Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones Review

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(More customer reviews)I still remember when the original Prince of Persia came out. Not the Sands of Time, but the two-dimensional PC version from the nineties. It was one of my favorite games. The series dragged for awhile, and then they began the current trilogy by releasing the Sands of Time, Warrior Within, and now, finally, The Two Thrones.

It's necessary to talk about the previous two games for a bit, because The Two Thrones takes a lot from both of them. In Sands of Time, what I felt was the real strength of the game was the storyline, along with superb voice acting and graphics that were ahead of their time. The prince was versatile and very easy to maneuver. Although the game was rather short, it was a fun ride. The major complaint about that game was its fighting engine, which was, admittedly, a bit bland and boring. With Warrior Within, they greatly improved the fighting engine, adding all sorts of maneuvers and combos and two-weapon fighting, which added another level of fun to the game. What Warrior Within seemed to lack from the first game, however, was the atmosphere. The prince didn't have Farrah (from the first game) as a companion to work with, and other than with boss fights, there was little dialogue. It was a much....darker game. Bloodier, gorier, and the music was laden with Godsmack and all sorts of heavy rock which, although during a few of the battles I thought it made it fun, seemed out of place.

The Two Thrones took what worked from both of the previous games in the trilogy, and dropped what didn't. The fighting engine from Warrior Within has returned, and has been improved. In Warrior Within it didn't really matter to me if I had two weapons or not; in this game the prince is MUCH deadlier with a second weapon (and also seems to lose it faster). I kept on finding I was looking to pick up a second weapon often, which is something I liked. They also added 'quick kills' to this game, where if you can sneak up on someone it gives you a sequence where you have to press the slash button as your blade lights up--and it's not extremely easy. The window you have to hit that button in is short enough to give you a challenge, but not too tough. Plus, they have quite a few different animations for it, so you can't just get used to one pattern for it. Boss battles have a level of difficulty, but aren't too tough.

The storyline of this game is also done very well. They lightened up the atmosphere that was so dark in Warrior Within. Although it's definitely not a light-hearted storyline, the voice acting and lighting in general seems to have made it much...cheerier. The prince (as you can tell by all of the previews and the artwork on the cover of the game) is now, well, schizophrenic. His darker side--I guess you could call it his warrior within--is now a voice in his head, and the prince banters with his darker half constantly. I found myself looking forward to the dialogue as much as anything else in the game, especially towards the end of the game.

A note of caution about the story: there were two endings to Warrior Within. The second ending could only be unlocked by acquiring all of the health upgrades. The story to The Two Thrones continues from the secret ending, not the normal one. If you didn't get the secret ending to Warrior Within, you may be confused as The Two Thrones begins.

The graphics to this game are essentially the same as Warrior Within. The cutscenes are incredible, but there aren't too many of them; there are far more in-game cutscenes using the regular character models than there are videos. The character models aren't bad, but they're not great, either. I don't think I can really complain, but the prince looks, well, lanky sometimes. I guess 'awkward' would describe him well. It's not that he looks stiff, or anything like that, but he just, well, bends in a strange way here and there. You can't really blame the game for that, though, because with all of his versatility he ends up in all sorts of positions, and so for some of them not to look completely natural is (in my book) easily forgiven.

The prince still moves in pretty much the same way from both of the previous games. He can run along walls, climb anything, jump unnaturally high--you get the picture. He certainly has some new things he can do in this game, but not very many. What I find neat about this game (and the previous two) is that although a lot of the things the prince can do are COMPLETELY impossible, the animation is done in such a way that you *almost* believe that it's possible. Almost. His moves are believable, which is a real credit to the animations he has.

Not only has the prince become schizophrenic in this game, but he has taken it one step further--his darker half takes over quite often, completely transforming his appearance. His dark side is MUCH more fierce of a warrior, holding a weapon in his off-hand that is essentially a giant chain, which he is very proficient with. You'll find it extremely easy to defeat enemies when you play as the dark side, but there's one catch: the prince's health drains over time. It replenishes fully when you get a sand tank. This may sound familiar from Warrior Within, where the prince was a sand wraith for some time, but there is quite a difference with the dark prince. The sand wraith had unlimited sand tanks; dark prince does not. The sand wraith would stop losing health at a certain point; the dark prince does not. If you don't improve your health, the dark prince will die, so it forces you to be quick as you go through certain puzzles trying to get back to being the normal prince. In general this doesn't become too much of a problem, as there are sand tanks in just about anything you smash while being the dark prince, but towards the end of the game it got pretty difficult, especially if you haven't gotten many health upgrades (which I didn't).

There were also some chariot races that they added. They weren't extremely fun, but I didn't find them to be a burden, either. One of them was pretty difficult, and ended with the most difficult boss battle in the game, so it's a good idea not to use up all of your sand tanks on the chariot race (which I did) because you'll need them in the boss battle, or else you'll play that battle QUITE a few times, especially if you haven't gotten many health upgrades (which I hadn't, and it took more than twenty attempts for me to win that battle). What makes the chariot races difficult is there's no health meter; if you crash you die. The chariot was maneuverable enough that the controls didn't cause you to crash, but sometimes it was difficult to see what was ahead, and the difficult race was a few minutes long--pretty tough if you don't want to use your sand tanks (which, believe me, you don't).

I already mentioned the voice acting. The music has changed from Warrior Within to be more...arabian. It fits well with the atmosphere. I found that oftentimes, especially with the Empress of Time (who narrates the story) it was difficult to hear her, so you'll want to turn voice sounds all the way up and sound effects and music down to be able to hear everything. Sometimes she would begin narrating JUST as I went to save my game, and it would cut her voice off, so that I didn't hear what she had to say. It's not a huge deal--nothing she said specifically had anything to do with any puzzles or anything, but with the story being as good as it is, it would have been nice to hear everything.

I also found that I relied on the sands MUCH less in this game than in the previous two. Some of the powers I got I never even used. Call it a credit to the well-programmed fighting engine, call it a credit to the game giving you a good clue as to where it is that you have to go, and the controls following what you tell it to do. But other than a few mistimed jumps, or poorly-executed 'quick kills,' I rarely needed to rely on the sands.

Overall, I think this game--and series in all--has been outstanding. All too often the sequel to a game becomes old hat, just a bland remake of the previous version. The Two Thrones is not bland. You may get sick of some of the puzzles here and there, but the superb storyline told through excellent voice acting makes you keep on wanting more. If you haven't played the previous games in the series, I'd suggest you do so before playing this game. Although you don't need any of the knowledge from previous games to be able to get through this one, they don't put much effort in brushing you up on what has happened in the previous games. Overall, The Two Thrones provides a satisfying conclusion to a series that has been outstanding throughout and constantly improving. It's a shame that the conclusion to this game is so final; I don't think I could ever get enough of this series, but alas, this is the finale.

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Product Description:
Prince of Persia: Two Thrones picks up the incredible action and adventure of the series with an all-new chapter. The Prince has returned from his adventures with his love, Kaileena. Instead of the peace that he longs for, he finds his homeland ravaged by war and the kingdom turned against him. The Prince is captured and Kaileena has no choice but to sacrifice herself and unleash the Sands of Time to save him. Now a fugitive, the Prince discovers that past battles have given rise to a deadly Dark Prince, whose spirit gradually possesses him.

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