Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones

1. Official Site
2. Platform: PS2
3. Publisher: Ubi Soft
4. Developer: Ubi Soft
5. Release Date: 12/01/05
6. Genre: Action/Adventure

by Mitch Youngblood

A terrific side effect of recently installing a DVD player in my computer is that I now have the ability to burn through my film library while sitting at my desk. I bring this up now because in speaking the language of film, one tends to associate other entertainment mediums with it almost by default. The upside to this is the ability to peg exactly where certain pieces of entertainment pull their influences from which is almost a game in itself. After having completed the Prince of Persia trilogy it occurred to me that the series is the Arabian version of the Indiana Jones saga with a little Back to the Future mixed in.

I have shouted from the tops of mountains of my absolute love for Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and of my equally absolute hatred of its sequel Warrior Within. For every step of sheer brilliance the original game made, the sequel took four steps in the direction of stupid then leapt off a cliff for good measure. Warrior Within was so awful in fact that it made me terrified the third game would suck before it was even made.

Fortunately, Ubisoft went back to the original well and pulled up another winner. Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones nicely opens with a voice over highlighting the events of the previous game before plunging headfirst into the Prince’s return to his home of Babylon complete with the fabled Tower of Babylon standing tall in the distance and growing ever closer as the Prince progresses. This third installment quickly proves to be an odd mix of the previous games as it pulls everything that worked from the first game, adds in the revamped combat of the second game, and completely pulls the rug out from under gamers with the inspired storyline that twists the entire story in on itself.

I referred to the Back to the Future trilogy for a reason because while most people look at the second film as the dark horse of the series, ditto the Indiana Jones series, it took great pleasure in showing that while time always moves forward it can be unexpectedly altered in ways few could imagine. The third entry in all three series strove to recapture the magic of that first time out and in that regard The Two Thrones is a smashing success, even if it doesn’t look as good as the original did three years ago.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time came out in 2003 and just for kicks I threw it on and played for a while as a comparison to The Two Thrones. There is absolutely no reason that the third game looks as horrible as it does when compared to its predecessor that used the same engine. At the very least, it should either look the same or close to it. So why is The Two Thrones consistently ugly with its characters and environments? It’s even more frustrating when you see the later levels noticeably improve the overall look of the game. The first few levels in no way compare to the final few and going through the entire game over the course of a few days feels like watching a game evolve as you play.

I feel the need to clarify how the visuals are contradictory. On the one hand, the streets and rooftops of Babylon are extremely well designed and everything has a lived-in quality that adds tremendously to the look and feel of ancient Persia. On the other hand, gone is the romantic light bloom of Sands of Time and in its place remains the grit and grime of Warrior Within which doesn’t entirely work for the story.

It is easy to appreciate the combining of storylines from both previous games but there should have been a more aesthetically pleasing approach to the graphics. Even when the Prince runs through the hanging gardens later in the game, what could have been jaw-dropping in beauty instead results in disappointment that more effort wasn’t put into the backdrops. The end result is that backgrounds and character animations feel like they were slapped together to meet a deadline, yet it remains puzzling why they didn’t at copy directly from the first game. A copy of a copy may not always be as sharp as the original but in this case it may have helped.

The vocal performances by Yuri Lowenthal as the Prince and Rick Miller as the Dark Prince are terrific. It’s hard to pick a favorite because while Miller steals plenty of scenes, Lowenthal actually evolves the Prince over the course of the game. At the beginning, he is still the hardened, closed off warrior from the second game and is determined to find out who attacked his kingdom and why. But as the story unfolds, he gradually starts opening back up and returning to the adventuresome, playful Prince of the first game and it is wonderful to hear. The banter between Lowenthal and Miller is frequently hilarious as each treats the other as an annoying inner voice regardless of who is in control of the Prince’s body.

As for the sound effects, they are the same recycled ones from the previous two games so if you are familiar with either title then you know the exact sounds of the Prince running on walls or breaking furniture and pottery. Where things get unique is when the Dark Prince is involved. His Speed Kills (more on those in a minute) and various maneuvers involve the chain on his left arm and it is just wicked to the ears whenever the player uses it. Another new element shows up in the form of chariot races and it sounds extremely cool whipping through the streets of Babylon narrowly missing debris and battling enemies who attack on foot and in other chariots.

The music score for The Two Thrones is terrific and elegantly combines Arabian themes and instruments with modern guitar riffs. It flares up whenever battle is imminent and brings the world to life much more so than the lackluster graphics do. It’s also fun to listen to by itself, which can lead to the Prince taunting the player since he isn’t moving.

Where I have an issue with the audio in general is how the voice over from the narrator and also the two Princes will sometimes start right before or right after a cut scene or loud action sequence and things can get lost. Take for example the final battle in the game. At the very end of it the sound almost cuts out then quietly comes back in for a cutscene, then once that scene ends the audio cranks back up for the following scene. This sort of inconsistency is aggravating to say the least, but the good news is it is not consistent. Normally the audio levels are fine, but here and there they will drop or spike suddenly so be aware.

