Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones

This completes the new series, and takes the consequence of the ones before it, similar to how Warrior Within(the saving method of which this retains) built on the first. It has elements of both of them, and adds quite a lot(and far more than aforementioned earlier sequel). You may still wield two weapons, but now the choice of the other one... sword, mace, dagger or axe... affects the way you do so, in the range, force, etc. of the blows. There are still many different ones within those four kinds. The Free Form Fighting System is also still in use, so spamming powerful attacks is still possible, however, this comes closer to The Sands of Time in the combat, with more strategy and tactics necessary, among other things because of those archers... arrows in general are present in this, and they are very welcome. The battles are longer and tougher, and do not get tedious like they did in the one immediately preceding this. Making things interesting is also the fact that you no longer use a lengthy blade as usual... and I will leave it at that, lest I spoil something. One can also tell that the good people at Ubisoft had Splinter Cell on their mind... a couple of the new moves are right out of those, and stealth is a genuine option at several places. They make it work, and it doesn't stand out as (much as) one might think. Speed Kills are part of this... and no, that's not a campaign telling us to slow down on the freeway, nor one against that particular drug. It's a way to take out opponents, typically when they aren't yet aware of your proximity, and all you truly need is to get the timing right, albeit the first time you try the specific ones, before you know what's coming, you will have to react split-second, as well as not get trigger-happy. It works impeccably well, and really adds to this. The Bosses vary, but at their best, they're incredible. The plot is great, picking up where the last one left off, confirming which of the endings they used, and taking you through one place that had yet to be visited in these three... The Prince's home, Babylon. Only it's not how he remembers it, and you'll soon find out why. The idea is magnificent, and making your way through the city is entertaining. As a character, he grows and develops a lot in this, and this really does close this version, these post-2000 entries, well. The voice acting is all satisfactory. Yuri is back, and thankfully, he left the vast majority of the emo back in the first one, but he did bring the humor with him, as well as what comes of his inner talks with his... other half(who's got a nasty case of cynicism). Yes. In this, you also get to control the Dark side of the leading man sometimes, who's stronger, but whose life gradually drains, one of the aspects of this making for serious tension. Does the word Daggertail mean anything to you? Once you've gotten to use it in this, it definitely will. It is a lot of fun, downright addictive, and a marvelous spice for the squaring off against enemies(and it can be used at points for maneuvering, marvelous). You once again get to use the special abilities. The chariot racing is pure awesomeness captured perfectly. The foes are relatively diverse, and less annoying than those of WW. The camera is a little limited, compared to the ones before this, and the panoramic view is less available, and once or twice, even kinda phoned in. The story-telling is similar to SoT. This gets you into it the fastest, and is also the shortest of them. There are graphic glitches and even bugs beyond the others, and it is sadly not as stable, either. This can be disturbing, though it is not as bleak as the second one. There are grotesque creatures herein. The tone is a mix of the others. The style is achieved well, and this uses slow-motion rather well. This also requires patience, reflexes, fingers adept at VG's, and time. The AI is nice, in that they all respond and act the way you'd expect them to. The re-playability is reasonable, you earn Sand Credits as you go, and if you get them all, you will unlock everything, in all of the artwork galleries. And you may just gain something else, as well. The videos(sadly, sans subtitles, although mostly, you can tell what's said) become available upon completion, all but one are the ones you watched along the way in this, and that one is an absolutely hilarious, if criminally brief, gag reel. The cut-scenes are well-done, and can be fairly effective. The CGI is utterly stunning. The animation and look of everything is fantastic. The level design is perhaps the tiniest step down from earlier in these, here and there, but overall it remains at the high quality of them. They utilize the new moves and acrobatics unbelievably well. The puzzles are still well-done, and this can be challenging, and should satisfy a decent range of people, with three difficulty settings. Do you like those ledges that fall off after you step on them? Well, they've made a triumphant return. The audio is well-done, everything sounds the way it should, and the music is nice. The heavy metal of the middle chapter is gone. The attitude towards nudity in this is the same as the earlier two, but it does somehow seem less provocative. The violence is debatable, but there is some blood. There is next to no gore. Language is nonexistent. I recommend this, and the entire franchise up to this point(the pre-beginning of new millennium-ones are immensely well-done, as well, they just happen to be old, and you can tell), to any fan of action-adventure titles, anyone who enjoys the culture, and all who appreciate swordsmanship in games. 8/10

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 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.

Yes, this game is the final installment for this particular prince of Persia, a new one is waiting in the wings. However, as far as this prince is concerned this is the best game he is in. The reason, it does the best job incorporating the fighting and the acrobatics the best of the three. Basically, the fighting is fun and you have plenty of the wall running to really keep you entertained. Throw into that more boss fights than the previous two installments could muster and a nice little change in the prince as he becomes a dark self. It even has the addition of stealth kills that are easy to do and look very cool. The game is a bit short though, and the way it picked up with the sorceress of time alive as she died on the only play through I did in Warrior Within. Which means you should not make your game multiple ending and pick up only one of the possible endings in the next installment. So here we have an old villain emerge, an old ally emerge and a very dark side of the prince emerge. The dark prince side is rather cool and can slice and dice opponents very effectively. His main drawback is that water is a weakness of his and he slowly but surely runs out of health. Still he can replenish it by killing enemies and he does that quite well. The regular prince is still effective to at what he does and fighting and stealth kills are his thing too. You do not go over the same territory in this one like in Within so the game remains fresh. There is a chariot race like scene in this one, but not that great. It is okay, but it does not really add anything. So for my money all in all this is the best of the three prince of Persia games.

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.