Review: Prince of Persia - The Two Thrones 171
- Title: Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones
- Developer/Publisher: Ubisoft
- System:Xbox (PC,PS2,GC)
- Score:7/10
Luckily, the Prince is a resourceful guy. As in previous titles, the focus of Two Thrones' gameplay is on maneuvering the Prince through what is effectively a three dimensional maze. Wall walking, ledge climbing, and impressive leaps all make a comeback from Sands of Time and Warrior Within. There are a few additional moves added into the mix to accommodate new story and combat elements. There is one new platforming element: Shutters. These spring-loaded boards are usually located on walls, and once you reach them by wall walking will rocket you across a room into an unsuspecting enemy. These shutters can often be used to start a Speedkill, the biggest change in the combat system from previous games. If you can approach or leap onto a baddie that is unaware of your presence, you slip into a slow-mo mode that requires you to hit the attack button at precise intervals. Doing so allows the Prince to brutally dispatch a foe with minimal effort and almost no sound. This added stealth element is a welcome change, allowing you the opportunity to quickly take out a room full of baddies and get back to the puzzle part of the game with minimal fuss. If you don't enjoy the normal combat, Speedkilling is the easiest way to get through the game without engaging in a lot of fisticuffs. Frustratingly, it's never entirely obvious when a baddie will notice you or not. If you remain hidden as you approach a baddie you are bathed in a golden glow, but even when approaching from behind it's possible for a guard to break your glow and drop you into normal combat mode.
Normal combat will be very familiar to players of Sands of Time or Warrior Within. The game still has one of the best multi-enemy juggling systems of any console title. It's effortlessly easy to flip and jump between multiple enemies, slicing and dicing until there's no one left alive. While you have your own blade, as in Warrior Within you can steal weapons from opponents both during and after combat. The capability to use multiple weapons ensures that besides the invigorating combat you'll have some options as far as the chopping goes. Combat as the Prince can sometimes be a white-knuckle affair, because for all his dexterity the Prince isn't a front line fighter. Luckily, or unluckily depending on how you look at it, the Prince has a darker half that excels at combat.The Dark Prince is the result of the fusing of the Prince to the Sand Wraith, and if you thought the Prince had baditude problems in the second game ... you'd be right. But he's a jerk here too, as the Sand Wraith's dark energies force him to do terrible things. Dark Prince is a much more effective combatant, a length of chain (called the Daggertail) extending from his arm proving to be perfect for fending off large groups of foes. Gameplay as the Dark Prince is subtlety different. Every moment he's not in combat drains him of health, as the sands slowly kill his mortal frame. Puzzle completion, then, becomes a mad rush to reach the next fight sequence as almost every foe defeated refills the Dark Prince's health bar. There are a few different puzzle elements, too, as Bionic Commando-style the Dark Prince can swing over obstacles. This new split personality is intriguing both from a gameplay and storytelling standpoint, and re-interested me in the Prince as a character. The gritty Prince from the Warrior Within was such a tool that I found myself losing interest in what happened to him by the end of the game. Here, seeing the slightly edgier but mostly nice-guy Prince from Sands of Time battling it out in his head with the Sand Wraith, I could do nothing but empathize with him.
The game looks as good as ever, the soft visuals and sweeping architecture of the first two games returning with impressive results. Though by today's next-gen standards it may not be cutting edge, the care which the designers put into the look of the game made what power the game's engine does have come to life. Characters are well-textured, but the sometimes blocky animation has thrown me off since the first Prince title. From a sound perspective, I was much happier with Two Thrones than the previous game. Annoying rock music has given way to Mideastern-flavoured music, like that heard in Sands of Time. Voice acting was competently done, and I continued to enjoy the quiet asides the Prince has with himself as he travels through the game. The acting is probably at its best when the Light Prince and Dark Prince are arguing, resulting in a sometimes-hilarious schizoid diatribe.
