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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

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.

One of my favorite games

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: September 01, 2006
Author: Amazon User

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

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.

Prince of Persia: One of the best games of the year

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: January 04, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I enjoyed this game very much. I have not a chance to play either of the first two, but picked up this game and was surprised on how much I liked it. I am now itching to get the first two. What I like most about the game is the dark prince, he has more moves and is more powerful than the prince. He also has a need to be constantly feed to maintain his strength. It is definitely worth picking up this game.

This game is unreal.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: February 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I've been a fan of the Prince of Persia series since I was a little kid. PoP 1 was great, Pop 2 was absolutely unreal. PoP 3D was ehhh....but then two years ago, along came a game that changed everything. "Prince of Persia The Sands of Time," the first game in this amazing adventure game trilogy took everyone's breath away. The gameplay was original, flawless, and beautiful. The storyline sucked you in and didn't let you go even after you'd beaten it 6 times over. It was a flawless game.

Last year, the first sequel, "Prince of Persia Warrior Within," was released. While the game contained improvements in the quality of the graphics and the "freeform fighting" techniques, the game was less pleasing to both critics and gamers. Ubisoft had turned the humrous, witty, intelligent prince from "Sands" into an angry, nu-metal-rocking, humorlous scoundrel who seemed hellbent on ruining everyone's time. While the story was equally as engaging as "Sands," "Warrior" failed because it simply was not as much fun to play. Luckily, Ubisoft saved the best for last.

"The Two Thrones" is easily one of the greatest games I have ever played. In concluding one of the greatet videogame trilogies ever created, Ubisoft have developed a near flawless game. It is as though they took the strengths from both games, removed the weaknesses of the second game, and created a thing of pure brilliance. "The Two Thrones" contains all of the witty, punning elements from the first game and mixes them with the exciting, more violent elements from the second game while removing everying that ruined the prince's demeanor in the second game. The original, fun, saracastic prince is back, and largely because Ubisoft has also brought back one of the things that made "Sands" so great: Farrah. Farrah is the perfect foil to our hero. She adds humor, power, creativity, and definitely a sexiness to the game that "Warrior" was lacking. Farrah's relationship with the prince is by far my favorite relationship I've ever "played" in a videogame and Ubisoft deserves big brownie points for bringing her back.

The gameplay in "The Two Thrones" is amazing. Throughout the game, the gamer is occassionally forced to play as the "Dark Prince" as there are situations where the "normal," original prince is unable to get through. In other games, playing as two characters often appeared more of a gimmick than an actual, integral part of the story, but in "The Two Thrones," the reasoning behind the Prince's frequent changing from Prince to Dark Prince and back again is very well explained and very important to the overall story that "Two Thrones is telling." The fight scenes are epicly fun to play. This Prince has more moves than he had in the two last games combined and his battle techniques are a joy to use. The new "speed kill" method of killing some opponents adds a certain amount of skill and brutality to many fights that otherwise would have seemed boring and taken far too long to complete. I welcomed the addition of the speed kills once I fully learned how to use them.

The Prince still moves as acrobatically as ever. There is still wall-running, jumping, flipping, handsprings, etc....the only real notable movement difference is when the gamer plays as the Dark Prince. The Dark Prince's chain/weapon/thing can be used to grab onto bars that are are away or objects that would otherwise be out of reach and the Prince can then swing over to them. It's not that different from anything the Prince has done before but it was definitely fun to do and worked well with the flow of the game.

All in all I rate this the best of the new Sands PoP trilogy. It's an awesome game that should be played by anyone who has ever enjoyed a 3rd person adventure game. If you haven't played either one of the first two games be warned: the storyline is actually rather complex and you will be missing much of the story if you haven't played the first two games. If you have played the first two games, this story is a terrific conclusion to the Prince's tale, and the way it wraps around back to the beginning of the trilogy floored me when I finished it. Buy this game.

(something worth noting...after you beat the game you unlock many videos, chief among these is the "alternate/real ending" to Warrior Within that was formerly only available if you beat Warrior after collecting all the life upgrades....so if you beat Warrior without all the life upgrades and didn't see the "real" ending...beating this game shows it to you in the video collection)

Prince of Persia: The best of the Three

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: March 25, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is the best PS2 game I have played in a long time. It has a new feature where you play as the Dark Prince. Like the sand wraith in Warrior Within, this mode also eats away your life until you collect sands where it regenerates. Another new feature is the speed kill. When you sneak behind an enemy you activate it and instantly kill him with a variety of kills for each enemy. Like any POP game this game emphazizes the free-form combat style. A very interesting plot with a little romance in it too. Beware of the secret ending (remeber the vizier?)

LOVED IT!!! (Very Good Review, Short and To the Point)

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: August 19, 2006
Author: Amazon User

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.

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.

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