In partnership with Pathé, Ubisoft has developed a virtual reality escape game based on the disastrous fire that burned a significant portion of the iconic Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral in 2019.
Following the statement from President Emmanuel Macron that restoration work would be started immediately, Ubisoft donated €500,000 to those reconstruction efforts and gave away Assassin's Creed Unity on PC so that players could appreciate the beauty of the 856-year-old Gothic cathedral before the destruction. "We want to give everyone the chance to experience the majesty and beauty of Notre-Dame the best way we know how,” said the company at the time. Of course, it's not a wholly accurate representation of the Notre-Dame as some changes were made for the flow of the game and the country's copyright laws prevented the cathedral's art and stained glass windows from being recreated in Unity.
Here's the trailer for the film about the fire from director Jean-Jacques Annaud that shares its name with the upcoming escape game:
"Notre Dame on Fire offers a blow-by-blow recreation of the gripping events that took place on April 15, 2019, when the cathedral suffered the biggest blaze in its history. The film retraces how heroic men and women put their lives on the line to accomplish an awe-inspiring rescue," is the description of the trailer from Pathé. As for the game, players will step into the shoes of the fire fighters who fought to contain the flames and save the historic artefacts that they find.
"Like any escape game, it's a question of puzzles and co-operating with your teammates," explained Deborah Papiernik, Ubisoft senior VP new business and strategic alliances, in an interview with Variety. "The idea is to make your way through the cathedral to find relics and to fight the fire, because you have to save Notre Dame [before the clock runs out]."
Notre Dame on Fire will give players only one hour to work together and prevent the rest of the cathedral from destruction and uses the models from Unity to recreate the paths that the actual firefighters would have followed. Furthermore, it will be released in March as a location-based virtual reality experience in over 600 international partner locations who work with Ubisoft.
