Prince of Persia E3 2003 Preshow Report

At E3, we had a chance to check out an early build of the PlayStation 2 version of Ubi Soft's recently revealed update of the classic Prince of Persia franchise. The game is being developed by Ubi Soft's Montreal studio and features some striking technical similarities to another of the Montreal studio's projects--Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell. The game puts you in the role of the prince named in the title. Following a successful military campaign, the young prince stops in to visit a neighboring ruler and is tricked into unleashing the sands of time on an unsuspecting world. When he realizes what he's done, the young prince vows to set things right.

While the game was still fairly early, the short demo gave us a solid idea of what to expect. Although he unleashed the sands of time, the prince is able to harness some of their powers for his own needs. As a result, you will have access to several powers that will be crucial to your success. You'll essentially be able to control time, giving you the ability to rewind your mistakes, perform special attacks, and even have random visions that will clue you in to the challenges posed by the upcoming level.

The graphics in the game are coming together very well and feature a host of very slick lighting and fire effects that showcase the Canadian development studio's familiarity with the PlayStation 2 hardware. The large environments boast a great deal of detail, thanks to very clean textures and the aforementioned lighting effects.

From what we've seen so far, Prince of Persia is shaping up to be a promising revival of the classic franchise. Prince of Persia is currently slated to ship this fall. PC, Xbox, and GameCube versions are also in the works, though none of them were shown.