Prince of Persia 3D

aka: PoP 3D, Prince of Persia 3, Prince of Persia: Arabian Nights
Moby ID: 876
Windows Specs
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Description official descriptions

The Sultan of Persia and his son-in-law are visiting the Sultan's brother, Assan. The friendly family meeting soon turns into a nightmare: Assan kills the young Prince's bodyguards, locks him up in a prison, and captures the Sultan. The reason is a little disagreement between the brothers regarding matrimonial arrangements: it appears that the Sultan had promised his daughter to Assan's son, Rugnor, and later broke his promise by letting her marry the Prince. In the resulting turmoil, the Sultan is killed, and the Princess is kidnapped by Rugnor, a ruthless half-tiger creature. The Prince must figure out a way to find Rugnor, defeat him, and rescue his wife.

Prince of Persia 3D is just what its title implies: an action platformer with puzzle-solving elements in the style of the previous Prince of Persia games, but set in a three-dimensional environment. The Prince still has to time his jumps, avoid deadly traps, interact with the environment, and fight Rugnor's minions who will try to stop him.

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Credits (Windows version)

98 People (73 developers, 25 thanks) · View all

Executive Producer
Lead Designer
Lead Programmer
Visual Designer
Lead Animator
Lead Level Design
Design Consultant
Associate Producers
Production Assistant
Programming
Additional Programming
3D Artists
Level Designers
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Reviews

Critics

Average score: 67% (based on 51 ratings)

Players

Average score: 2.7 out of 5 (based on 50 ratings with 5 reviews)

A great sequel that maintains the original gameplay despite the move to 3D

The Good
The game sucessfully carries the gamplay from the original titles into a 3D environment and adds a few new moves and traps into the mix. The 3D engine used is very quick and some of the environments (particularly outdoors) are very impressive.

The Bad
The camera angles would occasionally make things a bit more difficult than they could have been. This didn't occur too often though and was not nearly as bad as I'd heard. Also the game suffers from an absurdly difficult last level in which you can't save your game!

The Bottom Line
The gameplay is essentially very similar to the original two games. Each level of the game is basically a puzzle or obstacle course and you have to work out a route to get through it. Because of this the pace of the game is quite slow and you have to use your brain rather than your reflexes. It's therefore not going to appeal to your typical action gamer and this is probably why it got so many bad reviews. If, however, you liked the original games and don't mind doing more thinking than fighting then I'd recommend giving it a go.

Windows · by Pix (1172) · 2000

A game that will blow you away!

The Good
I love the way the makers of this game maintained the atmosphere of the predecessors although this game is in 3d.

You will be dazzled by the amazing graphics, sounds, and levels.

The Prince has been invited to King Assan’s (the Sultan’s brother) castle to celebrate (or rather ruin) the Prince’s & Princess’s marriage, it turns out that King Assan is furious that the princess did not marry his son, Rugnor, and it also turns out that the princess has been kidnapped, and (much like the original game) the prince is thrown in the dungeons and has to fight his way out to save the princess.

The Bad
I am disappointed (although I like this game) that this game has completely lost the platform genre of its predecessors, the game also suffers from camera angles that go wild while trying to avoid traps making it very annoying to avoid these traps.

The Bottom Line
My personal rating for this game is 9 out of 10, so if you feel that you can take the challenge, buy this game, sharpen your sword, and embark on adventure of a lifetime.

Windows · by Jim Fun (207) · 2001

The worst game that I've played in ages.

The Good
There is nothing redeeming about this game. The biggest plus that Prince of Persia 3D has going for it is a well-groomed lineage; one that this game surely doesn't deserve to belong to.

The Bad
Two of my all-time favorite games are Prince of Persia and Prince of Persia 2. So naturally, I was excited when this game came out. However, now that I have purchased this one I feel cheated. POP3D has to be one of the WORST games I've ever played.

The load times on my PII 450 with a TNT2 video card and 192MB of memory are unbearable. The controls are overly complex and the character movements will truly frustrate anyone. Gone are the quick fluid movements that we all loved and in are slow clumbsy actions with poor transitions. The camera angles are never where you want (and need) them to be. Often the camera is behind a wall or in a wall. You will die constantly from this. Guards will sneak up in your blind spots. Jumps will be missed. The music and sound effects are truly unspectacular.
The action is boring and the pace of the game is so sluggish that it puts me to sleep. I find nothing in this game that is in the spirit of the first two games. Jordan Mechner should be ashamed to have his name associated with this title. I've tried to play this game several times over the last 5 months. I've wanted to like this game. I've given it several chances; more chances than it deserved. But damnitt, I wanted to like this game.

The Bottom Line
Prince of Persia 3D is basically a game trying to cash in on the success of Prince of Persia and Prince of Persia 2. Instead of trying to make a sequel that is truely in the spirit of it's predecessors the marketing people decided to make a 3D action adventure game alla Tomb Raider. If you liked the original Prince of Persia, stay away from this game. If you liked what Sierra did with Kings Quest 8 -- give this game a try, you just might like it.

Windows · by Brian Hirt (10409) · 2000

[ View all 5 player reviews ]

Discussion

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Question about credits source Mtik333 (29526) Feb 27, 2021

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Brian Hirt.

Dreamcast added by Adam Baratz.

Additional contributors: Adam Baratz, Jim Fun, Johnny "ThunderPeel2001" Walker, Jalal Noureddine.

Game added February 21, 2000. Last modified March 7, 2024.