Ubisoft has revealed its third and latest VR escape room experience which is based on one of its classic franchises; Prince of Persia: The Dagger of Time will support up to four VR players who will control time itself as cooperatively solve puzzles.
While perhaps better known for their in-home VR games, Ubisoft has quietly built a series of successful out-of-home VR experiences which it bills as “VR escape rooms.” The company’s cooperative VR experiences are now available at 300 locations globally, with no signs of slowing down.
Coming soon to locations this Spring is a VR escape room experience which will breathe some life into one of Ubisoft’s most classic franchises, Prince of Persia, which hasn’t seen a major entry since 2010’s Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands.
The franchise is known for its themes of time-control, and it’s clear by the name of the upcoming experience—Prince of Persia: The Dagger of Time—that the theme will be front and center. Created by Ubisoft Düsseldorf, the studio says players will fight their way out of the Fortress of Time:
In the story, players are summoned by Kaileena, the Empress of Time. They are asked to help her to stop the evil plans of a Magi who is attempting to restore the sands to the Hourglass of Time and create an army of Sand Monsters. To successfully escape the fortress, players must use cooperative teamwork and problem-solving skills to complete objectives, utilizing powers such as time control from the dagger of time.
“We decided to push the level of quality and complexity of our experiences to another level in Prince of Persia: The Dagger of Time. We added many features, like being able to play not only with two or four players, but now with three players,” said Cyril Voiron, executive producer at Ubisoft Escape Games, in a Q&A. “To do so, we are not mirroring the in-game environment like we did in Escape the Lost Pyramid, and this makes the riddles and the level design way more complex.”
Voiron explained a bit how the game’s time-control mechanic will work.
“Only the player who holds the Dagger of Time in their hands can control time, and they can stop, rewind, or move time forward. When they do so, we added some visual and audio cues so the other players also realize that time is being manipulated. It is quite impressive the first time that you can freeze the world around you!”
He also confirmed the company has tested to ensure that all of its VR escape rooms are wheelchair-accessible experiences.
Ubisoft has learned quite a bit about what does and doesn’t work in the VR attraction space after creating two prior experiences: Beyond Medusa’s Gate (2018) and Escape the Lost Pyramid (2019), both of which are set in the Assassin’s Creed universe. As for its third and latest, Ubisoft previously said that the Prince of Persia project is their largest team size yet for a VR escape room project.