Mix of Assassin's Creed, God of War and Uncharted. This is what the „Redemption” of Prince of Persia might have looked like
After The Forgotten Sands, the Prince of Persia series didn't have to fall into oblivion. Ubisoft Montreal studio tried to bring to life another high-budget project set in this universe - PoP: Redemption.
The Prince of Persia series is having a bit of an "uphill battle." After the success of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, the series started to decline and was eventually overshadowed by the more popular and profitable Assassin’s Creed.
However, this doesn't mean that Ubisoft, the company overseeing its development, has completely given up on it. From time to time, the Prince of Persia makes a comeback with various projects like the platform game Lost Crown or the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Remake, which has faced some challenges meeting players' expectations, and it's unclear when it will be released.
All of this means that the last high-budget project set in this universe was the game Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands, released in 2010, which some maliciously call "a game based on a movie based on a game." However, there was a chance for the Prince to see another Triple-A installment. We're talking about Prince of Persia: Redemption, which could have been a redemption for the brand or a nail in the coffin.
Target render
Prince of Persia: Redemption is a production that never received an official announcement. No wonder, because the process of its creation never really started for good. Nonetheless, around 2010-2011, Ubisoft Montreal created an internal demo to show how a new Prince of Persia game could look. However, the project didn't get the green light from Ubisoft, so the creators had to move on and focus on other titles.
Although players were never supposed to hear about Prince of Persia: Redemption, in 2012, a video by Ubisoft Montreal was published on YouTube. Interestingly, it had to wait as long as 8 years for the discovery by the community and to gain worldwide fame. What can we learn from this video material?
New opportunities
Even though the gameplay-style video doesn't reveal much about the plot, it seems like we would be playing a slightly different version of Prince of Persia than the one from the subseries that started in 2003. The protagonist would be slightly more muscular, and would also have shorter hair. His ability to control time would return, but it would be combined with other supernatural and equally powerful (and useful) abilities.
The prince could also teleport, as well as attack the souls of enemies, draining their life bars. Interestingly, the character would have a deformed arm, similar to the one in the 2008 game Prince of Persia, allowing him to grab onto walls and perform other actions.
What else does the above trailer tell us about Redemption? First and foremost, we would get a TPP action adventure game, and the gameplay would be spectacular. In addition to platform sections, it would not lack dynamic combat. The prince would face both standard enemies and bosses, who would impress with their size. In the game, a parkour system would be implemented, which could be reminiscent of the one from the Assassin's Creed series.
Considering the deteriorating environment and the overall vibe, it seems like Prince of Persia: Redemption would have fit in between the earlier games of the series and the Assassin's Creed series, as well as games like God of War and Uncharted.
Undervalued potential
After years, Jonathan Cooper, a former animator at Ubisoft, addressed the matter of Prince of Persia: Redemption. As he wrote on X (then Twitter):
Wow - I haven't seen this in ages. Amazing work from animation director Khai Nguyen ("For Honor") and team. This target game footage (pre-rendered game pitch) inspired our own pitch for Assassin's Creed 3 as they did such a great job making it look like real gameplay.
By the way - while in Assassin's Creed III it's rather hard to find similarities to Prince of Persia: Redemption (I would risk saying that even in the target render of Connor Kenway's adventure mentioned by Cooper, it's hard to find them), the opening section of Assassin's Creed Rogue, specifically - the escape from Lisbon - looks quite similar. See for yourselves:
If Ubisoft Montreal's proposal looked so good, why didn't Ubisoft give it the green light? Cooper has the answer to this question. As he wrote:
Sadly, Ubisoft is generally quicker to cancel Prince of Persia games than other IPs, because AFAIK original creator Jordan Mecher still holds license rights so the profit margins are lower. Would love to see a new one, though. I've always wanted a PoP set in contemporary Iran.
At the time of writing these words, it is difficult to say whether the Prince of Persia franchise still has a bright future ahead and whether it will ever see a high-budget entry, which could be Prince of Persia: Redemption. Work is currently still underway on Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake, and the Evil Empire studio is developing its roguelike spin-off titled The Rogue Prince of Persia. Time will show what will happen next.
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