Customer Reviews

Prince of Persia The Two Thrones

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The Prince returns in the third, and most possibly, final instalment of the Prince of Persia saga, and this time, we've a double dose of him. Yes, the Prince is back with a split personality, which, despite sounding a little depressing, is actually quite a good idea. For one, you'll get to become more powerful when you're playing as the Dark Prince, and you'll also get to execute some moves and weapons that are not available when you're just the, er, usual Prince. This reduces the repetition that usually comes with playing a game with the same character throughout. Of course, the idea of alternating between two characters (as seen recently in Ultimate Spider-Man) isn't new, but the idea of alternating between two characters trapped in essentially the same character is quite an ingenious one.

The story in The Two Thrones begins after the events of Warrior Within, the second part of the trilogy. Now, if you didn't manage to unlock the alternative (and officially "real") ending in that game, you'll probably find the plot in The Two Thrones a little baffling. Anyhow, it goes that the Prince, upon returning to his native land, quickly finds himself back in trouble again. A familiar foe from the first instalment of the series returns to haunt him. his new lover is killed, and his kingdom is under siege. So begins another journey of jumping, running along the wall, swinging from bar to bar, rolling under trap doors, and the likes, just to free the clutches of fate once again.

Needless to say, the environmental puzzles that basically define the Prince of Persia series are once again a major feature of this game. And just like the previous instalments, these puzzles are rather straight forward, especially with the help of the frequent "glance-of-the-area" camera hint. Still, it's great doing all these again, simply because they're fun. Failing to solve a puzzle successfully is usually a problem with pressing the wrong commands instead of not figuring out what to do. This is more evident in the PC version of the game, as the controls are less conventional than using controllers. The satisfaction of performing a successful acrobatic move could be easily cancelled out by a mistimed jump. Thankfully, as with the earlier versions of the series, you can rewind time with the sands of time, which give you an opportunity to try the challenge again. This is particularly useful since it allows you to restart immediately from where you failed without having to redo the entire level.

The combat system in The Two Thrones has also been further improved. You'll still get to wield two weapons at the same time, and you'll still get to do the cool combos and such. In the case of the Dark Prince, you'll also get a really powerful weapon called the Daggertail, which allows you to lash out at multiple enemies with some degree of venom. You'll even get some new moves to add to the already impressive collection. All these are good. However, the thing that separates the combat system of Warrior Within and The Two Thrones must be the introduction of the "speed kill" element. This basically requires the Prince to sneak up on an enemy and execute a one-kill strike, thus eliminating the need for mindless (and prolonged) fighting.

Performing the speed kill is not as simple as simply tapping a key or button though. When you initiate a speed kill sequence, the game freezes. You'll then need to tap one or more keys or buttons in certain sequences shown on the screen to complete the kill. If you miss a step, the speed kill will fail, and you'll have to fight the enemy as per normal. If you've played God of War, you'll find this oddly familiar, but hey, there's nothing wrong in borrowing an idea if it works for the game.

You may be wondering now how does the Dark Prince concept actually work. Well, you'll begin the game as the Prince, and as the game progresses, you'll soon find the hidden nature of the Prince slowly manifesting. During parts of the game, the Prince will be consumed by his darker self, and will morph into the Dark Prince. Playing as the Dark Prince will no doubt draw comparisons to playing as the Sand Wraith in Warrior Within, since both loses health all the time. Therefore, apart from fighting and solving puzzles using the skills available only as the Dark Prince, you may find yourself trying to find sands to recharge your health constantly when you're playing as him. It isn't a problem when fighting enemies, since dead enemies release more than enough sands to keep you alive. It's a problem when you need to solve a puzzle, since there aren't many sand pots around to replenish your health. This basically means that you'll have to be very quick in finding a way out of the situation. At times, it almost feels like playing a Dahaka chase sequence from Warrior Within. It's really quite stressful, but like the Dahaka sequences, it's also challenging, which should please fans looking for a more than straightforward adventure.

