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- Reviewed on: 12/09/2005
- Released on: 12/01/2005
- Originally published on GameSpot: Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones (PC) Review
The Prince of Persia: Sands of Time trilogy has always been known for its tight controls and satisfying environmental puzzles set in beautiful levels. The series' control scheme has served as a model for countless other games that also feature an acrobatic protagonist like the prince. The same great interface remains in the third game of the series, The Two Thrones. Like the other two games, you'll find yourself wall running, jumping, flipping, and vaulting your way up fiendishly designed environmental puzzles, as well as fighting vicious enemies with the improved combat system introduced in the last game, Warrior Within. The prince has a few new tricks up his sleeve as well, but longtime fans of the series should still feel right at home.
The prince is back, and this time, he wants his kingdom.
The story of the Sands of Time trilogy began with the prince's army attacking and conquering the capital of the Indian empire. In the midst of the battle, however, an evil vizier caused the release of the sands of time, wreaking havoc over the city and the surrounding countryside. The prince and an Indian princess named Farah battled together to defeat the vizier, bottled up the sands, and restored the world to a normal state. The story continued in Warrior Within, where an embittered prince set sail for the Island of Time, seeking sanctuary from an unstoppable time creature called the Dahaka, who pursued him endlessly because of his part in unleashing the sands of time. There, the prince battled not only the Dahaka, but also Kaileena, the Empress of Time. Fans of the first game felt the series lost a lot of its soul in Warrior Within, as the suddenly cynical prince was much more arrogant and less likable.
The Two Thrones begins with the prince returning to Babylon from the Island of Time with the mortal Kaileena as his new lover (this part of the plot may be confusing to those who didn't see the alternate ending of Warrior Within). As they pull in to the harbor at Babylon, the duo finds the city under siege. Their ship is wrecked by the invaders, and Kaileena is captured by the enemies. You quickly find that the vizier is back and responsible for the uprising. He murders Kaileena and unleashes the sands of time upon Babylon, and the prince must battle to regain his kingdom and avenge Kaileena's death.
But it's not just sand creatures and other bad guys from the vizier's army that the prince must fight. With the sands of time infecting his soul, the prince must also battle the whims of his darker, more arrogant side. Throughout the game's long, 12- to 15-hour campaign, the prince will morph back and forth between his normal self and the dark prince. He'll also have internal dialogues between his split personalities, with the original actor from Sands of Time voicing the normal prince, and a new voice actor representing the sneering, more sarcastic dark prince. Here, the game almost becomes self-referential in addressing the popular criticism levied against the arrogant prince from Warrior Within. The internal strife in the schizophrenic prince's mind forms a compelling part of the storyline in The Two Thrones, especially because both the writing and voice acting are pretty good.
Playing as the dark prince requires a different style.
Turning into the dark prince isn't just window dressing, though. In gameplay sequences in which the prince is his evil self, you'll find that you're much more powerful in combat, thanks to a new weapon called the daggertail. The daggertail is a chainlike weapon that can be swung around to attack multiple enemies, or lashed out like a whip. It also comes in handy for swinging across bars or lamp fixtures, kind of like in Bionic Commando. Unfortunately, this added power comes at a price. Much like playing as the sand wraith in Warrior Within, the dark prince loses health constantly, and it must be replenished periodically by recovering sand from defeated enemies or from breaking jars or furniture in the environment. Unlike the sand wraith, though, the dark prince doesn't get unlimited use of sand powers. The sequences in which you play as the dark prince let you be much more aggressive in combat, as health is never really a concern (you basically get recharged fully with each downed enemy), but the puzzle-solving and acrobatic sequences can be stressful because you have a time limit to get from point A to point B. Fighting as the regular prince is very similar to the previous two games in the series. You can pick up dropped weapons for use in your offhand, which lets you do more powerful weapon combos against enemies. Or you can vault off walls and poles, and even use the enemies themselves to augment your attacks. The fights are as violent as ever--you can behead or even cut enemies in half with the more powerful moves.
What's different about the combat in The Two Thrones is the introduction of a stealth-kill mechanic, or "speed kills," as they're called in the game. To execute a speed kill, you'll need to sneak up behind (or drop in from above) an unaware enemy. Tapping one button starts the speed-kill animation. Periodically, the animation will freeze, and you'll have a split second to tap a button to execute a strike. There are a number of different animations, and depending on the enemy it can require you to strike once or up to five times. Mistime any of your strikes and the speed kill will fail, meaning you'll have to fight the enemy the regular way. If you can catch two enemies close together, you can also use double speed kills. Overall, the new stealth-kill mechanic is pretty fun and satisfying to do and watch. The animations are extremely violent; you'll shank your foes every which way in their necks, guts, backs, and chests. The mechanic of doing a speed kill also offers just the right amount of challenge--it's not so easy that they're always automatic, but they're not too hard, either. Most importantly, though, speed killing your enemies means much less time spent in combat, which was never really Prince of Persia's strong suit as a game. We found ourselves rewinding out of failed speed kills to try them again, because they're not only fun to watch, but they also help keep the game moving along. There are also a few boss fights in The Two Thrones, and each of them offers a unique challenge. Many of them will require you to combine speed-kill mechanics with climbing and jumping skills.
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