Amazon.com: Prince of Persia The Two Thrones: Playstation 2: Video Games

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32 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fitting conclusion, December 9, 2005

By	Lestor neeker Wong (Singapore) - See all my reviews

Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars

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.

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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Timeless Classic Comes to an End, December 2, 2005

By	Nite - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars

The Prince of Persia series has left a huge mark on the gaming world. The newest in the series makes that mark permanent, keeping true to the entire series. Fans old and new alike, should be satisfied.

The prince has returned from the Island of Time to Babylon with his new love Kaileena. To those who didn't see the alternate ending to the previous title, Warrior Within, you may find yourself a little confused here. As they come into the harbor, they're ship is invaded and Kaileena is captured. You soon find that the man behind the attack is the vizier from the very first game. He then murders Kaileena and unleashes the sands of time on Babylon. As the prince, you're going to battle to save your kingdom and avenge your lover's death.

The prince has to worry about more than just the sand creatures and the viziers warriors. Because of the sands of time, he'll also have to confront his arrogant self from the past. There will be moments in the game where the prince will have a conversation with... well... himself. The darker version of himself. This stems from the fact that Warrior Within suffered heavy criticism and complaints from fans about how arrogant he was in Warrior Within. This in and of itself would be easy to poke at were it not done so well. The voice acting is A+ material, and the change is consistent throughout the entire game.

You're also given the oppurtunity to play as the Dark Prince from time to time. As the Dark Prince you'll have an interesting weapon that resembles a chain. The Dark Prince is much more aggressive in combat, and a lot of fun to play as. The downside, however, is he constantly looses health. Luckily for you, this isn't a problem at all. Every enemy you defeat drops health to restore you. You shouldn't run out of health very often. The only hard part about playing as the Dark Prince is his acrobatic moments. You'll eventually get it down, but you'll probably die several times first.

There's a new technique added in The Two Thrones. This tactic is known as "speed-killing." By sneaking up behind an unsuspecting enemy, you can grab them. This begins an animation known as the speed-kill. The game will then pause for a moment and you'll have to press a button to execute a strike. You'll execute anywhere from one to five strikes. If you don't press the button, the speed kill will fail and you'll have to fight the enemy the normal way. But hey, if you mess up, you can rewind and try it again. The animations are incredible looking, and they're a lot of fun to pull off.

You can run across walls and perform some really awesome jumps of course, something Prince of Persia is very well known for. Several puzzles throughout the game require you to run along walls and jump to switches to get through. Again, some of them are done by a bit of trial and error, but they are, for the most part, fun.

There are also chariot races, but they're not much fun, really. A simple mistake could cost you your life. Once again, trial and error will be the key in succeeding. The good news is that you've got the sands of time on your hands. If you horribly screw up at any of these trial and error moments, you can easily rewind back so long as you've still got some sand.

The game looks gorgeous. The environments are a lot of fun to explore and sulk in, and the character models look good too. It's obvious at some parts that it's the same graphics used in the previous two games with almost no changes, but the previous games were gorgeous anyhow. Some of the pixels don't quite fit in with the environment, and that's okay. You probably won't notice them.

If you're looking for what is the best of the three versions, there's no clear winner. The XBOX version has great load times, but a few lighting effects cause it some problems, and the PS2 version suffers from slow down in some areas. There's almost nothing wrong with the Gamecube version, but it depends on what you want. If you want fast load times, go with the XBOX version, it's lighting problems aren't really that noticeable.

Overall, Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones marks a thrilling conclusion to a remarkable trilogy. Any holes it left in the plot are neatly filled. Any fan of the series will be satisfied.

The Good
+Still has gorgeous graphics
+Fun Gameplay
+Speed kills bring new style to the game
+Long game
+The story ties up all loose ends
+Fantastic Music
+Fantastic voice acting

The Bad
-A LOT of trial and error moments
-This is not for newcomers to the series. Newcomers to the series should start with the first game: Sands of Time, otherwise the story will just confuse the hell out of you

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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, but not for the casual gamer!, February 11, 2006

By	J. Bergman "schmizz" (Baltimore, MD) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars

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!