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The paramount ending for an outstanding trilogy

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: December 01, 2005
Author: Amazon User

In an industry that has become so lackluster that finding a worth while game is a one in a million shot, the POP (Prince of Persia) series has stood out like a 40 karat diamond. A highly original story backed by amazing game play is the key to what makes POP so brilliant. The original next gen release, Sands of Time, was engrossing to say the least. The follow up, Warrior Within, while not a fan favorite hit close enough to the mark to be enjoyable. I own both and would recomend them to anyone without a second thought. The Two Thrones, the final addition to the trilogy, is following in big foot steps. The Prince has come home to find everything in ruins. From moment 1 The Two Thrones is outstanding. borrowing graphics from WW is something that I can overlook for the sake of the amazing story that follows. All the new elements and added gameplay make for an exciting re-learning of POP. For fans of the series Ubisoft took what was great about SoT and WW and made an even better final chapter, while losing what was not needed. To anyone just picking up the POP series I would recommend you start with Sands Of Time you can't go wrong. Either way this is an exciting end to a series that has brought millions joy, pain, and out right entertainment. If I could give this more stars I would.

A Timeless Classic Comes to an End

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: December 02, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The Prince of Persia series has left a huge mark on the gaming world. The newest in the series makes that mark permanent, keeping true to the entire series. Fans old and new alike, should be satisfied.

The prince has returned from the Island of Time to Babylon with his new love Kaileena. To those who didn't see the alternate ending to the previous title, Warrior Within, you may find yourself a little confused here. As they come into the harbor, they're ship is invaded and Kaileena is captured. You soon find that the man behind the attack is the vizier from the very first game. He then murders Kaileena and unleashes the sands of time on Babylon. As the prince, you're going to battle to save your kingdom and avenge your lover's death.

The prince has to worry about more than just the sand creatures and the viziers warriors. Because of the sands of time, he'll also have to confront his arrogant self from the past. There will be moments in the game where the prince will have a conversation with... well... himself. The darker version of himself. This stems from the fact that Warrior Within suffered heavy criticism and complaints from fans about how arrogant he was in Warrior Within. This in and of itself would be easy to poke at were it not done so well. The voice acting is A+ material, and the change is consistent throughout the entire game.

You're also given the oppurtunity to play as the Dark Prince from time to time. As the Dark Prince you'll have an interesting weapon that resembles a chain. The Dark Prince is much more aggressive in combat, and a lot of fun to play as. The downside, however, is he constantly looses health. Luckily for you, this isn't a problem at all. Every enemy you defeat drops health to restore you. You shouldn't run out of health very often. The only hard part about playing as the Dark Prince is his acrobatic moments. You'll eventually get it down, but you'll probably die several times first.

There's a new technique added in The Two Thrones. This tactic is known as "speed-killing." By sneaking up behind an unsuspecting enemy, you can grab them. This begins an animation known as the speed-kill. The game will then pause for a moment and you'll have to press a button to execute a strike. You'll execute anywhere from one to five strikes. If you don't press the button, the speed kill will fail and you'll have to fight the enemy the normal way. But hey, if you mess up, you can rewind and try it again. The animations are incredible looking, and they're a lot of fun to pull off.

You can run across walls and perform some really awesome jumps of course, something Prince of Persia is very well known for. Several puzzles throughout the game require you to run along walls and jump to switches to get through. Again, some of them are done by a bit of trial and error, but they are, for the most part, fun.

There are also chariot races, but they're not much fun, really. A simple mistake could cost you your life. Once again, trial and error will be the key in succeeding. The good news is that you've got the sands of time on your hands. If you horribly screw up at any of these trial and error moments, you can easily rewind back so long as you've still got some sand.

The game looks gorgeous. The environments are a lot of fun to explore and sulk in, and the character models look good too. It's obvious at some parts that it's the same graphics used in the previous two games with almost no changes, but the previous games were gorgeous anyhow. Some of the pixels don't quite fit in with the environment, and that's okay. You probably won't notice them.

If you're looking for what is the best of the three versions, there's no clear winner. The XBOX version has great load times, but a few lighting effects cause it some problems, and the PS2 version suffers from slow down in some areas. There's almost nothing wrong with the Gamecube version, but it depends on what you want. If you want fast load times, go with the XBOX version, it's lighting problems aren't really that noticeable.

Overall, Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones marks a thrilling conclusion to a remarkable trilogy. Any holes it left in the plot are neatly filled. Any fan of the series will be satisfied.