Apart from the acrobatics and combat, The Two Thrones also includes a number of chariot races, which you'll either love or hate. The chariot sequences not only require you to get from point A to point B, but also send enemies towards you when you're trying to get the horses under control. It feels like Burnout at times, only with more aggressive AI trying their best to make sure you fail. In my opinion, the chariot races are even tougher than keeping the Dark Prince alive, so players who're not exactly good at this kind of thing may find this a particularly tough challenge.

Gameplay features aside, the thing that make me sit up and take notice is the return of the humble Prince from The Sands of Time, the inaugural title of the series. Ok, not entirely the first Prince, but it's a good try. In his usual form, the Prince is no longer the arrogant (and at times, corny) bugger who called his enemy "bitch", and who boasted about his fighting skills and everything else under the sky. Many fans of the first game have criticized the warped nature of the Prince from Warrior Within, so it's not really a surprise to see Ubisoft tugging the Prince's leash. Unfortunately, the clock wasn't fully turned back, as the amount of blood and gore appears to have increase in this edition. Slicing your enemy apart and seeing blood spats may not be my cup of tea, but I guess there're people out there who like this kind of things. Nevertheless, it's a still good effort in blending the elements from both The Sands of Time and Warrior Within.

The Two Thrones maintains the graphical standards of the previous titles, even though the graphics do look a little dated. . The characters' movement as also as fluent as before, but what stands out most is still the magnificent background of the various screens. As the camera angle moves around an area before you begin an area, it's hard not to get yourself immerse into the sheer mass of the surroundings. This has been always been a strength of Prince of Persia, and continues to be.

The audio features of this game also live up to its previous standards. The most impressive thing isn't the sound effects or the music though. Rather, it's the internal banter between the Prince and his darker self. At times, it reminded me of the first game, in which the Prince regularly talked to himself. It's also a particularly nice touch to get the original voice actor from the first game to voice the normal Prince. It just makes the proceedings a little more enjoyable. People who don't really enjoy the heavy metal soundtrack from the previous game will also find solace in The Two Thrones - it doesn't feel like a rock concert that much this time round.

All in all, The Two Thrones pretty much wraps up the series on a high, which makes it easy to recommend. The gameplay is as satisfying as ever, and even though it does feels like a case of been there, done that at certain points, it's still an intriguing adventure on the whole. Moreover, you're bound to get a good deal out of this game, since you're getting two Princes for the price of one! Unfortunately, we still don't get to know the Prince's name, which is a shame. But we do get a blast from the past in the form of a fan-favourite, and for supporters of the series, this could just be more than enough.

Prince of Persia:The Two Thrones overall is a good game. You definitely get your time out of it. Not that it's the longest game ever made, but some spots are just so tough. Too tough in fact.

Graphics(4 out of 5): The graphics in this game are very solid. The entire game has a nice finished look that really puts you inside the game. The movements of the prince are very fluid and lifelike, just as in the past outings.

Audio (5 out of 5): The audio is outstanding. It doesn't let you down on any level. The voice acting is very good and professionaly done. The Prince still sounds like a wuss, but you should be used to that by now. Ubisoft was smart enough to steer clear of the inapropriate heavy metal soundtrack that was in the last game and have gone back to the middle eastern orchestration that the first game did so well.

Gameplay (3 out of 5): Now here is where some of the problems come in. This is a really fun game to play and offers hours of adventure and puzzle solving. In this edition of the game you not only get to play the Prince, but you also play as a sort of evil twin when taken control of by the sands. Playing as the prince is still standard fare, but when you play as the evil twin (still fighting for the good of the people of course) the fighting technique is more God of War than standard Prince. This adds a nice touch to the gameplay and you really enjoy using the added powers and weapons. Also when you play as the evil twin, you are on a timeclock and have to complete the task before the sands run out. This adds an immediacy to the task at hand, but the challenge makes it that much more fun.

