Introduction
Hahahaha, no way in hell, buddy.
Welcome to Prince of Persia 3D!
Prince of Persia 3D, as the title suggests, is the third official installment of the well-known Prince of Persia series. It was developed by Red Orb Entertainment (a company which spawned from Broderbund Software, who published the first two games) and released by The Learning Company in September 1999. It is the last game of the series prior to its rebirth back in 2003, as a game company called Ubisoft released a pretty fun game called Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. But, let's not get ahead of ourselves and let's focus to this particular third game now.
This game marks the transition of the series to the 3D format, which has always been pretty tricky for every single of those franchises out there who wished to keep up with the times, as 3D engines and games became the rage. Several franchises manage to bridge the gap from 2D to 3D flawlessly (Mario 64), some did an okay job but nothing more (Worms 3D) and sometimes the bridge is so convulsed and twisted that it crumbles and leaves no survivors. Prince of Persia 3D belongs in that final category.
I don't like that maniacal laughter you're having. What's wrong with this game?
This game is a total trainwreck. The designers of Prince of Persia 3D obviously were more interested in trying to create a nice-looking game instead of trying to make it playable. For a 1999 game, this actually looks pretty good. Some of the models are a bit freakish and seem to belong in Quake 2 rather than in Middle East, but where the designers chose, they created a really nice looking game due to its great use of textures. Unfortunately, not every single level gets such love and a great deal of them just seemed to be rushed out of the door as fast as possible and look ugly as hell. That brings me to my deepest concern about this game and why it deserves nothing but to rot in hell forever...
Wikipedia posted:
Due to financial difficulties, Red Orb was forced to release the game before it had gone through the bug detection and correction stage. Moreover, it was sold and re-sold, first to Mattel, then to The Learning Company.
You read that right. This game is not finished. The engine is hilariously buggy, leading to some awkwardly funny situations and moments, but it can also make you want to tear your hair off because said bugs are preventing you from beating the level you're currently playing, making you start all over again. Isn't that great? Of course you're going to see all of this great engine in action.
This total nonsense also carries on in the overall game design. Prince of Persia 3D's game world is ruled with arbitrary death, jumping puzzles and traps where they don't even serve any purpose. This game has a truly wretched storyline which makes less sense the more it advances and some of the locales that you will be visiting seem to arise from M.C. Escher's most violent acid trips. At least, the designers keep things fresh with a never-ending assortment of traps, as well than having many new potions which affect gameplay (such as potions which transform you into an ugly freak, then a potion which makes you invisible and makes your newly found freak status unapparent), plus new weapons; this game feature several weapons you can use to beat down your foes like swords or some nifty double blades, plus you got a bow that has enchanted arrows for almost everything. Okay, I'm lying. It's just shooting bees, fire and poison at people. What a sad state of affairs.
It's about time everyone learnt the truth about this game. This is why I'm LPing it, as I'll showcase how the series totally went to hell with this installment and how the folks at Ubisoft learnt from it and made 3D Prince of Persia games that were great and playable. Buckle in, we're going for one hellish ride.
Swordfights! Abusive motion blur! Violent gore! (Yeah, this is considered as gore by the game)
You wacky Prince! You and your death poses!
At least, I have my legions of zombified people to provide me with meaningful advice!
I have nothing else to say. God bless my soul.
Let's kick this off with the first videos of the thread, which consist of the opening cutscene, which sets the tone fairly well for the rest of the game. Then, we're moving on to Level 1 - The Dungeon! We can be sure that the designers will draw you in with a simple and short level, right? Guess again, sucker.
Videos
Opening cutscene - (Gamevee)Level 1 - The Dungeon - (Gamevee)
Level 2 - Ivory Tower - (Gamevee)
Level 3 - The Cistern - (Gamevee)
Level 4 - The Palace (Part 1) - (Gamevee)
Level 5 - The Palace (Part 2) - (Gamevee)
Level 6 - The Palace (Part 3) - (Gamevee)
Level 7 - Rooftops - (Gamevee)
Level 8 - Streets/Docks - (Gamevee)
Level 9 - Lower Dirigible (Part I) - (Gamevee)
Level 10 - Lower Dirigible (Part II) - (Gamevee)
Level 11 - Upper Dirigible - (Gamevee)
Level 12 - Dirigible Finale - (Gamevee)
Level 13 - The Floating Ruins - (Gamevee)
Level 14 - Cliffs - (Gamevee)
Level 15 - Sun Temple - (Gamevee)
Level 16 - Moon Temple - (Gamevee)
Level 17 - The End - (Gamevee)
Bonus Content
The Making of Prince of Persia 3D: Part 1 Part 2 (thanks ulti)
SegaCD introduction to Prince of Persia (aka a bunch of gay anime poo poo with horrible voice acting) (thanks Semi-Normal)