I would also like to take a brief moment to thank Ubisoft for banning Godsmack from recording anything for this game, and hope that the buffoon responsible for hiring them for the second game was sacked. Now I feel better.

The controls are not as simple as one would hope for The Two Thrones because they remain very much ensconced in the Warrior Within mentality of crossing ancient Arabia with Ninja Gaiden. The result is a slew of options so great in number that it boggles the mind to try and recall them all. Either that or I’m just getting old and can’t seem to remember whether I should hit square, triangle, triangle, circle after jumping off a wall or just hit X. Having a ridiculously large array of combinations available is not necessarily a bad thing, especially when you have them all listed in a menu in-game. But I just find it silly that three pages of the manual are devoted exclusively to all the different moves most of which are unnecessary since you can power attack most enemies then pick up a brand new secondary weapon.

The basic scheme relies on the X button for jumping and rolling, the square button for attacking with the dagger, the circle button for picking items up and dropping off ledges, and the triangle button to trigger Speed Kills and attack with your secondary weapon. In order to initiate a Speed Kill, you have to remain unseen by an enemy, sneak up behind or above them, and when the screen blurs around the edges hit the triangle button. The Prince will launch into an impressive acrobatic ordeal and whenever his blade flashes the player must hit the square button. Timing is key here because if you miss it then the enemy will hand your head to you.

The good news is that the Dagger of Time returns along with all of the associated powers over time itself. Holding the L1 button will rewind time and tapping the same button will simply slow things down. The R1 button is for running on walls and pushing and pulling large objects, and for drinking out of the water fountains thus saving the game.

When Sands of Time hit it threw a lot of people for a loop because while combat was part of the game, the primary challenge was against the environment. The second game reversed that idea by making combat the focus and throwing in some environment-based puzzles almost as an afterthought. The Two Thrones manages to find a happy middle ground by incorporating the extensive combat options into the environmental puzzles via the Speed Kills. As mentioned in the controls section, the player sneaks up on an opponent, activates the Speed Kill option with the triangle button, then watches for the brief flash of light from the Prince’s dagger as the sign to hit the square button. Watching the more elaborate kills is terrific especially when the Prince takes out two enemies at once, but this feature is also used well against the bosses.

Take the arena battle for instance. The reveal of a two-story gigantic monster with a big honkin’ sword is very cinematic, but the player has to figure out how to use the environment to maneuver the Prince to the point where he can activate a Speed Kill to… do something. By this point in the game, players will already have learned how to stab areas of the wall, run across walls, jump between other walls, and so on. The non-stop acrobatics of this game are frequently exhilarating especially towards the end where anyone who has vertigo in real life is recommended to just stop. If you are afflicted by this fear then do not play this game since it will freak you out. Consider this fair warning.

The Two Thrones adds to what has come before by altering the ways you interact with the environment. In addition to the way the game integrates the Dark Prince’s chain, the game also throws diagonal jumping into the mix. The famed health upgrades are also not as insanely tough to find as they were in Warrior Within, but they do require players to pay attention to every aspect of the environment. Ubisoft definitely managed to get most everything right with this title, and considering that it comes off as a true continuation of the first game that is an excellent thing for gamers. Play this game.

The Two Thrones is one of those games that makes me wish the PS2 had a multi-disc changer because this combined with Sands of Time would mean several days worth of terrific entertainment. If you haven’t played any of the games in this series yet, then stop reading this and go pick up Sands of Time. Then pick up The Two Thrones and you’ll be good to go. The challenges and story are absolutely worth revisiting time and again and above all the game is fun start to finish with only minor frustrations here and there.

The amount of fun that the combat and puzzles bring to the table is substantial, but The Two Thrones is enhanced by a wonderful continuation of the first game’s storyline. I’ve been more than a little hard on the insulting nature of Warrior Within but justifiably considering that characters were blatantly changed for the sake of being changed. It felt as if any continuity with the first game was incidental. The Two Thrones succeeds as a direct sequel to the first game by using the characters’ experience and furthering their emotional growth without radically altering the world. This is why I compared it earlier to both the Indiana Jones and Back to the Future trilogies because both series' second installment was a radical departure in tone and substance from the first. Compare that to The Empire Strikes Back which takes all of the characters to a darker place, yet remains true to their established natures instead of throwing all that aside and focusing on beating them down.

That’s a long way to say that The Two Thrones is a stunning and wonderful conclusion to a magnificent storyline. Ignore the second title and play the first and third installments for some of the most challenging, romantic, and fun gaming that the PS2 is capable of. The Two Thrones is the perfect capper for one of the best storylines of this generation.

Gaming Trend Score

92

1. Graphics: 82
2. Audio: 92
3. Controls: 86
4. Gameplay: 97
5. Value/Replay: 95
6. OVERALL:92