The Prince of Persia: Sands of Time trilogy has always been known for
its tight controls and satisfying environmental puzzles set in beautiful
levels. The series' control scheme has served as a model for countless
other games that also feature an acrobatic protagonist like the Prince.
The same great interface remains in the third game of the series, The
Two Thrones. Like the other two games, you'll find yourself wall
running, jumping, flipping, and vaulting your way up fiendishly designed
environmental puzzles, as well as fighting vicious enemies with the
improved combat system introduced in the last game, Warrior Within. The
Prince has a few new tricks up his sleeve as well, but longtime fans of
the series should still feel right at home.
The story of the Sands of Time trilogy began with the prince's army
attacking and conquering the capital of the Indian empire. In the midst
of the battle, however, an evil vizier caused the release of the sands
of time, wreaking havoc over the city and the surrounding countryside.
The prince and an Indian princess named Farah battled together to defeat
the vizier, bottle up the sands, and restore the world to a normal
state. The story continued in Warrior Within, where an embittered Prince
set sail for the Island of Time, seeking sanctuary from an unstoppable
time creature called the Dahaka who pursued him endlessly because of his
part in unleashing the sands of time. There, the Prince battled not
only the Dahaka but also Kaileena, the Empress of Time. Fans of the
first game felt the series lost a lot of its soul in Warrior Within, as
the suddenly cynical Prince was much more arrogant and less likable.
The Two Thrones begins with the Prince returning to Babylon from the
Island of Time with the mortal Kaileena as his new lover (this part of
the plot may be confusing to those who didn't see the alternate ending
of Warrior Within). As they pull in to the harbor at Babylon, the duo
finds the city under siege. Their ship is wrecked by the invaders, and
Kaileena is captured by the enemies. You quickly find that the vizier is
back and responsible for the uprising. He murders Kaileena and
unleashes the sands of time upon Babylon, and the Prince must battle to
regain his kingdom and avenge Kaileena's death.
But it's not just sand creatures and other bad guys from the vizier's
army that the Prince must fight. With the sands of time infecting his
soul, the Prince must also battle the whims of his darker, more arrogant
side. Throughout the game's long, 12- to 15-hour campaign, the Prince
will morph back and forth between his normal self and the Dark Prince.
He'll also have internal dialogues between his split personalities, with
the original actor from Sands of Time voicing the normal prince, and a
new voice actor representing the sneering, more sarcastic Dark Prince.
Here, the game almost becomes self-referential in addressing the popular
criticism levied against the arrogant Prince from Warrior Within. The
internal strife in the schizophrenic Prince's mind forms a compelling
part of the storyline in The Two Thrones, especially because both the
writing and voice acting are pretty good.
Turning into the Dark Prince isn't just window dressing, though. In
gameplay sequences in which the Prince is his evil self, you'll find
that you're much more powerful in combat, thanks to a new weapon called
the daggertail. The daggertail is a chainlike weapon that can be swung
around to attack multiple enemies, or lashed out like a whip. It also
comes in handy for swinging across bars or lamp fixtures, kind of like
in Bionic Commando. Unfortunately, this added power comes at a price.
Much like playing as the sand wraith in Warrior Within, the Dark Prince
loses health constantly, and it must be replenished periodically by
recovering sand from defeated enemies or from breaking jars or furniture
in the environment. Unlike the sand wraith, though, the Dark Prince
doesn't get unlimited use of sand powers. The sequences in which you
play as the Dark Prince let you be much more aggressive in combat, as
health is never really a concern (you basically get recharged fully with
each downed enemy), but the puzzle-solving and acrobatic sequences can
be stressful because you have a time limit to get from point A to point
B. Fighting as the regular Prince is very similar to in the previous two
games in the series. You can pick up dropped weapons for use in your
offhand, which lets you do more powerful weapon combos against enemies.
Or you can vault off walls and poles, and even use the enemies
themselves to augment your attacks. The fights are as violent as
ever--you can behead or even cut enemies in half with the more powerful
moves.
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