Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones Comments by Kristan Reed

Loving this game, it's very meaty and a worthy sequel to Sands of Time. Great fun to be had!

The PSP version, called Prince of Persia: Revelations, is just Warrior Within with some new levels thrown in (and possibly some of the console version bugs and glitches ironed out).

The DS game, Battles of Prince of Persia, seems to be a card-based Advance Wars/Fire Emblem clone of sorts...

"(quick point though, Ubi: why can't I invert the look up/down?)"

This one little sentence means I will never consider buying this game. Good job, Ubi!

backwards compatible?? please!

Can anyone tell me if this is anything like the amazing old 2D Prince Of Persia...as I've managed to miss out on all of its 3D incarnations.

Can I jump onto SPIKES?

Errr...and are there any battles with my mirror buddy?

I was about to say that they should remake Flashback in 3D...but I just remembered that they did and it smelt.

Bring back Another World!

All through the review:

"Warrior Within was shit, Warrior Within was shit, Warrior Within was shit."

EG review of Warrior Within: 7/10

(better than Kameo)

;)

Which tells you what they though of Kameo...

Alternatively maybe it was a different reviewer:-)

Talha:Hey, WW XBOX really did have an online? I didn't know that. TBH I can't see how online makes any sense in this, but then having not seen the online mode I may be completely off the mark.

Nah it was downloads and other stuff, anyway this looks 1,000,000 times better than Warrior Within, a must buy for any gamer.

After scouring Google to try and find out whether this runs in 16:9 widescreen, and finding only indications that it doesn't, I was pleasantly surprised to find that in fact it DOES run in widescreen. Nice!

Yes, definitely widescreen.

On the Crimbo list for me, too. Can't wait. Shame I haven't completed Warrior Within yet. Do you think that will be necessary to fully understand Two Thrones? Please help me with this question, somebody.

What? My comment just got eaten!!

Duckers, here is the answer you seek.

No.

It's important, when considering the now roundly rogered-into-a-happy ending trilogy, to realise that whilst Warrior Within was a disappointment for many ICO and Sands of Time fans, there was much that the game got right. It would be churlish to pretend otherwise given that even EG gave it a 7/10. 7/10 is a respectable score for a game. The game disappointed primarily because of what *might have been*, rather than what was.

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.

"Shot to the heart - and you're to blame, Ubi PoP: a bad name"

Heh, I like that one.

Hmmm combat is still rubbish, especially after God of War. Your weapons lack any sort of impact, you can barely tell if your blows are landing or being blocked. Combo system is totally useless, youll just end up button mashing and hoping to chain a few hits together. Speed kills help by not having to kill enemies face to face.

Really if they cant get it right they should go back to a simplistic parry & thrust system like in the original 2d PoP. In any case its really about the platforming, at least that still works.

I've just gone back to Sands of Time (fourth playthrough) and its still as great as ever. It does confirm to me however that Two Thrones is still some way behind it. The characters art and enviroments are so much more vibrant and memorable. The combat actually seems fine and far more effective (although this could be because they've made the enemies tougher in TT to force you down the speedkill route). And the Sand powers are far better realised. Longer rewinds, better slow mo and the brilliant freeze move. Not to mention the way it upgrades. Apart from rewind I've never really touched the other powers in TT.

I guess the real question is, is it actually possible to better SoT?

Interesting comments. As Gypsum said, I also insist that WW was a great game IN ISOLATION. Had we not been smitten by the magic of SoT, that would have been a niner, no kidding. I also think that this is perhaps the greatest platforming trilogy ever -

I am playing through SoT right now as well. Just can't seem to get it off my hard drive. Hey, any of you guys think StarForce protection stinks?

\\ quote, caligari
\\
\\ I was about to say that they should remake Flashback in 3D
\\ ...but I just remembered that they did and it smelt.
\\
\\ Bring back Another World!

Yes they did, but remember,
the first 3D version of Prince of Persia sucked aswell

Well actually, I kind of enjoyed it at the time,
because I didn't own any current gen consoles,
and I was all needy for a decent platformer for my PC.
It still really sucks in longer terms though..

They really _should_ remake Flashback in 3D, that'd be awesome!

I cannot stress how evil the checkpoints and saving is in this game. Some levels are a masterclass in how to suck the fun out of an otherwise brilliant game.

I wanted to buy the NG version, but then faced a weird price prolicy at GAME: 29£ on PS2, 34£ on Xbox and 38£ on NG.... wtf? how can you support a console if you have to pay 10£ more than the ps2... as I have all the consoles, it's a hard choice. better get Battalion Wars to please my NG ^_^

how can you support a console if you have to pay 10£ more than the ps2

By not buying at Game? Seriously - do a bit of shopping around and you should be able to find most new GC games for £30.

Quote:
"Hmmm combat is still rubbish, especially after God of War. Your weapons lack any sort of impact, you can barely tell if your blows are landing or being blocked. Combo system is totally useless, youll just end up button mashing and hoping to chain a few hits together. Speed kills help by not having to kill enemies face to face.

Really if they cant get it right they should go back to a simplistic parry & thrust system like in the original 2d PoP. In any case its really about the platforming, at least that still works. "

This is spot on. I always wonder why developers never learn from other games!

The combat is a piece of cake and overall a step back from WW. Basically all you have to do is jump on the enemy and then slash, jump in the enemy again, slash, rinse, repeat.

I picked this up for my cube the other day and I have to say I have been very impressed with this, I'm at the last boss, while this is definetly better then WW, it's not as good as POP SOT.

The combat is still very reptitive, the speed kills is an excellent addition, but until you get the powerful sword combat is a pain in the ass, the dark prince parts are a little unpolished, checkpoints/savepoints/difficulty are uneven as well and the level design still ain't up to the standards of SOT.

All this aside though this is still excellent and will make a brilliant purchase, it's 7 or 8/10 for me. SOT gets a 9, while I'd give WW a 6.

"(quick point though, Ubi: why can't I invert the look up/down?)"

This one little sentence means I will never consider buying this game. Good job, Ubi!

Options menu...it's all in there....