Quest of Persia

"CCTV (Chinese TV) - Review , September 2008"

CCTV (The English channel of the Chinese TV) in a segment about "QoP: Lotfali Khan Zand" talked about the game's popularity among the Persian gamers.

"Alyum (Russian TV) - Review , August 2008"

Alyum (The Arabic channel of the Russian TV) did a complete segment about "QoP: Lotfali Khan Zand", which talked about the game's story, quality, development and the feedback of the Persian gamers.

"Computer World - Review, July 2008"

Quest of Persia: Lotfali Khan Zand - Review (Hossein Rasouly)

In an article titled: "Lotfali Khan Zand, a fully Persian prince", Computer World wrote a complete review about the game, they think games like "Lotfali Khan Zand" will give hope to Persian game development industry.

"Technology and Computer - Review, July 2008"

Quest of Persia: Lotfali Khan Zand - Review (Reza Ghavidel)

We are happy to say that the game looks very good in terms of graphics. The fact that developers have spent most of their time and budget on graphic has paid off. Furthermore, the Non-Interactive sequences have given a depth to the story of the game. You get to play with different swords with different moves and abilities, and get to destroy boxes, scaffolds, and other objects through out the game. The main challenge for the developers have been the AI system for enemies and friends, which have been done superbly in comparison with other Persian games. The game lighting is ok, but has small some shortcomings. mechanical puzzles throughout the game has added excitement to the game. However, they should have done a better job , when a large number of enemies are attacking. Player should have better ability to defeat all of them, in those situations.

"Middle East Gamers - Preview, May 2008"

Quest of Persia: Lotfali Khan Zand - Preview

Click here to read the complete preview from MEGamers.com

"Doniaye Bazi - Preview, March 2008"

QoP: Lotfali Khan Zand - Preview (Babak Namazian/ Taha Rasuli)

Lotfali Khan Zand is a Third Person Action game which has lots of similarities to the famous "Prince of Persia" game. It has a historical theme, and it is mostly about the conquests of Lotfali Khan Zand against Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar. Graphically the game designers have done great job of creating the city of Kerman, one of the largest cities of Persia at that time. In terms of graphic the game is very good and acceptable.

The main gameplay is sword-fighting with different weapons, and acrobatic moves. You need to use different weapons and combos in order to overcome the different enemy and bosses. There will be also Mechanical puzzles, and other gameplays which will make the game more interesting.

Quest of Persia one had a strong presence in terms of telling the story through non-interactive sequences, Lotfali Khan Zand is taking advantage of these sequences in a good way.

Lotfali Khan Zand, without a doubt is one of the best Persian games ever built. Everything we saw shows that a great third person action game is on the way. We are hoping that Beta test goes well, and we will see the game released soon.

"Bazy Rayaneh Magazine, January 2008"

The Last Zand Swordsman ("QoP: Lotfali Khan Zand" Exclusive Preview) (Behrooz Ojaghian)

Unlike "QoP: The End of Innocence", "Lotfali Khan Zand" is third person sword-fighting game with a historic theme. What started as a simple Tech-Demo has turned into a full action sword-fighting game. "Lotfali Khan Zand" has a good variety of gameplays from the main sword-fighting to mechanical puzzles. Although the developers have passed the borders of Persian game industry in a considerable way, but the game is still not in the level of games such as "Prince of Persia", or "Assassin's Creed".

Ability to use variety of swords with different characteristics is an exciting side of the game. Each sword has health, damage, speed, and angle parameters which are helpful in choosing an attack strategy.

A good gameplay in a third person action, needs a strong Artificial Intelligence. The most important challenge of the development team was to design a perfect AI. They have spent a fair amount of time researching different techniques which have been used in recent games, and came up with a very solid AI for friendly, and enemy NPCs. Overall, the fights are taking advantage of different moves for various characters, and shows a good variety of sword-fighting. Although we saw some collision detection problems when large of NPCs were involved in the fights, but the AI looked very acceptable. The development team is working hard to solve the remaining issues until the game's release.

"Lotfali Khan Zand", will have two boss fights which will take advantage of Key-Stroke animation, Stealth Kill and other gameplays which is available in QoP2. Although, these gameplays are exciting to see but might not reach the level of world class games such as "Resident Evil 4", or "God of War".

In terms of Level Design, and Environment, QoP2 is close to the level of world class games. In-game animations, are also very enjoyable to watch and realistic. Physics is taking major role in some the levels of QoP2. Throwing barrels and boxes around, breaking walls, and falling scaffolds made QoP2 a very dynamic game.

The game's graphic without a doubt is in the level of the good games of the last generation. The game consists of indoor and outdoor levels. The lighting looks better in indoor levels. The Lighting and shadows in some of the outdoor levels are not very realistic. But the main problem that we faced was dropping the frame rate, in some areas of the game. The development team is working hard to overcome these issues for time of the release.

The music has a sad theme which conveys Lotfali Khan Zand's feelings at the time. When we were doing the preview the sound effects of the game were not final so we will review that in a later time.

Overall, we can say the efforts of the development team for "Lotfali Khan Zand" considering their budget and the size of their team have been successful. If they can solve some of the issues mentioned above by the time of release, the final product will be in the level of the 2002-2003 world class games, which is a success for an independent game developer with no support.

"GamePlay HD TV Channel, November 2007"

Game Revolution in Asia

"Game Revolution in Asia" , a TV program which focuses on Independent Game Development in Asia, featured "Quest of Persia" in their episode dedicated to game development in Persia. Included was the first "Lotfali Khan Zand" hands-on demo session and interview with the developers. This program aired on US Gameplay HD channel in late November.

"Jam-e-Jam Newspaper, December 2007"

A Persian Kind of Game

Jam-e-Jam Newspaper did an interview with "Roozbeh Edjbari" the Lead Level Designer of " QoP: Lotfali Khan Zand", here are parts of that Interview:

Q: In Persia people mostly think, foreign products are usually better than the one made in Persia, is that the case for games?

A: Surly, game development is very a new industry in Persia. "The End of Innocence", our first game two years ago was the first Persian 3D game. Naturally we won't be able to compete with world class games for the time being. But developers are working hard to close the gap. Although world class games are sold very cheap here, Persian gamers are still eager to try Persian games.

Q: Did you have any sponsor or publisher for the "Lotfali Khan Zand" Game? Or did any governmental, or non-governmental organization help financially with this game?

A: No, we didn't have any sponsor for this game, and developed this game totally on the money that we made from our other software projects. Governmental helps were very few, and selective, and surly they didn't include us.

Q: Tell us about the "Lotfali Khan Zand" gameplay?

A: It's a third person sword-fighting game, with a range of weapons, and combos. It also includes additional mechanical puzzles, cannon, and rifle gameplays.

Q: How is "Enemy AI" in this game? Has it improved comparing to what you had in the first game?

A: Yes, This time we have an AI agent that controls the behavior of each enemy agent in the level. It will allow enemy agents to communicate with each other and plan the best possible way of attack. Additionally each enemy uses a model based approach to predict its own sequence of action in advance. Once it finishes the evaluation it will take the best possible course of action.

Q: Are you using your own "QoP Engine" for this game like "The End of Innocence"?

A: No, we bought a license for an already existing engine, and wrote our gameplay on top of that. But even with that the amount of work that has been done for the gameplay of this game was considerably more than what was done on the Engine, and the gameplay of the first game. You will be able to see the result in the "Lotfali Khan Zand" gameplay.