Now we can tackle the problems. Prince suffers from the same problems the previous games did. Mainly being some of the outlandish points of view it makes you play through occassionaly. You're moving along great, then suddenly you have to do something from a jacked up distant side view that makes the character almost impossible to control with any precision. Why they continue to do this, for the life of me I will never understand! It's not as bad in the past games due to the fact that they now let you get a wideangle view at certain points of the game, but it is still completely unnecesary. Why don't they take a clue from fellow lablemate Sam Fisher, who has the best controls of any video game character in history as far as I'm concerned.

Then there's one more problem. A really big one, so big in fact that it's two problems in one. THE DREADED TWIN BOSS BATTLE! About 3/4 through the game you have to go against twin bosses. One yields a sword and one yeilds an axe. I swear this was one of the hardest boss battles I have ever played and I'm no noob by any means. When you go against these guys the designers basically take away all of your combo moves and the fight turns more into strategy then thrashing. But a strategy that is so hard it took me two days to win this fight. I almost threw my controller against the wall more times than I care to remember. I swear I was giving up on the game when I said one more time and finally beat them. The designers just made this fight too hard, especially for casual gamers. And I know unless you are truly dedicated, you are not going to stick around to win this fight. Go to any Prince message board on the net and you will see the majority of topics are about how to win this fight.

So overall, this is a fun and challenging game. But at times too challenging and that always takes the fun out of it. That's why game designers put skill levels on a game, so people can get through a game no matter what skill level they are playing at and still have a good gaming experience. Because of the tough battle in this game, I would in no way recomend it to the casual gamer. Only the hardest of the hard core. I mean after you finally win the battle you do have a sense of accomplishment, but you're too angry to enjoy it!

The Two Thrones is one of my favorite games out of all the games I have now. The story is that the Prince sails back to Babylon with his Kaileena. But when they get there, the city is under siege by an old nemesis, remember the Vizier? When they get to the harbor, men destroy their boat. They are separated until they get to land, where the Prince sees men carry Kaileena away. You start playing then.

Ubisoft has added some new things to the series. Like the awesome speed kill. If you manage to sneak up on enemies, you'll hear somthing like a heartbeat. If you press triangle, you start a speed kill. You have to press the attack button when the dagger flashes, and if done right, you'll kill the enemy without any nearby enemies noticing.

Another cool new thing are chariot races. I LOVE them. I've only done one and I hope there's another. When you drive the chariot, enemies will try to run up and throw you off. just hit em' and they fall off and roll away. Or they'll have enemies in chariots come and kill you. But all you have to do is push them into a wall and they're dead.

Another thing they added is that you get to play as two Princes. When you finely find Kaileena, you get a front row seat of her getting murdered. And by killing her, the sands are released once again, but this time, the Prince is infected. Even though he's not fully transformed, you now get to play as the Dark Prince. He uses the Dagger of Time and a daggertail attached to his arm as weapons. The daggertail is a really powerfull whip. I like to play as him, but you constanly lose life and only the sands will replenish his health.

And if you've missed Farah, she's back to help the Prince! The only thing is that you don't work together untill you get further into the game, and she doesn't remember him at all since the events in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, never happened.

Now that all of that is out of the way, it's time to review the bad part. First. YOU STILL DON"T KNOW THE PRINCES FREAKIN' NAME! They always refer to him as, Prince, or, the Prince. I just find it so annoying that you never learn his real name.
Second. The enviorments have these strange diaginol jump pads on the sides of buildings, and plates on the sides of the building that you stab so you can hang from it. Why would builders put them there? Who would ever use them? It also seems that they built the enviorment just so that the Prince could get from point A to B? In the Sands of Time, they don't have planks of wood sticking out of a wall in the perfect position so the Prince coud use it. But there they are for some strange reason.

These are my Pros and Cons.
PROS:
fantastic graphics
awesome new speed kills
playing as the Dark Prince
chariot races
CONS:
you still don't learn the Prince's name
the strange jump pads and stab plates
the Dark Prince loses health constantly

The control system is about the same as the last two, which makes the game a lot easier to get used to if you are a fan of the series. The fighting is not as repetive as Warrior Within. There are a lot less boss, and the bosses aren't as annoying. All of the flaws from Warrior Within are gone, and the visuals stunned me even more than the last. Two Thrones bring in both the last to styles of unique puzzles and fun fights all together. Even if you aren't a fan of this series, I think this game will turn some gamer heads from the haters to players. (It's a very long campign and very challenging without some professional help.) Tip: Find all of the water fountains to increase your health all the way up. Tip: Use the Speed Kills as often as you can, as it is easier to kill that way then go head on at first.

