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A Timeless Classic Comes to an End

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 14 / 15
Date: December 02, 2005
Author: Amazon User

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

WOWOWOWOWOW

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 5
Date: December 04, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This is a wonderful return of the series to it's roots. At least for the most part. There are shadows of warrior within but not many. YOu do have to do the dark prince bit. THese parts are fun, but nothing compared to the brilliance of The light prince parts. The light prince parts are just like sands of time. THankd Goodness. Only this time they are better and prettier. yes, I said better and prettier. This game is well worth the price of admission. Buy it and you will love it. THE GOOD PRINCE IS BACK.

Prince of Persia catches even more attention from buyers

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: December 05, 2005
Author: Amazon User

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.

PoP is the top holiday game this year.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: December 09, 2005
Author: Amazon User

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.

A fitting conclusion

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 33 / 37
Date: December 10, 2005
Author: Amazon User

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.

Not worth the money!!

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 10
Date: December 11, 2005
Author: Amazon User

First and foremost, the biggest flaw is that the game as a whole is ridiculously short. At $49.99, I shouldn't have been able to beat it in 10 hours. Fans of The Warrior Within shouldn't waste their time. The Warrior Within sharpened gamers ability with ruthless puzzles, difficult traps, unobvious paths, and of course the unforgiving Dahaka chases. It was long; you had to backtrack, and you weren't always sure you were going the right way. The Two Thrones basically told you where to go and how to do it, and I rarely ever had to rewind or freeze time to get past a puzzle.

As far as calling The Warrior Within "too dark", you're nuts. In the era of God of War, Devil May Cry, and Resident Evil, you're actually complaining about a game being too dark? The Warrior Within was perfect because of its dark side and high difficulty. You were in a freakin' cave-like old castle!

The boss battles are WEAK - especially the final one. And the "Dark Prince" himself is very weak. He wasn't important enough to be on the over of the box. Seems Ubisoft was trying to create the Dahaka-like tension from Warrior Within but simply ended up with more predictable, easy, boring puzzles.

The Two Thrones should at BEST earn a score of 7.8 out of 10 - maybe.

Don't believe the hype, those commercials on TV show cut scenes that aren't even in the game. Can we get a do-over?

A perfect balance between Sands of Time and Warrior Within.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: December 15, 2005
Author: Amazon User

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.

EXTREME DISAPPOINTMENT

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 23
Date: December 16, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This is a miserable sequel to the other PoP games. If the earlier games were worse than this one, then they must have been pixelish boring games. The GRAPHICS are ATROCIOUSLY BAD... When i started, the fire was one massive orange pixel. The cinematics are very visible pixels. And the PoP is a monkey. His arms are very long; down to his legs. I would think after a few games, they would be able to make him the right proportion.
If the graphics aren't a factor to you, then the gameplay might repel you. The gameplay is a miserable, worthless thing. It is all puzzles. If you like that, well have fun with Prince of Big Pixels.

Best Game of the Year

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: December 19, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones deserves five stars: as expected, the graphics, gameplay, and storyline are all great and more than what you would expect from most other games. Some parts of the game remind you of the first two in the trilogy, but there are also some new gameplay added into it, such as the Speed Kill system and chariot races. In my opinion, PoP: TTT is definitely one of the best games of the year, and I think that all fans of the series would agree.

it was good but it could have been better

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: December 20, 2005
Author: Amazon User

i really enjoyed this game but its only fun to pass it like two times.i passed it for the first time in like ten hours!!!!i was very dissapointed how short this game was the second prince of persia game was much MUCH longer.Now the pros of this game:it is really fun to play as the dark prince and the new stealth kills really puts something new for the game and the chariot racing was amazing but there are alot more cons.the cons:the graphics seemed to get worse and the game looks alot worse,it was a short game,the final boss was very easy and you cant choose which prince gets to suceed(you know what i mean if you own the game)i really dont know why the game is mature because there isnt intense violence not alot of blood and no nudity!!!!overall the game is good stuff but you should wait till is a lower price

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