The Good
+Still has gorgeous graphics
+Fun Gameplay
+Speed kills bring new style to the game
+Long game
+The story ties up all loose ends
+Fantastic Music
+Fantastic voice acting

The Bad
-A LOT of trial and error moments
-This is not for newcomers to the series. Newcomers to the series should start with the first game: Sands of Time, otherwise the story will just confuse the hell out of you

Prince of Persia - The Two Thrones

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: December 02, 2005
Author: Amazon User

If you liked either of the first two Prince of Persia installments, you'll dig The Two Thrones. Elements of each of the preceding games are still incorporated and there are a handful of new gameplay features. Some of the new features are new acrobatic abilities, a second playable character (the Dark Prince) who has his own unique set of abilities, and chariot riding. The score style music of The Sands of Time and the free form fighting of Warrior Within are both back for this nicely blended finale. Definitely check this out if you liked the first two. If you've never played the first two, you'll still relish this one if you enjoy sword fighting/adventure/puzzle games. In addition to the groovy swordplay, it is a very unique story and is quite unlike most of the games out there.

With the variety of moves you can dish out, you'll be serving up more combos than McDonald's!

Full Circle

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: December 02, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The final entry in the "Sands of Time" saga is here.
On a journey homeward bound, the Prince finds out his home has been taken under seige.
Sadly he has lost everything. Yet now determined to take back Babylon, and save his land & people.

Play as the Prince, obtaining new fighting techniques. And don your blades as you fight various foes.
Plus use the sands to aid you along your quest. Or play as his darker entity, the "Dark Prince".
Using the Dagger of Time & chain whip, using unique combos on your adversaries.

The gameplay in Two Thrones is second to none. Take back the land of Babylon by taking down various foes with brutal combos, or use the new "Speed Kill" system. Survey Babylon across rooftops, lower streets, and catacombs. All the awhile avoiding pitfalls, traps, and many obstacles along the way.

The story is very compelling, and keeps you motivated as you progress.
Narrated by the Empress, and also told by the Prince himself. And as it unfolds, you'll take part in an exciting quest.
With an an orchestral soundtrack conducted by Inon Zur, and original music by Stuart Chatwood (The Tea Party).

This game is not to be missed.

he's back. Bought Time

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: December 03, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This is a wonderful return of the series to it's roots. At least for the most part. There are shadows of warrior within but not many. YOu do have to do the dark prince bit. THese parts are fun, but nothing compared to the brilliance of The light prince parts. The light prince parts are just like sands of time. THankd Goodness. Only this time they are better and prettier. yes, I said better and prettier. This game is well worth the price of admission. Buy it and you will love it. THE GOOD PRINCE IS BACK.

New Prince of Persia Rocks

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: December 03, 2005
Author: Amazon User

My favorite type of games are stealth game with good graphics and excellent free form camera angles. In other words Splinter Cell. Anyway, the new stealth element to Prince of Persia and the improved camera angles go along way to making this one of the best and funnest xbox games ever. You can take your enemies by suprise now; it no longer has to be just a button mashing game. Also the usual puzzles that are in all POP games are fun as well. Give it a try.

The Prince Returns One Last Time

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: December 03, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Or at least, one last time in his series of Sands of Time escapades...

SO! After months of participation on www.theswordsmen.net building up massive amounts of hype, the game finally came out. So let's see...where to begin....let's start by letting you know of SPOILERS AHEAD! Kay, now that THAT'S out of the way.

This time, Kaileena is narrating the story...oh geez....I really hope they were going for that monotonous tone of hers....it's REALLY irritating and lacking of emtion...ugh I hate her voice...

So the Prince returns to his hometown, Babylon, only to find it getting owned by random bad guys. So his ship gets attacked and blown to smithereens, Kaileena gets flung to a shore a short ways away from where the prince ends up, and thus the bad guys take her unconcious body into the palace or whatever.

Blah blah, prince is chasing her, he catches up, but he's too late. She's already tied to some pole thing, and as he comes up, he gets caught by a bad guy's chain-whip (wounding his arm). Turns out the bad guy is none other than, that's right, the Vizier. Since the Prince undid his escapaed with the sands of time, the Vizier is still alive, and he's gained even more power. By stabbing Kaileena with the dagger of time, he unleashes the sands of time once again. GREAT! Here we go again. Everybody gets transformed, and the Prince gets infected. So NOW we have a dead Kaileena (that might account for her narration to be so damn emotionless), an all-powerful Vizier, and a wounded Prince.

