Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones (Xbox)

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• 8 stars

  Jameson Thottam on the third (and last?) installment of Prince pf Persia

  by jameson thottam on January 15, 2006

  Pros: Great storyending with original game feel (Jameson Thottam)

  Cons: Hard tell if noticed by baddies -(Jameson Thottam)

  Summary: Jameson Thottam on The End of A Saga
  
  Two years ago the pixelated graphics and long-ago memories of the Prince of Persia gave way to the slick and entertaining Sands
  
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  Summary: Jameson Thottam on The End of A Saga
  
  Two years ago the pixelated graphics and long-ago memories of the Prince of Persia gave way to the slick and entertaining Sands of Time. The reinvisioning of the venerable Prince caught everyone by surprise and kick-started a trilogy of excellent puzzle titles, with intuitive combat mechanics thrown in for good measure.
  
  Recap (Jameson Thottam)
  For those of you who don't know, Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones is the final chapter of the three part story. The Prince is older, grittier, and has a definite mean streak. He also has a length of spiked chain fused with his arm, but that's just part of the fun. Read on for my impressions of the final chapter in the story of the Prince.
  
  The Prince has had a hard couple of years. Do one stupid thing like release the mythical sands of time and destroy your father's kingdom, and you end up on the run and gritty, fighting off the forces of time and a Sand Wraith with personal vengeance issues. At the start of Two Thrones, though, the Prince is finally returning home with a boat and a girl. What could be better? Unfortunately, the Prince is like C3PO. It's his lot in life to suffer. He catches sight of his city for the first time in years, only to realize that it's burning. His ship is destroyed, and his woman picked up by the enemy forces sacking the city.
  
  Old True Game Play (Jameson Thottam)
  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.
  
  Here's the Hitch (James Thottam)
  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.
  
  A little Frustration (Jameson Thottam)
  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.
  
  The Warrior Within (Jameson Thottam)
  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 Character (Jameson L Thottam)
  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.
  
  Look and Feel (Jameson Thottam)
  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.
  
  In the End (Jameson Thottam)
  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.
  
  Jameson Thottam

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