All of the game's elements mesh, from the music to the storyline, from the puzzles to the control system. I can't find anything nasty to say about this game. Ubisoft have certainly done their homework. They've managed to retain the essence of the series without being redundant. Some new features have been added that really help to hasten the pace. Environmental puzzles are back and trickier than ever. The prince is in prime form with some new abilities - and a whole new side to him that we've never seen before.

The storyline has always been an integral part of the series. The story in this version requires that you have some knowledge of the last two games. I won't go into too much detail here but if you want to go back and verify the endings for yourself, skip the next paragraph.

Returning home to Babylon from his last adventure, the prince is bringing his new love, Kaileena, with him to reclaim his kingdom. Yes, she is alive. Remember those sands of time? Upon his return he finds the kingdom in the grips of civil unrest. He and Kaileena are taken prisoner and Kaileena is murdered, releasing the sands of time throughout the empire. Collecting the sands, the prince will avenge his lover's death and regain control of the kingdom. It goes without saying that there is going to be a lot of revenge - and that means bloodshed.

The prince is endowed with the moves of an acrobat. He can scale to great heights, run up walls, jump and swing from platform to platform, employ stealth, dodge traps and perform vicious kills. All of the move commands are responsive and satisfying with an arcade-style of forgiveness that never so much as hinders the challenge. These moves will serve him well for platforming and puzzles solving. The rooftops in this Middle-Eastern-flavored city are the prince's playground. He uses the height to spy on his enemies and runs and jumps from one roof to the other like an Arabic Spider-Man.

The puzzles are similar to those found in Tomb Raider. They are environmentally based and require skillful manipulation of the character to jump over pitfalls, throw switches and react to the sometime changing design layouts. There are plenty of annoying trial and error situations but as long as you have some sand, you can rewind a little and perform the action correctly. It's a great gimmick but I feel some time that it's a bit overused, as if the developers feel compelled to include more such situations which are virtually impossible to complete the first time through just so we have an excuse to acquire more sand.

If you've noticed that the prince doesn't appear to be himself in the last couple of adventures, it's because he's actually two selves. Through the use of sands of time, he's become infected and has developed a split personality. The new personality is the Dark Prince. He's more aggressive and arrogant than the likeable version of the prince. He's also more powerful. He wields a large, chain-like whip called the Daggertail which can kill several enemies with one blow. It can also be used as grapple to pull himself up walls or across chasms. It doesn't require precise aiming, it's got a large target radius. As long as you swing it around it will manage to do some damage.



Using the Dark Prince will cost you in energy. His health is continually and rapidly depleting. You will regain health by killing enemies and absconding their sand but when performing puzzles you will find yourself under a time limit since there is no way to replenish your health until you solve the puzzle. It puts the pressure on you but it's like using "turbo" on any other game. It's more like a power-up in that the effects are only temporary. The good prince is still a good source of action-oriented moves.

A new move called the "speed kill" really brings the combat up a few notches - and paces. It really speeds things up when confronted by several enemies. Armed with your sword you will press the speed kill button when the screen goes a little blurry, allowing your character to execute a violent finishing move. An icon will appear on the screen cueing you to press the button again. You may have to press it four or five times depending on the strength of the enemy. The finishing moves are graphic. Enemies are beheaded, disemboweled or split in half in no time at all, allowing you to clear out an area quickly and get on with your adventure. Speed kills can also be used for boss battles, though you will be required to employ a lot of your other skills to get in good positions and out of bad ones. Prince of Persia is not renowned for its combat but with the new speed kill moves we are gifted a new dimension to the gameplay.