Kay, so now the Prince has this dark side version of him. So gameplay is pretty cool. The speed kill system really adds a Splinter Cell-ish feel to the entire game. You can choose to go in stealthily or blades flying...it's up to you.

Now about the Dagger-Tail. I was skeptical at first of this thing being useful. It looked somewhat complex using it to fling from one pole to the next and whatnot, but after playing with him, it turns out it's EXTREMELY fluent, and very easy to handle. It's a really cool addition to the overall game, and it seems like a good idea.

The new traps are really cool looking, along with the revamped old ones. I like the new health-upgrade system too. You have to first find the enchanted fountain (usually down a long jump-filled hall), drink from it, then it takes you to a trap-filled area, and once you clear THAT you get your health. Platforming aspect of the game is good, along with the puzzles, and the action.

The graphics are the same as last time around, maybe a bit better. The cutscenes are really nice. Yarr, I got distracted for a second, and now I lost my train of thought, with no prospect of my finding it again...so ANYHOW!

In conclusion: it looks to be a very promising game (I've only just begun). They thankfully fixed the music issues with Warior Within, and HOPEFULLY it's longer, but if it's not, whatcha gonna do about it, eh? :-p Anyways, if you're at all interested, I suggest you go pick up a copy.

A Perfect Conclusion to an Amazing Series

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 16 / 17
Date: December 06, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I still remember when the original Prince of Persia came out. Not the Sands of Time, but the two-dimensional PC version from the nineties. It was one of my favorite games. The series dragged for awhile, and then they began the current trilogy by releasing the Sands of Time, Warrior Within, and now, finally, The Two Thrones.

It's necessary to talk about the previous two games for a bit, because The Two Thrones takes a lot from both of them. In Sands of Time, what I felt was the real strength of the game was the storyline, along with superb voice acting and graphics that were ahead of their time. The prince was versatile and very easy to maneuver. Although the game was rather short, it was a fun ride. The major complaint about that game was its fighting engine, which was, admittedly, a bit bland and boring. With Warrior Within, they greatly improved the fighting engine, adding all sorts of maneuvers and combos and two-weapon fighting, which added another level of fun to the game. What Warrior Within seemed to lack from the first game, however, was the atmosphere. The prince didn't have Farrah (from the first game) as a companion to work with, and other than with boss fights, there was little dialogue. It was a much....darker game. Bloodier, gorier, and the music was laden with Godsmack and all sorts of heavy rock which, although during a few of the battles I thought it made it fun, seemed out of place.

The Two Thrones took what worked from both of the previous games in the trilogy, and dropped what didn't. The fighting engine from Warrior Within has returned, and has been improved. In Warrior Within it didn't really matter to me if I had two weapons or not; in this game the prince is MUCH deadlier with a second weapon (and also seems to lose it faster). I kept on finding I was looking to pick up a second weapon often, which is something I liked. They also added 'quick kills' to this game, where if you can sneak up on someone it gives you a sequence where you have to press the slash button as your blade lights up--and it's not extremely easy. The window you have to hit that button in is short enough to give you a challenge, but not too tough. Plus, they have quite a few different animations for it, so you can't just get used to one pattern for it. Boss battles have a level of difficulty, but aren't too tough.

The storyline of this game is also done very well. They lightened up the atmosphere that was so dark in Warrior Within. Although it's definitely not a light-hearted storyline, the voice acting and lighting in general seems to have made it much...cheerier. The prince (as you can tell by all of the previews and the artwork on the cover of the game) is now, well, schizophrenic. His darker side--I guess you could call it his warrior within--is now a voice in his head, and the prince banters with his darker half constantly. I found myself looking forward to the dialogue as much as anything else in the game, especially towards the end of the game.

A note of caution about the story: there were two endings to Warrior Within. The second ending could only be unlocked by acquiring all of the health upgrades. The story to The Two Thrones continues from the secret ending, not the normal one. If you didn't get the secret ending to Warrior Within, you may be confused as The Two Thrones begins.

The graphics to this game are essentially the same as Warrior Within. The cutscenes are incredible, but there aren't too many of them; there are far more in-game cutscenes using the regular character models than there are videos. The character models aren't bad, but they're not great, either. I don't think I can really complain, but the prince looks, well, lanky sometimes. I guess 'awkward' would describe him well. It's not that he looks stiff, or anything like that, but he just, well, bends in a strange way here and there. You can't really blame the game for that, though, because with all of his versatility he ends up in all sorts of positions, and so for some of them not to look completely natural is (in my book) easily forgiven.