I'll be upfront: I found the decisions made for Warrior Within to be almost Poochie-level bad. The 'gritty' Prince with the goatee and callous demeanor may have made him more hard-core, but totally turned me off to him as a character. One of the most satisfying aspects of Sands of Time was the way players could empathize with the regular old middle eastern ninja who had gotten himself stuck in a bad situation. The return of the Light Prince in Two Thrones was a happy decision, and the Sand Wraith's level of participation in the story was exactly what I was looking for. The wrestling with the self that the Prince goes through was an interesting story. Interesting enough, in fact, to push me through combat that I've been playing for almost two years now, and puzzle elements that I've long since become competent in. Two Thrones is a familiar game with some new paint, and in this case I'm okay with that. Fans of the series will be pleased with the way the story ends, and newcomers to the gameplay will find the puzzling and fighting just as enjoyable in this title as in previous iterations of the game. Prince of Persia: Two Thrones is a strong finish for an excellent series built on entertaining gameplay and powerful storytelling.
last thing we need (Score:1, Funny)
Re:last thing we need (Score:3, Insightful)
Spiked chain? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Spiked chain? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Spiked chain? (Score:3, Funny)
Stragety: (Score:2)
Re:Spiked chain? (Score:3, Insightful)
I think you mispelled Strategery. /Oblig SNL Reference
Re:Spiked chain? (Score:1, Troll)
It is a simple fact that there going to give the console players what they want, more and more idiotic hack and slash games.
Re:Spiked chain? (Score:2, Flamebait)
Re:Spiked chain? (Score:2)
And Diablo was just NetHack with better graphics.
Re:Spiked chain? (Score:1)
Re:Spiked chain? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Spiked chain? (Score:1)
Diablo II had far too much influence on Ultime Online. Many of the systems that Diablo II used were emulated, and the UO hasn't been remotely the same since.
Things that didn't previously exist such as special moves, elemental resistances, etc. were added that did nothing but muck up an otherwise simple and elegant combat system.
Though stagnation would've probably been worse for UO, I still don'
Re:Spiked chain? (Score:1, Informative)
It was a freaking plataform game not different from many.
Yeah, it was surprizing because unespected things happened everywhere (invisible falling table floors, a potion that turned everything upside down, appear as you run floor an stuff, but it was mainly ability and run against time.
Not puzzle.
Re:Spiked chain? (Score:2)
Re:Spiked chain? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Spiked chain? (Score:2, Insightful)
Look, I'm not going to say with 100% certainty that SF3 did not cause your CD-ROM to go tits up and grind to a halt, but SF3 did not cause your CD-ROM to go tits up and grind to a halt. What h
Re:Spiked chain? (Score:2)
Re:Spiked chain? (Score:2)
Re:Spiked chain? (Score:2)
If this is true, I saw something where the StarForce developers were offering $1000 dollars if anyone could show them their software caused hardware failure. So you should look that up and collect!
Re:Spiked chain? (Score:2)
I know this, as I am very careful not to install anything protected by StarForce on my computer. Soon I'm going to have a key wired up to the power on all of my drives. In one position both the "clean" HD and the optical drives get power. Turn the key and only the "sacrificial" HD is powered. This way I can run SF protected games and anything else shifty looking on the second drive with no worries.
Re:Spiked chain? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Spiked chain? (Score:3)
My conclusion? After only four days, my first guess would be that it's just a shit drive, and that you got burned by the bathtub curve and poor quality control. If you'd been running it for a year, I'd be a bit more suspicious, but brand-new components can and do fail all by themselves
Re:Spiked chain? (Score:2)
That it was dead on arrival, or at least, heavily damaged during shipping such that you didn't notice it until then. I did tech support for two years, and that's a much more likely conclusion than copy protection software causing the fault. Anyway, if you had called me, I would have sent you out a new drive in about ten minutes.
If only... (Score:4, Interesting)
No, back in 1999 the pixelated graphics and long-ago memories of the Prince of Persia gave way to the absolutely dreadful Prince of Persia 3-D. A game so bad I wouldn't play Sands of Time until it was two old because I refused to believe that anything Prince of Persia related could be good after the 3D piece of crap that was Prince of Persia 3D.
Re:If only... (Score:1)
Go Ubisoft Montreal (Score:1)
Pixelated? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Pixelated? (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Pixelated? (Score:5, Informative)
Even released on the Apple 2 (Score:2)
Re:Pixelated? (Score:1)
Compared to say, Aztec or Swashbuckler it was quite lovely to look at.
