Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Remake is coming January 2021

We heard a rumor earlier this morning about a possible remake or remaster of 2003’s Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. Today, during the second Ubisoft Forward of the summer, it was confirmed. The prince will return January 21, 2021, and we have a trailer showing off how Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Remake will look. Hint: not bad, but not great.

Perhaps we can chalk it up to the trailer possibly consisting of alpha footage, but the remake looks… fine? Well, about as fine as sentient, plastic action figures can look, anyway. Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Remake clearly won’t boast Crash-level graphics, but at least it’s taking it easy on the bloom lighting this go around.

Regardless, the gameplay is what matters. Sands of Time won its fame with high-flying, death-defying, time-warping parkour, and the remake doesn’t appear to tweak this in any way. Indeed, the combat appears to be untouched, for better or worse. I haven’t played the original in nearly two decades. Between 2003 and now, there have been many improvements to combat in action games, so the remake might feel a bit past its prime.

Director Pierre-Sylvain Gires, however, promises some small improvements. Gires said the game will see upgrades in “everything in the game from camera to combat, as well as the visuals.”

Turning over the hourglass

That all might be needless concern, of course. Despite the characters looking a bit too plastic, it’s still Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, one of my favorite games from the PlayStation 2 and Xbox generation. The series started falling out of favor with the sequel, but the original still stands as one of the greatest games ever made. You know, before Ubisoft decided to start making the same open-world game year after year. Having the prince back in our corner is going to be refreshing.

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Remake still has plenty of, ahem, time to get polished. The game will launch for PC on January 21, 2021, and will go for $39.99 USD. Pre-order bonuses include a set of original weapons and outfit, and a “Classic Filter” (read: bloom lighting).