Fish Says No. 003
When the time is flies and does not stay, it will move the spirit to a great line. - "The Widow's Endowment"
When it comes to Ubisoft's action games, it's easy to think of the Assassin's Creed series. But before that, Ubisoft was opened to action games in a series of action games called Prince of Persia.
In 1984, a game geek named McNagher appeared in the psychology department of Yale University, who was famous for his superb game development ability. At that time, McNagh had a dream, he did not want the game to have only excitement and combat and other elements, but also wanted the game to bring players a cinematic adventure experience.
The earliest game screen of The Prince of Persia
So McKenna used the ancient Arab folk tale collection "One Thousand and One Nights" as a model, created an Arabic-style game script, and used this as a carrier to develop an adventurous action game - "Prince of Persia". Not only that, but he also used a technique used in the animation industry to depict the movements of real people frame by frame into the game.
As a result, the thrilling mysterious story, smooth and real action, all made the "Prince of Persia" that took four years to come out completely on fire, and won the praise of players and the market. At this opportunity, McNa continues to develop Prince of Persia 2 and plans to promote Prince of Persia 3.
Yet the torrent of the times is always fierce, and it will never say hello to you in advance.
Needless to say, among the hottest games now, there are definitely three types of games such as "car gun ball". They are all fast-paced games that give players a variety of exciting sensations in a short period of time. The gun genre of games originated in the 90s with the appearance of Doom.
DOOM
As a result, after the advent of Doom, first-person shooters suddenly swept the entire game market, and 2D action games represented by the "Prince of Persia" series gradually became less popular.
On that day, "The Prince of Persia" suddenly fell silent, but the wheel of innovation in computer technology never stopped.
Three years later, a well-known 3D action game suddenly appeared. Armed with two guns, a young woman named Laura weaves between tombs, exploring lost mysteries – it is the well-known Tomb Raider. The game elements of "action + puzzle + exploration" bring players unprecedented fun to the game and symbolize a new era of action games.
The earliest game screen of Tomb Raider
At this moment, McNagh could not sit still, and he and his game team began to work on the development of Prince of Persia 3D. But the final game was of less than ideal quality, like an imitator of Tomb Raider.
Since the game has no novelty, it is naturally spurned by the market. Mattel, the parent company that suffered the damage, was furious and directly sold the copyright to "Prince of Persia". After a series of twists and turns, a series of copyrights to The Prince of Persia finally fell into the hands of Ubisoft, what will be its fate?
Officially founded in 1986, Ubisoft from France is a company engaged in the publishing and distribution of game software, and has always had its own unique insights into the future of the game industry. At that time, the "Prince of Persia" series had been criticized by the outside world as a "surviving and dying work", but Ubisoft believed that it would become the golden key to Ubisoft's entry into the world of action games.
At this time, the disheartened McNagh was looking out the window in amazement, recalling the blood and embarrassment of the development of "Prince of Persia" in the past. The huge sense of gap made him close his eyes and shake his head, ready to retire completely from the gaming industry.
In the midst of his trance, McNagh suddenly receives an invitation from Ubisoft, who wants him to go to Paris to communicate about the authorization of the game "Prince of Persia".
Prince of Persia Sands of Time and Assassin's Creed project leader Patrice
After all, "The Prince of Persia" is still a proud work created by his own hands, and McNa saw that it could still have a glimmer of life, and immediately flew to Paris without saying a word.
For Ubisoft to release Prince of Persia, it had to obtain the authorization of McNath himself. In order to impress the already discouraged action game giant, Ubisoft showed 120% sincerity - not only boldly used the 27-year-old Patrice as the director of the entire project, to improve the innovation and coordination of the game team, but also to enrich the game's viewing with reference to many action movies.
"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is also one of its reference objects
The action design of the cornice wall, the gameplay blessing of the back of time, the wonderful level and battle system creation, a good enough sample of the "Prince of Persia" game was presented in front of McNagh. Seeing his Prince of Persia glow like never before, McNagh was thoroughly impressed by the game production team led by Patrice.
Wonderful action design
As a result, McNa not only approved Ubisoft to be fully responsible for the follow-up production of the "Prince of Persia" series, but also personally created a plot for it, improved the world view, and became a solid and powerful member of the production team of "Prince of Persia".
The sincerity of Ubisoft and Patrice's team has completely awakened the long-sleeping soul of the game in McNagh's heart.
Created by Patrice and McNa, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time has finally come out, and the stunning graphics are filled with soft highlight effects, and its smooth action design and interesting puzzle levels have made it quite acclaimed. Most importantly, its unique "Sand of Time" time-lapse system has completely detonated the popularity of the IP of "Prince of Persia".
The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Due to the success of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, Ubisoft made two decisions:
Called the powerhouse Patrice to secretly develop a subversive action game industry next-generation game title - Assassin's Creed;
Prince of Persia continues to develop a sequel.
