Prince of Persia brings back rose-tinted memories of acrobatically scrambling over a climbing frame as a youngster. Controlling the Prince as he scales walls, launches himself from ledges, lands on tiny beams and somersaults from poles is a joyfully childlike experience, performed with the kind of superhuman agility that only exists in one’s head.
The world of The Two Thrones is a return to the warm breezes of the sand-swept Middle East, recalling the most enjoyable aspects of the original Sands Of Time, and thankfully leaving behind the angsty theme and pap nu-metal soundtrack of the first sequel Warrior Within.
The bulk of the game is conducted on gravity-defying wall-runs and high-speed ledge-hopping, punctuated frequently by battles with numerous on-screen enemies. All the elements that made the original so much fun are still here – rewinding or slowing time at the touch of a button, traversing vast catacombs with fearless dexterity, mashing together ugly heads with lightening-fast dual-blades and most importantly climbing and descending annoying ladders really fast! But another Arabian playground wouldn’t be enough without some new features, and thankfully there is plenty. The Prince is now able jam his sword into walls to create a makeshift pole from which to jump, launch diagonally from shutter-boxes, and suspend himself in tight gaps between two walls. Doesn’t look much on paper, but add those abilities to the already rich variety of moves available to the Prince and the possibilities are endless.
On the combat side, there is an accessible new combo system with on-screen reminders of new moves, the ability to pick up enemies’ weapons, the ability to swing around columns for 360 attacks, and most significantly, the introduction of Speed Kills. A Speed Kill can allow the Prince to devastate numerous enemies in one flowing freeform jazz of an attack. Once entering a Speed Kill the Prince will vault and dive from enemy to enemy, swinging his blade every which way, and only by quickly reacting to successive white flashes of the dagger will the Kill be completed. Mess it up and you’ve got a heap of unhappy bad guys right in up your face, and a wall run is rarely much help there.
Aside from the mechanics of the game, the new plot twist this time is Prince’s tendency to morph into his ultra-violent chain-wielding alter-ego, feeding on the Sands of fallen enemies to top up his energy bar. It is an entertaining combat-centric variation to the main gymnastics, as the Dark Prince has to move quickly to find new enemies in order to survive.
The only niggles to be found in this polished package are the pacing and the frequency of save points. For far too long the game holds your hand, presenting very obvious jumps and hurdles, and spoon-feeds what to do and when to do it. Fine for an area or two to learn the controls, but it takes several hours to reach some real puzzles here. Saving is a pot-luck affair. Sometimes there may be 15 minutes between save points, other times literally 20 seconds, and without a quicksave option, this feels a rather archaic approach. I once even had to resort to the old school tactic of leaving my PS2 on while I went to work, because there was no save point in sight.
On the whole, however, this is a highly enjoyable acrobatic adventure, with enough satisfying combat thrown in to sate all tastes, and a great conclusion to the trilogy.