Brøderbund developed a couple of really nice-lookin' games for the Apple ][ platform.
Sure, it was pixelated, but no more than anything else at the time, and unlike some other games those pixels were well-animated.
Re:Pixelated? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Pixelated? (Score:5, Informative)
That's because it was rotoscoped [wikipedia.org].
Re:Pixelated? (Score:2)
That's because he by hand, motion captured his little brother jumping off the couch and across the street and stuff.
Wow, I knew I'd find a use for that piece of trivia I had to watch a whole day of g4 for, I hope it was worth it. Source: ICONS on g4.
Re:Pixelated? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Pixelated? (Score:2)
Original... (Score:2)
Re:Original... (Score:2, Troll)
SNES version came 3 years later.
Re:Original... (Score:2)
Should I bother with "Warrior Within"? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Should I bother with "Warrior Within"? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Should I bother with "Warrior Within"? (Score:2)
And, if it's mediocre, at least it'll make The Two Thrones seem all the better
Re:Should I bother with "Warrior Within"? (Score:5, Informative)
Indeed, the free-form fighting system was a necessary if not sufficient addition. The Dohaka chases were fantastic. The game was longer, more exciting than SoT and had an engagingly mental Sci-fi plotline.
But when all is said and done, this was not the sequel that Sands lovers (like myself) wanted. It entertained me, and indeed I completed it (both endings) with a wilfull glee. But in many respects it was a parallel universe to Sands of Time. Same gorgeousness, same ridiculously fluid controls, same environmentally-minded puzzles, just no... soul.
One of the best aspects of The Two Thrones, and I'm saying this having sat up until 7am this morning, dishing out Speed Kill death to that cock of a Vizier, is that in tying up the storyline of the Prince, it even manages to convincingly contextualise the misstep in style that was Warrior Within.
One can view the entire Sands of Time trilogy now as a coming-of-age story, redemption through acceptance and eventually growing up. Warrior Within represents the Prince's angst-riddent adolescence, full of misdirected rage and charmless anger. If Sands of Time was a story of the innocence of youth, The Two Thrones is a story of reconciliation, of a man growing up, accepting responsibility for his mistakes and becoming whole again.
As a Prince game, if Sands was a 9/10, and Warrior a 7/10, then Thrones is a solid 8. It falls short of the majesty of Sands in a few key areas:
* Pointless Chariot Races
* Overly hard bosses (Ring of fire... Gah!) This is not what PoP is supposed to be about.
* Not quite as magical as sands of time, at least until the moment at which the Vizier captures Farah. After that... wow.
* Overuse of the wall-springs and the dagger-hold devices.
* Game takes a while to find its stride.
The game is buoyed up by its wonderful Speed Kill dynamic, the awesome final 25%, its return to form, and the brilliantly brief Dark Prince segments.
8/10 is the consensus opinion. Thus it is unanswerable truth.
In allowing the unification of the odd style of Warrior Within (a game I still enjoyed a great deal, despite its stylistic missteps) with the wonderful magic aura of Sands of Time, and allowing a story of redemption to come to fruition that neatly ties together the stories of the Prince, Farah, Kaileena and the sands, The Two Thrones is a fine ending to an excellent, if problematic trilogy. Fans of third-person action-adventures, and fans of either of the first two games will have an engaging time. I did.
Re:Should I bother with "Warrior Within"? (Score:2)
Innocence? The first boss is his own father, corrupted and zombified by the sands of time.
Re:Should I bother with "Warrior Within"? (Score:1)
Re:Should I bother with "Warrior Within"? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Should I bother with "Warrior Within"? (Score:2)
I later went back and played Sands of Time, and to me it was an odd game at first, but I grew to like it. I found some of the mechanics a bit frustrating after having gotten used to WW. But in the end I enjoyed Sa
Re:Should I bother with "Warrior Within"? (Score:5, Funny)
It's a bad, bad game.
