The
blood,
gore, and
violence are all very prevalent. As for
nudity, one of the
characters wears
nothing but a really long
silk scarf, another wears a
miniskirt, and there are some
underdressed enemies.
Description:
Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones (PoP:TTT) is the third in a series, following
Prince of Persia: The Sands Of Time and
Prince of Persia: Warrior Within. It reveals
the Prince's eventual return to his home of
Babylon. When all is said and done, PoP:TTT is definitely more than the sum of its parts, bringing the
Le Parkour-style acrobatics from the first and the free-form combat introduced in the second together, and adding a new
Speed Kill system. Altogether a completely fulfilling experience.
Distinguishing Features:
Speed Kills: A new mechanic introduced for PoP: TTT. If the
Prince sneaks up on an enemy, a
gold border will appear around the screen. If the player then hits the
Secondary Attack, the
Prince springs up and executes the enemy through a sequence of
timed button presses. The number of presses needed varies from enemy to enemy, some requiring only one, all the way up to five(!). The timing also varies; the
Prince has several random animations to use when attacking.
Mistiming or
failing to hit the attack button at all results in a
failure. The enemy then
throws the
Prince or
boots him in the chest, and the player is forced to take on the enemy
face to face. There is also a two-enemy speed kill, where the
Prince leaps from enemy to enemy. Lastly, all the bosses have
custom speed kills, needed to finish off the boss or deal a large amount of damage with
no risk.
Dark Prince: Due to the Prince's increased, prolonged exposure to the Sands of Time, they have infected him and he now turns into the
Dark Prince, though not of his own control. The
Dark Prince also manifests as
a voice inside the Prince's head (more on this later). The
Dark Prince is awakened when
Mahasti, a
chain-wielding general under the
Vizier, attacks the
Prince and is subsequently swept into a vortex of Sands. However, the chain remains embedded in the Prince's
forearm. After changing into the
Dark Prince, your secondary weapon becomes a long bladed chain whip known as the
Daggertail, and you get access to a completely different set of combos. The
Speed Kills also become a
button-mashing contest, trying to overcome the enemy's strength.
Shutters: In addition to the
wall-running,
rope-swinging, and
ledge-climbing, a new mechanic has been added:
window shutters. They are always reached by
running along a wall, and once the
Prince reaches one,
jumping from it will launch him across gaps completely unreachable by other means.
Further along in the game, you will reach multiple shutter jumps, letting the
Prince jump from three different buildings around corners.
Speed kills can also be activated from shutters, letting the
Prince cover ground at some very
impressive speeds. Enemies turn their back for a moment, and suddenly you have covered
two city blocks in the four seconds he was looking the other way.
Short Review:
Let us say that
Sands of Time has an
awesome value of 1, and that
Warrior Within also has an
awesome value of 1. Adding
Sands of Time to
WW should then mean that
TTT has an
awesome value of two,
right?
Wrong. The Two Thrones is probably equal to a 4 or 5.
You might not want to think about that metaphor too much.
Long Review (Spoiler Free!):
Since I got the game, I have played it through, start to finish, three different times. Keep in mind, not only do I have
World of Warcrack, I also have
two roommates and a
girlfriend who also play WoW. Yet somehow, I go take a break, and a half hour later I'm running across rooftops and
stabbing sand demons in the face.
Story:
As far as the story goes: The
Prince is finally returning home from the Island Of Time, with
Kaileena in tow. When he sails into the
harbor, he finds all of
Babylon aflame, and suddenly realizes that since he got rid of the
Sands, the
Vizier is alive and well, and has made a grab for
the throne. A
catapult then sinks his ship,
Kaileena is washed ashore and captured by the
Vizier's troops, and the
Prince finds himself in the middle of a burning city with nothing but a discarded
scimitar.
Heroics ensue.
The narrative as a whole from
SoT to
WW to
TTT is neatly wrapped up:
One can view the entire Sands of Time trilogy now as a coming-of-age story, redemption through acceptance and eventually growing up. Warrior Within represents the Prince's angst-ridden adolescence, full of misdirected rage and charmless anger. If Sands of Time was a story of the innocence of youth, The Two Thrones is a story of reconciliation, of a man growing up, accepting responsibility for his mistakes and becoming whole again.
(from
slashdot.org)
The voice acting is fantastic. During levels, the
Prince has arguments with his dark counterpart, resulting in some really funny, almost schizoid commentary on the new situation. The
Dark Prince is a reflection of the self the
Prince found during
Warrior Within, and is always trying to get him to ignore the plights of the Prince's subjects and exact revenge on the
Vizier for attacking the city. Their conversations range from the pitfalls of courting the
fairer sex, to
the meaning of being a warrior, to
out-and-out taunting matches. His
arguments with a certain
someone from his past are also something to watch for.
The
animation style is somewhere in between the
smooth fluidity of the first and the
gritty blocks of the second. Also of note is that
the animators didn't use any
motion capture at all for anything. While this does sometimes give it a slight
cartoon feel, the combat and puzzle sequences become a bit more
impressive in that regard.
Gameplay:
The developers at
Ubisoft have been building these levels for two years now, and it really shows. The focus now is less of
slowly jumping from
place to place and looking where to go next, and more of seeing
a long chain of wall runs and triangle jumps and performing it in
one shot. It is possible to reach that
gamer's high and begin intuitively performing the stunts; I remember
multiple occasions where my hands would get ahead of my mind, and I'd find myself at the end of a
chamber with no clear way to explain how I did it.
If you lack patience for
bad level design (like myself) or are a frequenter of
gamefaqs.com, fear not. All it takes is looking up and around for familiar elements. Even if you only find
one, once you get to it, you see the
next three, and the next part of the level. If you can't see one, start
running around and
up and down things; you're bound to see it eventually.
The
Dark Prince and
Light Prince play fairly differently; the
Light Prince is the standard fare from the first two, and the
Dark Prince plays like if the Light
Prince took lessons from
Kratos from
God of War.
The only real
gripes come in with two things:
The chariot fights, and the
ring of fire. The
Prince must take a
chariot across town a couple times while fighting off other
chariots and foot soldiers. The chariot
controls are a little
loose, and you will probably use up most of your
sand tanks getting through them. The
ring of fire is
hard to finish,
even on easy, and will take you anywhere from a
half hour to an
hour and a half (like
me) to complete successfully. You will see what I mean
when you get there.
Other Things To Note:
Just from reading the information on this, I'm getting that
urge to go play it again. Successfully clearing a series of
platforms and
walls and
speed kills and realizing you did it without getting hit
or really even slowing down is a
rush I haven't gotten from a lot of other games these days. If you really can't be bothered to own it, do yourself a favor and rent it. The quality of
storytelling across the whole
Sands of Time trilogy is on a level that we
gamers should be
holding all other companies to. Besides, once you get most of it
memorized, you can impress
roommates and
friends alike with your
m4d sk1lls. It's too bad they haven't come up with a
multiplayer version of this yet.
Final Verdict:
I plunked down the
cash for it, because now I own the entire series. If you aren't much of a
collector, or know you won't play it again (
malarkey!), then
rent it. Depending on your skill level, you might need to
rent it twice.