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...continued
Chris
Grun, the incredibly talented visual designer of
the game, did a ton of research on ancient Persia
in order to capture the essential look and feel of
the Golden Age of a major civilization that most
Americans know very little about (and care about
even less). With a focus on architecture,
mythology, art, and warfare, it is already clear
that this game captures the essence of the period
better than any other. But, as Andrew Pedersen is
quick to point out, "This is by no means a history
product," as "We are trying to leverage cool
elements of ancient Persia (of which there are
many) in a contemporary way that will be satisfying
to gamers." Thus the game does indeed lean heavily
in a fantasy Arabian Nights direction (that
decision could not make me happier), with
considerable incorporation of magic and mystical
means of survival in the form of arrows, potions,
power-ups, a magic carpet, and creatures largely
linked to ancient Persian mythology.
Wandering
through ornate palaces, mystical ruins, mysterious
caverns, and dark castles could not be more fun.
You get the feeling of a huge, complex,
multifaceted environment, rather than just
traversing a series of boring closed corridors with
single-texture patterns repeated monotonously
throughout. There are 15 distinct exotic
environments to capture your imagination in the
game. As the screenshots indicate, the visuals are
breathtaking, and you are in awe of the sensuous
indulgence prevalent among the rich in ancient
Persia. You are simply overwhelmed by the gorgeous
use of color and texture in the game, making the
not-that-shabby earlier installments of the game
pale by comparison.
The
flow of action in the game is largely linear across
levels because it is so story-driven, but there is
considerable opportunity to move around freely.
Within each level you can backtrack if you wish,
and on some levels you will need to do so to find a
magical potion or a hidden trigger to solve a
puzzle encountered later. Although Prince of Persia
3D will not have a timer like its predecessors did,
there are occasions where completing a puzzle or
vanquishing an enemy is time-based. When playing a
game this attractive, I always wish I had all the
time in the world just to look around at the
dazzling scenery.
But
Prince of Persia 3D does not just provide an
enticing Byzantine environment to explore serenely
at your leisure. There are more than 20 opponents
waiting to make your journey unpleasant, including
both humans and fantasy creatures lurking in the
shadows. The Prince's arch-nemesis Rugnor, who is
half man and half tiger, merits special mention
here, as do monsters from Persian mythology
including Ifrits, Demons, and Genies. Most of these
enemies float as opposed to walk and cast deadly
spells and projectiles. These adversaries have
sophisticated artificial intelligence for fighting
that adjusts to match your combat style. However,
Andrew Pedersen notes that, "Enemy movement is
going to rely more on scripting than AI" because
"We want the enemies to move in a believable way
and AI usually results in jerky motion." These
opponents will guard specific areas, pursue the
Prince, call for help, trigger traps, and close off
exits.
Adversaries
are not the only obstacles you will need to
overcome to succeed in Prince of Persia 3D. Highly
ingenious traps play an absolutely crucial role in
heightening the suspense in the game, posing
strategic challenges that will give even the most
adept Prince of Persia fan pause. These traps range
from classic ones using spikes, darts, slicers, and
floor plates, to newfangled ones using catapults
and angle blades. Pedersen admits that he is a
"trap junkie" -- with traps his favorite part of
the game -- and that he loves designing and playing
them. These traps broaden the action beyond combat
and introduce an intriguing element reminiscent of
old side-scrolling platform games.
The
Prince himself has undergone a major facelift.
While he looks more like a warrior than in the
previous games, he is an agile and cunning hero who
often would prefer to avoid direct combat if
possible. Pedersen calls him "a thinking man's
hero," whose first impulse is not to pull out his
sword and fight. In one level of the game, the
Prince has no weapons and has to use stealth to
survive and move on. The Prince merited special
attention given to the detail in his appearance and
the fluidity of his movement; in technical terms,
he ended up representing about 25% to 30% of the
game's polygon budget, with tons of time spent
tuning and tweaking his design so that he has the
traits of the original Prince but looks like a new
character. Sophisticated camera movement algorithms
were used to make control of the Prince's movement
extremely responsive.
