series again (and no, it was not Sands of Time, more on that later). This failed part was Prince of Persia 3D which was created by Red Orb Entertainmant studio without the participation of series creator Jordan Mechner. The transition from 2D to 3D was unsuccessful, the game was very dark, and full of unforgivable errors.
The development of the series stopped, https://panda-bet-casino.co.uk/mobile-app/ but the studio unexpectedly took up the task of reviving the classics UBISOFT, which actually rebooted the series with the release of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. The success of this part was seriously influenced by the fact that the project was created with the participation of Mechner. The plot has changed dramatically in comparison with the early parts where the prince simply saved the princess. Now the plot is that at the beginning of the game the main character releases the sand of time from a special clock (throughout the game he can collect this sand in a special dagger and use it to turn back time or slow it down in order to run past a dangerous trap), and then throughout the game he must face various difficulties to fix everything. Despite the fact that the plot has changed, the scene remains almost the same as in the original – a giant palace with ingenious architecture. The graphics are three-dimensional as in Prince of Persia 3D, but its advantages were used by the developers very correctly and competently. The prince’s dexterity was amazing and many of the ideas implemented in Sands of Time were later repeated and developed in other projects such as Assassins Creed. Also an important role in the success of the game was played by the atmosphere in the style of oriental fairy tales and the fact that everything that happens seems to be a story told by the prince himself. The main character tries to conduct a dialogue with the player and he does it very well. The dialogue itself is expressed in the following moments – when the protagonist dies, the narrator tells us: “No, no, wait! Everything was a little different."- after which we continue playing from the last save location. During the game itself, we listen to the prince’s thoughts about what is happening or the dialogue with Farah (the protagonist’s companion, who, for example, was more of a hindrance than a help to me). And when we try to leave the game, the prince asks us if we really want him to leave without finishing the story. The game was a success and became the first part of the so-called "sand trilogy".
After the success of Sands of Time, Ubisoft decided not to wait long and began working on the next part. This part was controversial Prince of Persia: Warior Within. It’s important to say right away that the original creator, Jordan Mechner, refused to develop this part and the part was not as well received as Sands of Time by either players or critics, but I personally really liked it and then I’ll tell you why. Fight with Fate did not have the same fabulousness as in the previous part. There was a bias towards brutality. Yes, yes, exactly the brutality in Prince of Percia. There blood is gushing from the enemies, heavy music is playing and the situation itself has become much darker. The game seems to tell the player: “The fairy tale is over.”! Real life has begun! ". The game itself seemed more difficult to me than the “first” part (many people don’t know about the original Prince of Persia and call Sands of Time the first). The plot of the Fight with Fate was twisted no worse than the first part – after the prince, after his machinations, Dahaka (the keeper of time) begins to hunt over time, and in order to escape from him, our hero goes to the island of time to prevent the creation of sand. The combat system has changed and now the prince used the main sword and he took anything from the killed enemies (there is no need to say how he continues to manipulate time without a dagger because if you carefully follow the game, it is clear that he uses a medallion for this). In general, I can say that this part was underrated and the main thing is that you need to get into it.
What follows is a part that I didn’t like as much as others from the Sand Trilogy. This Prince of Percia: Two Thrones. Ubisoft decided that since people didn’t like it and that there was no fairy tale atmosphere, then they need to bring it back. But it didn’t quite work out for several reasons, but first, about the plot. The plot continues from the ending of the Fight with Fate, which not everyone went through (There were two endings, the main one – just beat the game and defeat the Empress of Time and the canonical one – find all the pedestals that add life to the prince and defeat Dahaka). So it all begins with the fact that the prince returns with Kaylina to Babylon, and there the vizier, whom we seem to kill at the end of the Sands of Time, is rampaging. Ubisoft decided that they needed to return the feature from the same Sands of Time and insert a living narrator who was now Kaylina but SPOILER. after all, she is killed after at most 2 hours of play. And she conducts the dialogue sadly and it cannot be compared with what was there from where it was returned. She interferes more than says anything sensible. But despite the above things, Ubisoft decided to diversify the gameplay by adding a dark prince who is stronger than usual, he loses more lives (those who completed the Fight with Fate will understand that this also happened somewhere) As a result, I will say that this part is not a fairy tale, and is not brutal, but it is definitely worth going through it in order to see how it all ends.
Then 3 years later it comes out Prince of Persia 2008 but since I couldn’t even beat it and I consider it a complete failure and I don’t want to dwell on it too much (those who want to read about this not up to the game where it’s not even possible to die can skip the part of the article about this game). But I’ll still say a little about the plot. Nothing remains from the previous episodes except the name of the donkey prince (who is not a prince at all). And the donkey’s name is Farah. So again, somehow evil is released and the prince (well, seriously, he’s not even a prince there) must stop it all. Summary of the game: complete the "Sand Trilogy" and don’t touch this.
Then, along with the film (and the game is not connected with the film in any way), it comes out in 2010 Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands. Ubisoft decides to return to what brought them success in 2003 (that’s when Sands of Time came out). It’s quite interesting that for PC, X-box 360, PS3 there was one version, and for Wii, PSP, NDS there were also different versions that seemed to have absolutely nothing to do with each other. But now to the story on the main platforms.The prince decides to visit the kingdom of his older brother Malik to learn martial arts from him, but finds it under siege by an enemy army. Trying to get rid of the invaders, with the help of a magical two-piece medallion, Malik unleashes Solomon’s mysterious army. However, upon breaking free, she turns all the inhabitants of the kingdom into sand statues. Now only the Prince can stop her. Those who have played this part falsely believe that it takes its place between Sands of Time and Warior Within, but in fact the plot bridge between them is Battles of Prince of Persia – an exclusive for NDS and at the same time a turn-based strategy. If anyone is interested in The Forgotten Sands for Wii, PSP, NDS, then I may write about them later.
Movie Prince of Persia. It turned out quite good despite the fact that it is not a direct adaptation of the game, but only adopted the presence of sands and some elements from all games. The plot is as follows: One day in the Persian market, King Sharaman sees a very brave boy. Admiring his dexterity and courage, the king decides to accept the boy into his family. Prince Dastan (yes, he was finally given a name) grows up and takes part in a military campaign with his brothers. Their path lies through the holy city of Alamut, which, according to secret denunciations, supplies weapons to their enemies. Prince Tas decides to attack Alamut, despite his father’s request not to touch this city. The army takes the city, but they don’t find any weapons there. Differences from the games: the prince got a name, but lost his noble origin; King Sharaman now has not two sons, but three; the vizier became the Prince’s uncle, and Princess Fara turned out to be renamed Tamina, she was an excellent shooter, and in the film she turned out to be a priestess. Similarities: the dagger looks like in Two Thrones, the prince’s armor with a medallion, as well as the phrase “We create our own destiny” from Warrior Within, when using the dagger, the prince gets sandy tattoos like the Dark Prince from the third part of the game, also one of the assassins uses the chain that hit the prince in Two Thrones. Overall, the film is good and fans of games about the prince are definitely worth a look.
Prince of Persia: The Shadow and The Flame for mobile platforms just launched for the first time yesterday and haven’t had time to play through it yet, but if you like, I’ll write a review of it the other day.
P.S. Please don’t judge strictly – this is my first article.
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