As if there isn't enough gameplay variety, chariot races are also included. Taking control of a team of horses should be child's play but these beasts are about as difficult to control as a car with a broken steering pump. In all actually, it's the course that is hard to navigate. Some of the walls really squeeze you in making the course very narrow where any mistake could be costly. You would think that the horses would have enough sense not to smash into a wall even if they are accidentally nudged in that direction. Fortunately you can rewind the game if you make a mistake, as long as you have some sand left - which this chariot racing can deplete quite rapidly.

Environments include an artist's rendering of a large Arabian city including a palace and the mythical tower of Babylon. Outside the perimeter are caves, waterways and an expansive desert. All of the architecture fits in perfectly with the Middle-Eastern theme. The whole look of the game straddles the fence between fantasy and reality. The animation of the prince is astounding. His movements are fluid and incredibly realistic. Even his beard flows in the breeze.



The music reflects the Arabian theme. Instead of guitar riffs we get tones and scales from instruments more appropriate to the theme. The voiceacting is great and occasionally displays the game's sense of humor. As seriously fun as this game is, it doesn't take itself too seriously. There are moments when the characters are self-aware that they are characters in a game.

The prince is one of the best action heroes in videogames today. He's capable of performing an entire circus routine with just a few button pushes. It can take a player anywhere from 10 to 20 hours to compete the game, and replay value is rather low so you will want to heavily consider whether you want to rent or purchase it. Either way you're in for a great gaming experience.

Ah, the Prince of Persia series--a saga with which I have held a love/hate relationship for the past twenty years. I've played the original, the SNES versions, the horrific Prince of Persia 3D--as well as the Prince's latest forays, the Sands of Time and the Warrior Within.

So, what exactly is the Two Thrones? It's the conclusion of the Prince of Persia trilogy started by Sands of Time and Warrior Within. I suppose, logically, the story makes sense; it is a return to the visual splendor and level structure that made the Sands of Time such a joy to play, and also offers the combat system and some of the darker overtones of the Warrior Within.

But I am left with the impression that Ubisoft was responding to the critism that Warrior Within received with the Two Thrones. Consequently, some of the aspects that worked well with the Warrior Within have been simplified.

Combat is the best example of this. One thing I liked about Warrior Within is that there was the distinct possibily of running into evil sand creatures while negotiating obstacles. Not so with the Two Thrones; in instead returns to the "obstacle-enemy-obstacle" system that the Sands of Time used.

The story is another example of Ubisoft reacting to "The Warrior Within." Although Warrior Within sold better than its predecessor, it received critisim for essentially destroying the story established by the Sands of Time. And so Ubisoft does it again; by consciously attempting to return the series to its roots, most of the story elements offered by the Warrior Within are ripped out and given only a cursory transition in the narrative. I'd like it if Ubisoft could form a more coherent story. Story gets 3/5 stars.

Well; now I've got the story problems out of the way, so let's take a look at the technical aspects of the game, shall we?

Graphics: Eye candy. The graphics are very good, but my only complaint is that they sometimes look "washed out," due to the lighting effects of the sun. 4/5.

Sound: Much better than the Warrior Within. The Prince seems to have got his original voice actor back, and the voice acting is well-done. 5/5.

Design: The obstacles are very well thought-out, but my only complaint is that they're pretty straight forward. Enter room, swing from poles, run cross wall, etc. Come on, Ubisoft; isn't there more than one way to skin a cat?

A very big complaint I have about the design is that some of it just doesn't make sense--most notably, the diagonal jumps that are placed along walls. Why are they there? Surely the building architects didn't put them there for the explicit purpose of some wall-bounding, pole swinging half-naked nutjob to use. But yet, there they are, for some nonsensical reason. What I loved about the Sands of Time and the Warrior Within is that the Prince worked WITHIN the enivronment to get where he needs to go; here, it seems like Ubisoft constructed the environments AROUND the Prince, which is disappointing. 2/5.