To
accomplish the combination of amazing visuals and
smooth animation in an immersive environment,
Prince of Persia 3D requires 3D hardware video
acceleration and utilizes an innovative game engine
based on two licensed technologies: NetImmerse from
Numerical Designs Limited for scene management and
rendering, and Motivate from the Motion Factory for
animation authoring and process control. Through
these technologies the game exhibits astounding
special effects. For example, mesh deformation
technology allows for the Prince's chest to rise
and fall as he breathes, and he is able to reach
over and pick up objects, open doors, and grab
items of different sizes. Moreover, the game
supports dynamic and real-time directional
lighting, vertex shading, Gouraud shading, alpha
blending, bilinear filtering, Z-buffering,
particle-based effects, portaling, several levels
of mipmapping, and dynamic level of detail
management on models.
The
development team looked at a variety of 3D graphics
systems before choosing this combination, with
NetImmerse providing the most general 3D solution
supporting D3D, Glide and OGL; and Motivate being
the niftiest tool, providing the most realistic and
smooth character animation. Andrew Pedersen claims
that, "What is really going to set Prince apart
from the other 3D games will be the intelligent use
of advanced 3D technology," with "probably the most
compelling animation you are ever going to see in a
3D product." But he admits that "If people look at
Prince 3D and all they can see is cool technology,
then I think we have failed."
Beyond
this attention to visuals, Prince of Persia 3D also
incorporates the latest in audio technologies. The
game makes extensive use of 3D sound effects, and
the developers discovered that the increased
sophistication of sound hardware made it easy to
incorporate 3D sound in the game "without much
effort" (then why are so many games that could
really benefit from this technology not using it?).
Unlike games that simply use 3D audio to enhance
the realism of gameplay, in this game this
technology actually plays an important role in the
design of the puzzles (as well as, of course, as
the creation of enthralling ambient sound effects).
The music in the game has an enticing Middle
Eastern feel to it, magnetically attracting you and
making you never want to leave.
With
a planned release date in early 1999, this game
still has a long way to go, and given the very
recent demise of Red Orb (the original publisher)
and the probable transmission of the game's
distribution to Mindscape, no doubt we will witness
a few more delays. Prince of Persia 3D is still at
a pre-alpha stage of development, with the basic
game engine about 70% complete. Most of the Prince
animation and controls are done, and work is now
taking place on designing the traps and levels for
the game and on the layout for the cutscenes, which
link together the levels in helping the story to
progress. Red Orb had not usually developed its
games in-house, but in this case a tight-knit team
of about twenty people, some longtime employees (a
few of whom worked on the original Prince of Persia
games) and others hired specifically for this
product are working feverishly on the project. In
terms of this timetable, Andrew Pedersen mentions
that his one regret is "If I could turn back the
clock a bit, I think I would have started
development earlier so I could get the product out
for this Christmas and give the Prince fans
something for their stockings."
This
design team is supremely confident that Prince of
Persia 3D is going to be a smashing success, and
from what I have seen I share their unbridled
enthusiasm. Pedersen believes that the legions of
fans of the original Prince of Persia are "going to
go crazy" over this product, and I have no reason
to doubt this estimate because the team has
literally been bombarded by inquiries from all over
the world ever since announcing the development of
the game. He contends that because the team is
"trying to make the game as accessible as possible
through the use of intuitive controls, a
straightforward fighting model, and an intelligent
inventory system," the core gaming audience as well
as the fans of the original series will be eager to
buy it. Most encouraging is his report that, "A
sequel is definitely in our plans; we don't want
the Prince fans to wait another 6 years between
products," and that the team specifically chose to
use scalable technology so as to make it easier to
incorporate enhancements in future iterations of
the game.
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