Prince of Persia The Two Thrones

Review from Yug, Yug and Yug - Tuesday, 27 December 2005 @ 12:00am

Is it just me, or does it feel like every game these days is a sequel or remake of an existing franchise? I'm not saying that's a bad thing, usually in order for a game to get a sequel anyway, it had to be at least half decent to begin with. Unlike other stable franchises however, the Prince of Persia series has had its fair share of ups and downs, just like the Tower of Terror ride at Dreamworld (Gold Coast theme park, c'mon).

It started out in 1989 as a side scrolling adventure game (Ranked No.29 in our top 50 games of all time list), and pioneered the concept of motion capturing the movements of a real person and modelling the character model around it. It was revolutionary in its time, and good swashbuckling fun, however it never really moved any further in subsequent series until it made a horrible transition to 3D in 1999, and that seemed to be the end of it.

Well known franchises never say never though, and in 2003 Ubisoft saw fit to revive the prince on the newest generation of consoles and released the Prince of Persia: the Sands of Time. I remember playing through that first game in what was to become the new trilogy, and with no prior expectations, pretty much loving every second of it. The game felt fresh and exciting, the range of movements were vast and impressive, the levels were clever and perfectly executed, the combat was fun, the graphics were pretty, and the story was one that kept me wanting to play 'just that little bit more before I go to sleep'. In a nutshell, I loved it.

The second game in the trilogy, the Warrior Within, was a different kind of game. Gone was the fresh and exciting atmosphere of the original game, replaced with a prince who was angry and hard to sympathise with, levels that were dark and often frustrating, and featured a rock soundtrack that was entirely out of place. Although the combat was vastly improved, I lost interest and never finished the game.

You needed to know that because your own experience of Prince of Persia: the Two Thrones will be affected by how much of the previous two games you have experienced before. There is a very strong and satisfying narrative that flows through all three games, and if you are a fan of the series, you will get more of a kick out of this game than people who are coming to it for the first time, as they will probably feel rather lost for the first few hours of the game.

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Just a quick recap, the story for the trilogy begins with the Prince's army taking over the capital of an Indian empire. The evil vizier however, releases the sands of time, which unleashes all manors of monsters and destruction. The prince, aided by an Indian princess named Farah, work together to defeat the vizier and restore the sands of time. However, the story continued with the Warrior Within, with the Prince sailing to the Island of time, after being pursued by the Dahaka, a time creature that was after the Prince because of his messing about with the sands of time in the first game. On the island, the prince battled the Dahaka, as well as the Empress of Time, Kaileena.

I'm not quite sure how it happened (look it up on the internet if you really want), but the third game starts out with the Prince and Kaileena together, as they return to Babylon from the Island of Time. Since the events of the first game theoretically never happened (think Donnie Darko), the evil Vizier is still alive and kicking, and releases the sands of time again, this time upon Babylon. He murders Kaileena, and in a twist of fate, the Prince himself is infected by the sands of time itself, creating a duel personality within him. The Dark Prince. I'll get to him later though.

Anyone who feels like I did about the direction the series was heading in; take heart, the third game rights ALL the wrongs. Gone is the heavy metal soundtrack and the brooding prince, and in its place is a return to the rich sandy settings of the original, and a prince whose personal journey is both interesting and unique. Although the character animations don't seem to be quite as fluid as I remember it, it's more than made up for by the sheer range of moves and abilities made available to the character. You have the usual abilities to run along walls, shimmy across ledges, grab onto pillars and tiptoe over narrow beams. New moves include hooking and holding into holds in the wall, jumping off vertical wall springboards and shuffling up and down narrow crevices.

There are new combat moves as well, but to be honest, the combat is probably the weakest part of the game. That's not to say it's bad, it's just not as unique or as fun as the level puzzles that you have to jump, climb, run, swing and stab in order to solve. For all the advances in fighting mechanics, you still just can't go past the ability to jump over the head of a bad guy and swipe your sword on the way down at him on the other side. It's been a staple of the series since the original; it looks cool, gets you away from a congregation of bad guys, and works about 60% of the time. Other cool moves I used however include running up a wall and swan diving backwards to swipe the bad guys, or propelling yourself off a wall at them. You can also use secondary weapons dropped from fallen monsters, but this limits some of your other moves. There is strategy however, especially when facing off against multiple enemies, but it's usually more about evading than attacking.

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There is a very worthwhile addition that seems to be made explicitly for people like me who prefer the puzzles to the combat, and that is an added stealth element. You can sneak up (or drop down) on an enemy, and when you are close enough execute a killing sequence, where you have to hit the right button at the right time in order to take the enemy out. You may have to hit the button once, or up to five times sometimes, and it's not easy to time initially, as you have a split second in order to hit the button. It makes it a perfect challenge though, as its not too easy, and not too hard, meaning when you actually do it right, its extremely satisfying.