The prince still moves in pretty much the same way from both of the previous games. He can run along walls, climb anything, jump unnaturally high--you get the picture. He certainly has some new things he can do in this game, but not very many. What I find neat about this game (and the previous two) is that although a lot of the things the prince can do are COMPLETELY impossible, the animation is done in such a way that you *almost* believe that it's possible. Almost. His moves are believable, which is a real credit to the animations he has.

Not only has the prince become schizophrenic in this game, but he has taken it one step further--his darker half takes over quite often, completely transforming his appearance. His dark side is MUCH more fierce of a warrior, holding a weapon in his off-hand that is essentially a giant chain, which he is very proficient with. You'll find it extremely easy to defeat enemies when you play as the dark side, but there's one catch: the prince's health drains over time. It replenishes fully when you get a sand tank. This may sound familiar from Warrior Within, where the prince was a sand wraith for some time, but there is quite a difference with the dark prince. The sand wraith had unlimited sand tanks; dark prince does not. The sand wraith would stop losing health at a certain point; the dark prince does not. If you don't improve your health, the dark prince will die, so it forces you to be quick as you go through certain puzzles trying to get back to being the normal prince. In general this doesn't become too much of a problem, as there are sand tanks in just about anything you smash while being the dark prince, but towards the end of the game it got pretty difficult, especially if you haven't gotten many health upgrades (which I didn't).

There were also some chariot races that they added. They weren't extremely fun, but I didn't find them to be a burden, either. One of them was pretty difficult, and ended with the most difficult boss battle in the game, so it's a good idea not to use up all of your sand tanks on the chariot race (which I did) because you'll need them in the boss battle, or else you'll play that battle QUITE a few times, especially if you haven't gotten many health upgrades (which I hadn't, and it took more than twenty attempts for me to win that battle). What makes the chariot races difficult is there's no health meter; if you crash you die. The chariot was maneuverable enough that the controls didn't cause you to crash, but sometimes it was difficult to see what was ahead, and the difficult race was a few minutes long--pretty tough if you don't want to use your sand tanks (which, believe me, you don't).

I already mentioned the voice acting. The music has changed from Warrior Within to be more...arabian. It fits well with the atmosphere. I found that oftentimes, especially with the Empress of Time (who narrates the story) it was difficult to hear her, so you'll want to turn voice sounds all the way up and sound effects and music down to be able to hear everything. Sometimes she would begin narrating JUST as I went to save my game, and it would cut her voice off, so that I didn't hear what she had to say. It's not a huge deal--nothing she said specifically had anything to do with any puzzles or anything, but with the story being as good as it is, it would have been nice to hear everything.

I also found that I relied on the sands MUCH less in this game than in the previous two. Some of the powers I got I never even used. Call it a credit to the well-programmed fighting engine, call it a credit to the game giving you a good clue as to where it is that you have to go, and the controls following what you tell it to do. But other than a few mistimed jumps, or poorly-executed 'quick kills,' I rarely needed to rely on the sands.

Overall, I think this game--and series in all--has been outstanding. All too often the sequel to a game becomes old hat, just a bland remake of the previous version. The Two Thrones is not bland. You may get sick of some of the puzzles here and there, but the superb storyline told through excellent voice acting makes you keep on wanting more. If you haven't played the previous games in the series, I'd suggest you do so before playing this game. Although you don't need any of the knowledge from previous games to be able to get through this one, they don't put much effort in brushing you up on what has happened in the previous games. Overall, The Two Thrones provides a satisfying conclusion to a series that has been outstanding throughout and constantly improving. It's a shame that the conclusion to this game is so final; I don't think I could ever get enough of this series, but alas, this is the finale.

Prince of Persia: the two thrones review

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: December 06, 2005
Author: Amazon User

ancientchicken -
Prince of Persia: the two thrones....one of the most anticipated games of the entire year.
i was looking forward to this game every since it was announced (and even before that!)
so i was so glad to finaly get my hands on the game. after playing for about 30 mintues
i knew i was in for the ride of my life! the new gameplay as the dark prince adds such an
awesome new level to the gameplay i cant even begin to describe! simply put, it is the most
awesome game to come out within the last couple of years! seasoned prince of persia fans and
newcomers alike, will thouroughly enjoy the game. i promise! :D buy the game!!

Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: December 08, 2005
Author: Amazon User

What an excellent way to end an excellent series. This game capitalized on all the series strengths. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time's puzzles and character depth, Warrior Within's combat and setting. Excellent soundtrack, combat, puzzles, story, and characters. Rent or Buy? Buy if you don't want to miss one of the better titles of '05.

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