Re:Should I bother with "Warrior Within"? (Score:2)
Re:Should I bother with "Warrior Within"? (Score:2)
Same old? (Score:5, Informative)
I stopped playing the latest PoP's when I realized that I was killing the monsters using the same goddamn animation over and over and over again. And it's not like the game would send 2 or 3 identical beasties at you, you'd get TWENTY of 'em, and all would have to die using the "I'll jump over you and stab you at the exact same place". And I wouldn't do it 'cause it was the easiest way to kill'em, it would be the ONLY way to kill'em. Bad design, IMHO...
Re:Same old? (Score:2)
If you see a lion move around in the zoo in a repetitive way, this is why.
If this is a way to sell games according to some companies, they should go bankrupt.
Re:Same old? (Score:2, Funny)
But I suppose it depends on which repetitive movement you have in mind.
Re:Same old? (Score:4, Informative)
I liked the wushu-ish "stand on one hand while twirling the sword with the other, while kicking two other enemies at the same time" move. But the double-blade decapitation (usually deliciously done in slow-mo) was a close second.
How about the vertical wall run (with two swords) where the prince flips off and twirls back down as a metallic vortex of death and dismemberment?
Or the weapon steal where you kill the enemy with their *own weapon*? (bonus if its an axe and you use it to cut them in half at the waist)
Re:Same old? (Score:2)
Nothing can touch you... unless it fell on your head.
Re:Same old? (Score:3, Interesting)
No, you played the same games.. you just somehow responded to some other post than the OP.
The OP stated that the 'killing motions' were repetitive. Having played the first game in the series, I wholeheartedly agree. Yes, they're cool, but after the 500th time.. it's just not the same. And the slo-mo was so annoying to me. I just wanted to kill the fuckers and get back to the puzzles.
Re:Same old? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Same old? (Score:2)
Speed kills aren't the *only* way to kill an opponent.
Need a playable demo! (Score:2)
PoP in a Lunchhour (Score:1)
Re:PoP in a Lunchhour (Score:1, Interesting)
But when our family's Mac II's screen died, i was able to boot it up, launch PoP by navigating the Finder using the keyboard, and beat the first level, just by listening to the sounds of the game.
Re:PoP in a Lunchhour (Score:1)
Penny-Arcade Prince Of Persia Comics are up (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.princeofpersiagame.com/us/community/in
Am I the only one? (Score:5, Funny)
ttyl
Farrell
Re:Am I the only one? (Score:1)
Re:Am I the only one? (Score:1)
Re:Am I the only one? (Score:1)
That reason was grabbing onto ledges.
Needless to say, in later years I didn't appreciate Tomb Raider much either...
Re:Am I the only one? (Score:2)
Re:Am I the only one? (Score:1)
Re:Am I the only one? (Score:2)
Re:Am I the only one? (Score:2)
Re:Am I the only one? (Score:2)
closer....
smack!
Do not tarnish the holy Lode Runner (of 1983.)
Re:Am I the only one? (Score:2)
Just Finished (Score:5, Informative)
The good:
The music is back to the style of Sands of Time.
They brought back the Sands of Time voice actor.
Some additional platformer elements.
The dark prince is more enjoyable than the sand wraith was to play. The dark prince plays like a strange mixture of "Bionic Commando" and Kratos from God of War. Since picking up sand regenerates him to full, he gets to deal with swarms of enemies, and is fairly liberating to play.
The quick kill system helps remove a lot of the tedium of the encounters. Since you can avoid a lot of the "tons of enemies" fights by stealthily killing the guards before they can sound the alarm. I found myself trying to be sneaky, which was a novel experience for me in a PoP title.
I think they did a fairly good job of reconciling the two seemingly different characters of the prince from Sands of Time and the more callous, hardened version of him that came along later in Warrior Within.
The bad:
The last chariot race was annoying, well, until I went back to the part before hand and made sure to do it with extra sand.
It was too short. The one thing I did like about Warrior Within was that its environments were mostly bidirectional; you wound up going forward and back through the same general area in two different times. In Two Thrones they returned to the Sands of Time linear story line. I think they lost a bit of the free-form feeling that you had in Warrior Within.
There doesn't appear to be an alternate ending ala the last two titles.