For those not familiar with it, the trilogy also has the ability to allow you to manipulate time using your sands of time dagger. You have a certain amount of slots which you can fill with sand, which allows you to rewind the last 10 seconds, slow time down to a crawl or do other powerful moves which are unlocked as you progress through the game. The rewinding skill is invaluable, since if you time a jump incorrectly you can rewind time and try again. The slowing down of time is a new feature which is very handy as well, giving you the ability to pass through doors before they close, and attack enemies who might be just that little bit too hard. The other sands skills you gain really aren't that good, as they use up too many sand slots when you use them, and by the time you get them later in the game, you are so good at stealth kills and normal combat, that you tend to save your sand for the rewinds or slowdown features instead.

The rewind feature is handy of course, but it would have been nice if it gave you maybe a second after going back to just come to grips with where you are, because if you are trying to rewind as far as possible, and you can only go back to a mid wall run, if you don't have the right button held down, you will instantly fall. It's a little annoying, but since the rewind feature is often a saving grace mechanism anyway, I find it hard to complain.

Another new addition to the series is some varied chariot racing levels spliced in for good measure. While they aren't too bad, it is rather unforgiving in that if you make a slight mistake, you die instantly. You better hope you have a good supply of sand to rewind with, otherwise it can be REALLY frustrating. I think it's silly really, if the developers are going to splice other gametypes in, they need to make sure they aren't actually hard at all I recon. They need to be fun. Don't make them challenging, because I know that I hadn't been building up my running and jumping skills in order to drive a chariot. Anyway, not that bad, but not really necessary either.

The final new feature in the third game is the addition of the dark prince. As a character in the story, he is fantastic as he manipulates the prince to his way of thinking, which is not obviously 'evil' per say, more selfish and power hungry. The moral banter between the prince and the dark prince, starts off as quaint, but becomes more fascinating as you go on. It's the same actor voicing the two, but he has a playful and sarcastic tone as the dark prince, and credit must be given for the quality of the voices.

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As a character in the game, every so often you will morph into the Dark Prince and the Gameplay changes dramatically. First off, you are on a time limit. Your life meter is ticking down when you are transformed, and the only way to get it back up is by finding sand in bottles and boxes lying around, or by killing monsters. The latter is a lot more fun as the dark prince as well, as you find yourself with a long chain type weapon, which makes the game feel more like God of War rather than your typical Prince of Persia fare. I just wish so many of the Dark Prince levels weren't as puzzle orientated, and stayed focused on combat exclusively. When you are on a time limit, it's WAY too easy to make mistakes. The joy of the Prince of Persia games is finding that ultimate 'path' where you run, jump and swing your way along in a perfect puzzle solving motion. Usually it's from carefully studying your surroundings before you do anything stupid. You don't have that luxury as the Dark Prince, and those parts are the poorer for it.

The game looks like it uses the same engine from the original, and although it's not going to win any awards in the graphics department, the levels are still impressive, and the glowing tattoo on the prince looks bloody cool. There are some nasty hair / clipping issues, and the faces of the models aren't that great, but in the end it doesn't really matter. The sound on the other hand, is a marked improvement on the first two games, no more rock music thank god, having been replaced with much more eerie and haunting music, or appropriately middle-eastern style music during fight sequences. The voices in the game tend to be a little soft, or get cut off when you are in the middle of saving or fighting, but that is easily fixed in the options menu.

At about 12 to 15 hours, it's a game which will take you a decent amount of time to finish, although there probably isn't a lot to keep you coming back. There are a number of unlockable pieces of concept art and video footage to get if you really want, but that's just filler really. The big thing to remember is to try to get EVERY health upgrade in the game for the TRUE ending. It really is worth it. The Two Thrones really does do a perfect job of wrapping up the trilogy, and it's great to see the return of some familiar characters from the previous games in this one. Even if you have never played a Prince of Persia game before, fear not, you will get addicted to this game just as easily as I did to the original one a few years ago.

Summary

A fantastic conclusion to the Sands of Time trilogy, this game takes the best parts of the previous two and fuses them together. Although a little hard to follow the story if you haven't played the others, the gameplay is perfect regardless.

Pros

The level puzzles are better than ever, stealth kills, the Dark Prince character, clever story, beautiful level design, appropriate music, new combat moves, that glowing tattoo looks awesome.

Cons

Story can be confusing for new players, chariot levels are slightly unforgiving, character animations can be slightly stilted, Dark Prince level puzzles prompt many mistakes because of the time limit, clipping problems.