Gameplay: more than anything, this is where the game suffers. The combat seems stripped down from the "Warrior Within;" seriously, all you really have to do to beat most enemies is keep bounding over their heads. The formula goes like this:

1.) Find enemy
2.) Bound over its head, score two strikes.
3.) Bound over its head, have attack blocked.
4.) Bound over its head, score two strikes.
5.) Repeat.

Combat can be frustrating, especially since the game throws a large host of button-mashing combos at you early in the game and expects you to remember them. Fortunately, you can access these combos at any time on the pause menu, but really . . . who among us racks their brain trying to remember "Triangle Triangle Square Square Square Triangle" while in the middle of a boss battle?

But the biggest complaint I've got is simple game issues. Yesterday, I went to run up a wall and fell right through it. The Prince pulled a ghost number, falling to his demise because he clipped right through a stone wall. And this morning, my game froze--extremely frustrating after twenty minutes of pole swinging, guard dodging, and switch-pulling.

So, is the Two Thrones a worthy addition to the Prince of Persia saga? Yes, it is. It just isn't the best.

I personally liked this game much better than "Warrior Within" and this is why.
I loved Warrior Within, but it does get pretty repeatitive after awhile don't you think, so it got kind of boring towards the end.
In "Two Thrones" you get all the action of "Warrior Within" and some. The Puzzles are better, and I like the way they added the Sniping part to the game. It makes the game funner, and timing for the puzzles makes it more challenging if you don't want to get caught by your ememy. This game also isn't repeatitive.
The only Con is that its a little shorter.

Let's face it: pickings are slim at the end of the year. With the XBox 360 out and people clamoring for that junk, the clamor for sequels has been pretty quiet this year. Thanks heavens Ubisoft has a weird schedule for fiscal quarters, because Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones arrives just in time for the Christmas holidays. Those worried about all the gore and violence from Warrior Within can breathe easy because the latest Prince of Persia is back to its teen-friendly roots, focusing more on a good story and running around instead of brutalizing foes. This game ties up loose ends from the previous games, as well as expands on a solid combat system and clever puzzles. This is already in my Christmas stocking.

THE GOOD: Great platforming puzzles return; good characterization and storytelling; lengthy; improved battle sequences and awesome speedkills

THE BAD: Gameplay mechanics feels unpolished and somewhat jerky; some braindead checkpoint decisions; strange random gameplay bugs taint an otherwise enjoyable experience; annoying low volume during CG cut-scenes

DIFFICULTY: Hard-to-Medium

I feel Ubisoft sort of tried to make this more of a "truer" sequal to the original than the second game, Warrior Within. This may dissappoint fans of the second game's heftier battles, backtracking, and more violent and bad-ass attitude. Although you must remember that the first game has a greater fanbase, mostly due to the more "charming," almost Disney-esque feel. So while this game is relatively more violent, there isn't much blood, therefore it sort of keeps the younger fans of the first game and gains older fans for this game.
PoP3 follows along the story right after the second game,where the prince is traveling back with Kaileena, the goddess of time, to his homeland of Babylon. Yet Babylon is in ruins, because of the rebirth of the Vizier (the villian from the first game). It starts off with Kaileena being kidnapped and you start your death-defying, platform puzzling adventure from there.
As an adventure game, just like the first, the game is an absolute joy to figure out and play through. The platforming is heavier and much more deadly than the first game, making things feel a lot scarier upon first glance. The camera is still in third-person, and also shifts giving away clues to your next jump or wall-run. The storytelling and characterization is great as well, except for Farrah's new amateurish voice actress.
You will at times transform into the Dark Prince where your health continuously depletes, therefore killing enemies or smashing objects for sand is your only method of survival. While many complain about this, I actually preferred the Dark Prince, as gaining just one sand ball completely refills your health, while as the regular prince you have NO way of refilling health until you reach the next checkpoint.
While the battle system has been beefed up since the first - as your handed a huge assortment of various combos and attacks right at the start of the game - it's somewhat of an unfortunate waste, seeing as how you'll really only need a handful of those battle tricks to kill off your enemies, and the platforming has gone from the first game's "figure-this-out" to more of a basic trial-and-error game. Now, it's not ALWAYS like this, when you have actually figured out the platform puzzle, it's a lot of fun to go through, it's just that since the graphical textures have changed since the first game, the abundance of detail make your next clue pretty hard to spot at points. Battles on the other hand are more to the first game's like as well. They feel more of a break between platforming than intertwined within. Yet there are a few points where this changes, though i'll admit it feels forced, often scripted, and unnecessary. Lastly on the battle-front, there's the speedkill option. Stealthy movement through areas can have you sneaking up behind or on top of foes, and simply pressing 'triangle' will start a speedkill, and from there it's a timed button pressing affair that's really exciting and really keeps things moving quickly. Messing up will mean having to defeat the foes the old fashioned way, which later in the game becomes pretty much a cake walk.

