Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones

Game Reviews | Dec 23rd, 2005

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Company: Ubisoft
Platform: Playstation 2
Genre:
Rating: M
Buy on Amazon.com link

So you thought that the Prince of Persia had saved the day and that all was well in Babylon? Boy where you wrong.

I’ll be honest with you. I had never played the Prince of Persia games before. I had wanted to and I heard a lot of good things about the first one for PS2 and the sequel, but I never got around to picking one up. I was anxious to give this game a spin.

Having never played any of the Prince of Persia games, I had no clue as to what tricks the Prince could do nor how to do any of them. I also had no idea what was new in this game and what was rehashed. Basically I was a noob. Figuring that I could handle the game, I started out on the normal setting. I played for what seemed like a couple of hours and I came to a part where I just couldn’t seem to get past. I decided to restart a new game on the easy setting because I kept dying. Now I don’t know if the difficulty setting had anything to do with it or not, but I managed to make my way to the exact same place in about twenty minutes. I knew the area and what I needed to do to get to this point so I think that’s why I got there quicker. I just figured that I would play through on Easy and maybe I would make if farther in the game and I didn’t feel like playing the same battle scene over and over a hundred times.

I don’t know much about what happened in the past two games, but in The Two Thrones, the Prince finds himself returning to his homeland with the Empress of Time, Kaileena only to find that war has broken out and that his people were being enslaved. The Prince’s ship is attacked and destroyed, separating him from Kaileena. Now, hunted as a fugitive, the Prince of Persia must rescue Kaileena and set his people free. On top of that, the Prince has been cursed by someone or something and a darker, evil version of him is growing inside.

There were quite a few things in this game that amazed me. One was the graphics. You really got a feel for your surroundings and the many different environments that you encounter be it the streets of Babylon, the towers above, or the sewers underneath. Second was the battle system. The Prince can do some wicked badass moves that I’ve never seen before. You can flip off of walls and lunge forward with your dagger or you can do crazy spinning back flips and combos. All of this and I’m not even talking about the Dark Prince who has the coolest moves in the game. His Daggertail weapon is freakin’ sweet! I was equally impressed and annoyed with all of the crazy things that you have to do in the game to get from point A to point B. There are so many things that you must chain together to get over a cliff or to get to the top of the palace that sometimes it just irritated the hell out of me. There really wasn’t anything that was just completely and ridiculously hard to do, it was that you really had to think fast and on your feet as you go. Getting the Sands of Time throws all of this out of the window though. Then you can simply rewind the part that you screwed up. If only everything were that simple. One of the other things that I thought was pretty cool was the voiceovers and the storytelling that occurs while your playing. I thought that this was a unique touch because the story could be told without a million cut scenes to interrupt the action. When there were cut scenes, they were worth the wait. I really enjoyed the game after getting the Sands of Time. Now all of my screw-ups could be deemed meaningless. I also thought that the underground levels were the coolest. There was just a cool look and a dark and dangerous feel to them.

There wasn’t much that I didn’t like overall, but my number one gripe about the game was the seemingly endless amount of actions that you had to perform to get through the game. I was hoping for more of an action-orientated game with less puzzle solving. Sure all of the actions that you can perform are unique and very cool to do, but there are just so many things that you have to learn and that you have to perform that it just seems to repeat itself over and over again. Like I mentioned before, they’re not that hard to perform or to remember, but it starts to get monotonous and frustration at times. Yeah, it’s cool to finally get the Dark Prince, but guess what…now you have twenty more actions that you have to remember and perform. For me, the overall fun factor diminished because of this. I’m not expecting the same old rehashed game that’s been done a hundred times over, just more action and less climbing and flipping on poles. Maybe its because the setting was easier, but I’ve played through more of the game on the Normal setting and didn’t seem to encounter any more enemies than on Easy.

I’ve you’ve played any of the newer Prince Of Persia games and you’re not sure about picking up The Two Thrones, then I have three words for you: The Dark Prince. He is one cool and wicked MoFo. Other than that, I’m not really sure what’s new in the game. I do know that I enjoyed playing it even though I was frustrated with it at times, but that’s how video games are. I was impressed with everything from the sound to the graphics and I thought that the fighting system was one of the coolest out of any video game. The game is rated Mature but it isn’t in the same league as something like Grand Theft Auto. Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones is a game that if I had rented I would probably have to go out and buy. There are so many unique and fresh ideas in the Prince Of Persia series that I feel like I’ve been missing out. Looks like I have to pick up the other two and play in reverse order.

Bottom Line:
Favorite Aspects: Fighting enemies, using the Dark Prince, the graphics/sound/controls are easy to master
Cheats:
Overall Rating: