Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones

The Two Thrones is the third and last installment in the Prince of Persia trilogy that started three years ago with the astonishing Sands of Time, a game that turned the popular 2D platform series into a complete and spectacular 3D adventure. Jumping, swinging, grasping, hanging off ledges, solving puzzles and graceful combat made up for one of the best games I ever played. Now I know that many people weren't too happy with the dark and grim atmosphere in Warrior Within, but I was actually quite satisfied with this new style. The extremely spectacular free-fight system that came with it, allowing the player to battle up to 6 enemies at the same time, was especially noteworthy, as well as the great storyline that kept twisting and turning in unexpected ways.

The Two Thrones returns to the sunny style of SoT, with minimal bloodshed and less body parts flying around. The Prince has defied death on the Island of Time, and is returning to his hometown of Babylon, only to find a fierce army murdering and looting its way through the city. It doesn't take long for the Prince to once again go on a quest to destroy evil and restore peace. The Sands of Time, however, have altered him slightly, causing him to change into a dark alter ego, the Dark Prince, from time to time. This is a nice way of bringing some innovation to the game play, as the Dark Prince makes use of a particularly vicious razor-chain, that allows him to make long jumps and dispose of his enemies much more efficiently. Yet, it does not revolutionize the game play as much as I hoped for. Changing into the Dark Prince happens when the story calls for it, not when the player wants it. Life energy slowly diminishes when playing the Dark Prince, which gives a certain amount of pressure to move and waste enemies fast in order to replenish energy quickly, but we already saw something like this in WW, when playing as the Sand Wraith. Other innovations include the speed kills, which enables the player to kill an enemy with a few strokes, and adds a little stealth to the existing game play. It is nice that you can use this techniques to quickly get rid of a few enemies when you are faced with many, but there isn't much variation in speed kill moves, and it takes away a lot of opportunity to go into an adrenalin-pumping free-fight frenzy. Speed kills become much more varied and useful when fighting the mini-bosses, and the resulting battles are quite spectacular to see.

The same can be said from the chariot races that you can do once every while. But just like the Dark Prince appearances, they come only incidentally and they're over just when they become fun. Most of these innovations feel like nice extras instead of fully integrated new parts of the game play, like the 3D platform action and free-fight system.

There are more aspects of the game that give the impression that development of TT was slightly rushed. The story is very straightforward this time, and lacks most of the exiting twists that were so prominent in SoT and WW. As a result, the game is only half as long as Warrior and can be finished in mere days instead of weeks. The graphics and FMVs are okay most of the time, but the in-game cut-scenes look at best five year old. Did production run out of polygons? When not playing as the Dark Prince or riding a chariot, I found that jumping and running along walls was getting a bit monotonous after the two previous games; difficult puzzles are scarce, and finding solutions to situations becomes increasingly simple, with only speed kills offering some variance most of the time. The influence of Jordan Mechner, who wrote history with the original PoP and rewrote it with SoT, is dearly missed at some times.

But as harsh as this all may sound, by no means does this make TT a bad game; it merely prevents this game from becoming a masterpiece like SoT and (to a lesser degree) WW. Although the thrills I got from playing its predecessors were a bit absent, I still got a good time playing TT. Even though not masterly, it is at the very least competently made.

The 3rd and final game in the trilogy with a great conclusion to the series and to me it's the second best out the 3 right behind ww, it has the charming and likeable prince of the first game and the dark side of the second.

the game it self is so similar yet different from the other 2 but one of the new things they added to the gameplay is qte speed kills which i was ok with it and i like the fact that the game is pretty straight forward and you don't go back to the same locations like ww.

this was the time when ubisoft knew when to start and when to end the series and it wasn't like nowadays were you get endless ac games with no good story to tell, i hope if some day we get a new pop game they put some work into it and make something good not another mindless cash grab like most of their games nowdays.

The thing i love about this game is stealth killing and prince performing special moves and fighting techniques. the graphics is nice, gameplay is really super and story is really amazing, brings me even more closer to this game. background music and background sound is awesome, many memories related to this game. Best game ever in the prince of persia franchise. I am biggest fan of Prince of Persia.

The only bad thing about this game is the bloody conflict between his inner "bad" self and his "good" self, now you think "but hey, isn't that what the game is all about?" you are most certainly right my friends, but that is not what i mean. You can only be the dark prince when you must, there is no choice here.

Good prince :"hm i sure could use a chain here" ZAAAAAAAAP, "yeah baby I'm ready and I'm a dark prince but not really evil because i kill just like the good prince" But surely he must be evil, he is wearing black (well his body is). I hope you understand my point, its kind of silly.

This game would have been the best of the three (with the sands of time theme) if you would have more choice, if you could chose your destiny.

Anyway, it looks really great and like a fairy tale, but i personally like sands of time and warrior within more for their ambient graphics.

The "speed kill" which is new, is the most welcome addition to the game in my opinion, it adds some need for timing and skill. No new skills, the only skills that you will probably need is rewind and slow-mo.

This game could have needed some more time in the plot-making factory and the skill-creating office, otherwise a really really fun game to play.

If you are a fan of pop, do buy this game. If not, still buy it :), at least play the demo or rent it.

I just got this game the other day, and holy crap... It's the best game I've played this year! My older, more charming Prince is back! Don't get me wrong. I liked him in WW, but he was such a more interesting character in SoT and T2T. I got my wish, for the prince is no longer that badass wearing nearly nothing at all. He is now the smart-ass prince we all knew and loved! The speed kills add a whole new look to the game, Speed Kills allow you to take out your opponent before he even knows you're there as long as you hit the buttons at the right time, of course. If you fail to do this, then you will have to fight all of the enemies normally, for they will all now be fully alerted.

Overall, like I said, it's the best game I've played this year, in my eyes. Please, if you can, go buy this game, it is a really great game, or at least rent it and give it a try. Either way you'll have a blast!