Thus "Prince of Persia 2: Heart of the Warrior" and "Prince of Persia 3: The King Is Matchless" came out one after another. Unfortunately, on the basis of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, the two failed to achieve a surprising innovation, only a few minor changes. Therefore, the development cost of both is not too high, and it is two commercial works that are not compromised.
Prince of Persia 2: Heart of a Warrior
Based on Sand of Time, Heart of warriors attempts to enhance the fun of the combat system and positions the game's style as "dark and bloody", and the music has changed from mysterious exotic music to dynamic electronic music. In terms of plot, "Heart of the Warrior" departs from the dreamy fairy tale of "Sand of Time" and changes to a philosophical story that highlights the fight between life and death and reveals time and destiny.
As for such a change, there are two very different evaluations among players, with mixed reviews.
The Unmatched Assassination System
Criticized by some players in "Heart of the Warrior", the third-generation work "The King Is Matchless" once again returned to the fairy tale style of "Sand of Time", abandoning the previous blood and violence, but retaining the dark part for the male protagonist to overcome.
The Game of Kings introduces an assassination system and the gameplay of transforming into the Prince of Darkness, and its gameplay has been further improved. As for the game plot, it mainly depicts the prince's adventure to defeat his own demons, vividly depicting the whole process of the boy gradually mature into a man.
A man's worst enemy is always himself.
The three series of "Sands of Time", "Heart of the Warrior", "The King's Matchless", and "Prince of Persia" bring players a very extreme action game experience, allowing players to carry out thrilling Arabic adventures again and again. Since all three titles were loved by players, they were eventually collectively known as the "Prince of Persia Trilogy".
The prince and princess eventually lived a happy and happy life, and the story ending of Prince of Persia 3: The King is unmatched is so beautiful that players will feel that there is no reason to have a sequel to the Prince of Persia series.
Assassin's Creed
In the first half of 2008, Ubisoft released the long-planned Assassin's Creed, and for a time, players decided that Assassin's Creed was the orthodox sequel to The Prince of Persia. Because they have so much in common, whether it's the same game owner who plans Patrice, or constantly climbing, solving puzzles and slashing in the game.
But who can see what medicine Ubisoft is selling in its pocket? In late 2008, Prince of Persia 4: Rebirth came out of nowhere, giving players a surprise — though it didn't last long.
Prince of Persia 4: Reborn
To distinguish Assassin's Creed, all of the scenes in Prince of Persia 4: Rebirth are mostly fictional and imaginary, no longer in the style of realism that they once had. In addition, the game screen is rendered in a 2D painting style, which emphasizes the background of the game's fantasy story.
Objectively speaking, Prince of Persia 4: The Rebirth has many tangible advantages.
First, the character of "Princess" is not a vase in this work, but a good partner who explores and fights with the protagonist, life and death. The storyline is also built in the process of two people meeting each other, knowing and loving each other, and the end of the story is also quite shocking, which is not an ordinary "prince and princess" cliché story.
In the game, the various interactions between the protagonist and the princess become one of the most interesting ways to play.
The combined attack of the princess and the prince is very good visually
Second, like the strategy game Romance of the Three Kingdoms 11, Prince of Persia 4: Rebirth also uses a 2D painting style to render the picture, which not only looks unique, but also does not look outdated no matter how long time passes.
The fight scenes are gorgeous
Third, players in the game do not have to save at all, let alone die. Whenever she falls off a cliff or is almost hacked to death by a monster, the heroine will desperately save the hero. This design greatly increases the smoothness of the game.
Prince of Persia 4: Rebirth is truly the word "rebirth": it has a completely new character and story, a completely new world view, a completely new combat system, a completely new visual effects and musical effects.
But as we all know, once the game innovation content of the same IP is too much, it is bound to cause huge controversy - because it loses the "original" feeling that some players are pursuing. And it also has the disadvantages of weak exploration, repetitive running charts, etc., in the eyes of many players, this "Prince of Persia 4: Rebirth" has become a "shame of the series".
The battles in Prince of Persia 5: The Forgotten Sands are no longer gorgeous
In the midst of many bad reviews from players, Ubisoft seems to have learned its lesson. Released in 2010, Prince of Persia 5: The Forgotten Sands once again returned to the plot and style of the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time series. But this antique work, which is destined to fail to surpass the "Sand of Time", is destined not to stir up too many waves in the era of more and more excellent games.
Prince of Persia 5: The Sands of Oblivion, a return to the traditional gameplay
Innovation is not, no innovation is not, two works have not been able to get a good market response, Ubisoft has not known how to correctly develop the "Prince of Persia" series. So this old IP, which has not brought more value to the company, like the subtitle of its last work, is completely forgotten under the desert that we once stepped on, ventured and loved.
When the time is flies and does not stay, it will move the spirit to a great line. Prince from Persia, please take our youth with you and go all the way.