Unfortunately, flaws do arise. The most annoying would be the smoothness of the battle system. While it's great to get lots of new moves, it's irritating how you'll find yourself simply mashing the same buttons and combos over and over. Also, the framerate and hit detection feels unpolished, and you'll often find the prince slow to react. Graphics do the job well, but it's never amazing, and the often jerky framerate and cheap feel makes battling your enemies a lot less realistic and more mechanical.
Don't even get me started on the oddness of the checkpoint system either. At times you'll find yourself playing through what feels like a good half hour, then on your last shred of health, you'll FINALLY reach a checkpoint. Other times, you'll play through one simple platform puzzle, and find another checkpoint immediately. And dying can bring you back pretty far having to play through a section that feels unnecessary, and at times the rewinding of time is pretty useless.
Finally, there are some really odd bugs in this game. At one point while fighting an enemy the hit detection just clanked out, making it impossible for me to make ANY contact with the enemy (yet he could make deadly contact with me). I had to die on purpose just for the game to reset itself. At another point while shimmying across a ledge, for some reason the prince wouldn't go right, so I was sort of stuck and had to drop down and begin the platform puzzle over again. I've also read about some people experiencing clipping problems as well as some strange off-beat audio cues.
One last complaint (and this one's pretty big) is the locations of "bonus health." In the first game there at times appeared a strangely transparant curtain, giving way to an area where the prince could gain extra health. In this game, you'll find at about 4 or 5 spots, that the game shifts into two paths, if you happen to pick the right one, you'll go through a killer platform puzzle to reach a light at the end and gain bonus health. If you don't, you'll continue along with your journey, and not be able to go back. Unfortunately there's not way to tell which one, so if you actually happen to miss out on all bonus health paths, you'll find yourself with default level of health. Unfortunately, the later platforming sections of the dark prince REQUIRE a higher level of health, at one point I just got by one by the skin of my teeth, which seems stupid because I thought what would have happened if I had missed a bonus health opportunity. This may actually cause a player to actually have to restart the game all over.
As an ending for the final trilogy, the final moments of the game feel somewhat lacking. There really wasn't any epic closure, and the town of Babylon really didn't have much personality. Climbing the final tower wasn't anywhere as near intimidating as the final climb of the first game.

OVERALL: While the game definitely needed a couple more coats of paint, there is no denying the excitment and great execution of the platforming puzzles and adventurous feel. Fans of this genre will DEFINITELY enjoy this game.

This game was a very good game. It has some amazaing gameplay aspects to it. The speed kills are very cool and give another sweet aspect to the game. Overall the game is just too short and they have un needed objects. Not enough traps througout the game. It's pretty much straight forward. Empty hallways to just run through and the life upgrade traps were a piece of cake.

The bosses in the game were somewhat difficult except for the final battle against the vasir. Some of the mini-bosses were harder to beat than him.

One other aspect of the game that i did not like was the sword that you get from your father. With this sword there is no reason to try and be sneaky and get speed kills because it kills every enemy with one hit. Come on ubi-soft make the game a little more challenging.

Overall i think that this game comes nowhere near as good as Warrior Within. I beat Two Thrones in about 10 hours. Warrior Within took several days. There are not enough traps and the puzzles are way too easy in this game. I would recomend borrowing it from a friend and not buying it yourself. Wait till the price goes down.