Conclusion:
All in all I enjoyed the title. Now I need to go cram for finals.
Re:Just Finished (Score:2)
Sounds a bit like Metroid Prime Echoes, where you go through the same areas multiple times, but also in the light and dark worlds. It's really eerie, and highly atmospheric, to see the basically same room, with weird changes between the worlds.
Re:Just Finished (Score:2)
Re:Just Finished (Score:2)
Actually, the end-game dark-prince stuff occurs even if you didn't pick up the life upgrades. =/
I have to admit, it made me like the dark prince again. He was starting to grate on my nerves during the Well of Ancestors, but he worked well baiting you in the end-game.
only thing I want to know is... (Score:2)
when gamers would "stare" at her up close in her little skimpy red skirt and top for a prolonged period of time, her programming would take notice and she would spout out some witty remark, likely shocking lonely nerds into a defensive(alt+F4) reaction, thinking they were busted, painfully their zipper catches on.............
well you get the point.
Re:only thing I want to know is... (Score:1)
Seriously though, I love it when games take actions like that into account.
Such as in Metal Gear Solid, when you stared at the chick (Meryl?) through the 1st person view, she'd get creeped out.
Or losing points in a Deus Ex mission for going into the women's bathroom...
I guess I'd have to consider myself one of those shocked nerds.... Though, no zipper mishaps to speak of. Ouch.
Re:only thing I want to know is... (Score:2)
I swear when I did it it was accidentally. Serious!
Re:only thing I want to know is... (Score:2, Funny)
old game (Score:1)
Recovered PoP Addict (Score:2)
Re:Recovered PoP Addict (Score:2)
Re:Recovered PoP Addict (Score:2)
Re:Recovered PoP Addict (Score:2)
Re:Recovered PoP Addict (Score:2)
Re:Recovered PoP Addict (Score:2)
I simply only ever remembering never finishing two games: GnG and PoP. Oh, and everquest, never fucking finished everquest....
Comparable to Ninja Gaiden? (Score:1)
I've steered clear of these new PoP games because of Ubisoft's spotty track record and mixed reviews. I'm not necessarily looking for the extreme action of NGB just respectable difficulty, perfect control and strong fundamental gameplay.
Can anyone who has put a lot of time in with both tell me how they truly compare to one another?
Hell I like em all! (Score:2, Interesting)
I guess to start off with the first one, I found Sands of Time the coolest at the beginning, since you could actually fight other soldiers instead of transformed creatures. The puzzles were awesome and it really kept me going through the end, - that one a
Re:Part 2 really lost the way (Score:1, Insightful)
With 3, they listened to the people who whined about 2 and changed the game for the worse because of it.
Here's why you shouldn't get this one: The Dark Prince slowly loses health. You have to play through puzzle sections as him, where he's slowly losing health while you look around to figure out the puzzle. Take too long figuring it out, and you're back at the start. Yay.
Re:Part 2 really lost the way (Score:1)
'Stacker'
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/43441 [theonion.com]
I disagree. (Score:2)
I also thought that they h
Re:Part 2 really lost the way (Score:2)
That was what got me. Yes, the combat was repetitive in Sands of Time, but it was still a great game because of the puzzles and environment. In response to the complaints about the fighting, they oddly provided *more* fighting. The logical course of action was to reduce the amount of fighting, by having a wave of 5 enemies, instead of 15, etc.
Because of that, I didn't buy WW, and I won't be buying thi
Re:Down with fanboys (Score:2)
Re:I appreciate the serious game review attempt (Score:2)
If you want to use run on sentences like that, you should be *forced* to pay a fee. Be happy we can all evolve/abuse the english language for free. Clearly you're not payi
Re:For the rest of us (Score:2)
Mashing buttons is a console trademark ? I think you have never played Diablo.
Re:For the rest of us (Score:2)
Re:For the rest of us (Score:3, Informative)
WTF? Console games have had movable cameras since the days of the PSX. Limiting the camera angles is a design choice; the system's power has nothing to do with it.
Typically it's done because the programmers can't get a player-controlled camera working correctly and conveniently, or because allowing a wider range of viewing angles would require more artwork, or becaus