Back in 2003, a somewhat brash and spirited prince, but with a noble and daring heart, taught us that Time is not a river, which flows slowly in one direction. Time is a stormy sea. And Ubisoft is well aware of this, since it has chosen to sail back through the waves of the years to fish out and bring back to new glory one of its most important adventures, which now seemed set aside in the maze of videogame memory. Safely stored among gamers’ best memories, but never really forgotten, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is now preparing to live a second youth with a remake that, at least in appearance, seems incredibly faithful to the original game, re-proposing that same, dreamy and fairytale atmosphere that, almost two decades later, still remains inimitable.
Return to the past, with the awareness of the present
17 years after his first major challenge to the laws of Time, the Prince is ready to tell us again “the most incredible story” we’ve ever heard. The team of Ubisoft Mumbai, who joined forces with the Pune studio, knows how much fans care about the adventures of the young son of Shahraman, the powerful king of Persia: after all, many developers working on the remake have grown up with the original work , and bringing the Sands of Time back to life is a source of pride and enthusiasm for them.
The collective began to implement the project two years ago, recreating the entire experience from scratch and modeling it with Anvil Next, the graphics engine that has already given shape to Assassin’s Creed Origins. The result, at first sight, keeps the evocative beauty of the artistic direction unaltered: in reconstructing the settings, both Indian and Persian, characterized by different architectural and stylistic solutions, the team carefully studied the starting assets, but replaced them. from the first to the last, while preserving a pleasant proximity to the art design of the 2003 game.
For those who have already lived the epic of the prince, reviewing the halls of Azad’s palace, the rolling traps, the flourishes of the fabrics, the imaginative panoramas and those dreamlike horizons in the style of The Thousand and One Nights will in short to a journey into the past made with the eyes of the present.
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From the few images that Ubisoft showed us we could see a fine work in the re-elaboration of the setting, still characterized by an indisputable and unmatched charm; Furthermore, thanks to the trailer released during the Ubisoft Forward, we were given the opportunity to glimpse the new design of the protagonists, from the Prince to Farah, passing through the treacherous Vizir. How long their faces have clearly been redesigned from scratch, it must be admitted that the artists in force at Ubisoft have tried to preserve part of the original physiognomy, in such a way that the appearance of the characters appeared both new and familiar.
At least on the stylistic side, the result is pleasant, in an elegant balance between the present and the past. Net of the always exciting artistic direction and the admirable desire to preserve an immortal charisma, the first look at the remake of The Sands of Time has not been able to convince us completely, due to a visual modernization that, apparently, seems to need still some finishing.
Fidelity to the original version
What drives Ubisoft’s inspirations is, first of all, the utmost respect for an excellent work, which in 2003 was able to win the favor of the public and critics: this is why the studio has repeatedly reiterated its intention to keep as much fidelity as possible to the atmospheres and playful dynamics of the original game. This obsequious reverence towards The Sands of Time is undoubtedly appreciable, but in some respects the impression is that Ubisoft has not reserved the same attention to the animation sector and the general graphic impact as it does in the reconstruction of art design.
From the trailer, first of all, a barely sketched facial expressiveness emerges, unable to adequately convey the whirlwind of emotions that should overwhelm the protagonists in some very dramatic scenes. In addition, even the polygonal modeling seemed to us quite edgy, like the animations, which in the few gameplay clips we saw were still a bit cumbersome and not very fluid.
To digitize the movements of protagonists and enemies, Ubisoft has resorted to motion capturing sessions, but frankly, after this first eye contact with the Remake, we did not notice a great accuracy in the reproduction of stunts and wall races, which instead set unprecedented standards in the videogame industry 17 years ago. The studio promises to have made significant adjustments to the gameplay and to have recalibrated the management of the camera, but without observing a more extensive game sequence or testing the title by hand it is impossible for us to testify to the veracity of the statements and above all the actual quality of the improvements. .
A very short combat session that was shown to us, however, did not leave us particularly stunned, since has made the lack of fluidity even more evident in the movements of the Prince and the Sand monsters.
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However, it is an alpha version, and the team has enough time to retrace their steps and refine some playful and technical facets of a production that, given the quality of the original work, undoubtedly deserves the utmost commitment. This is because, as we told you in our episode of MyGeneration dedicated to Prince of Persia The Sands of Time, Ubisoft’s adventure is one of those epics that can hardly be forgotten. A playful structure that wonderfully amalgamated action, exploration, platforming and puzzle solving phases was accompanied by a script worthy of the best oriental novels.
The beautiful story of a swanky and braggart Prince, who came into possession of a power capable of rewinding time, is a coming-of-age tale steeped in magic and poetry: the meeting with the splendid and intrepid Farah, daughter of the Maharajah from whom the protagonist has stolen the Sands, the journey that the two undertake to put an end to the machinations of the evil Vizier and the bond that inevitably is established between the two heroes represent the founding elements of a story that is still truly engaging today.
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Ubisoft knows how great the tale of The Sands of Time is, and seems to have kept the original script unchanged: to heighten the nostalgia effect, moreover, to dub the protagonist in English there will be Yuri Lowenthal, the same who lent his voice to the Prince in 2003. In addition, in order to make the fans happy, the wonderful easter egg that will allow you to unlock and play Jordan Mechner’s 1989 masterpiece. Already from these first details, despite some visual uncertainty, it is clear that the remake of The Sands of Time is a project carried out with great passion: if all love for the original title will also be accompanied by greater care in the playful and graphic reworking, then this Prince of Persia, arriving on January 21, 2021 on PC, PS4 and Xbox One, it could prove worthy of the name it bears.
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