Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones

So... this game actually tries to do a thing: Combining the feel of parkour, combat and presentation from Sands of Time with the more... aggressive appearance and combat of Warrior Within. Notice how something got mentioned in both - and same as the combat, this mixture of two games shows even more what the problems with a departure from SoT actually are. While I think that the game in general feels more tighter than WW, it quickly becomes apparent that it is still neither as responsive nor enjoyable to trigger your combat moves. They at least reduced some of the attack possibilities. And added stealth. Yes, it is only repeated QTE, but it is alright. The game does give you a shove to actually use it while being Prince A. When playing as Prince B is where the WW part comes in, encountering hordes of damage sponges you have to eliminate with your weapon. While being on a constant timer during both combat and parkour. Doable, but, as the whole game, not presented to the player in full satisfying fashion. All these, the new mechanics, the parkour additions, new traps and what not, all feel like: "Hey remember stuff xyz from SoT and how it was good "for some reason"? Let's add zyx to that", without getting the same detailed feel. Having said all this, I guess it should not come as a surprise that I believe TT to be the superior game to WW - but only because of the gameplay callback to SoT. Which they actually try to add in a lot (for example the scene after getting the dagger - but even there you can get my drift about how it is not the same polish in design). The thing is: Being better because you try to reach your predecessor, but missing it by a longshot, actually says something. Again, as soon as you stop comparing, however, the game is still solid in all aspects. Nice story, atmosphere and parkour. Combat is fun after getting along with it. So despite some shortcomings, you can certainly have a great time with it. Recommended! 4 stars by comparison, 5 alone.

Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones is one of the most enjoyable games I enjoyed and cheerish as kid and now as a adult. To me is a timeless classic and holds up. It's a atmospheric masterpiece, the world feels lively even in ruins, beautiful sound work, the music its really good. the texture work is beautiful. Gameplay is amazing the fluidity its just great, and traversing trough the world feels wonderful. The combat is satisfying and rewarding, the enemy A.I is simple but competent Never played the two previous games but I'm sure they are equally good or better. I had this game as a kid and was the GameCube version, I think I have completed this game during my life-time like ten times, never played this game on PC(first time as of now). Spartan Total Warrior and Zelda: Twilight Princess and this game, good times.

After reading the mixed and negative reviews for this game, I was scared it would be a let down compared to the two previous entries in the series. Fortunately, I had a really fun time with it. The two main points of discontent with TTT are the combat and the QTE system. And it's true, they're a mixed bag. The combat is more of the same from Warrior Within, which was awesome. Yet, it has a few more problems. Enemies tend to be more annoying than before (some use long-range attacks or can parry combos without limit). The autolock system is worse than ever; thrown weapons and combos often end up hitting nothing but air because the Prince is unable to stick to a target. And also: yes, this game has QTEs. Not a lot, they're only used to perform executions during stealth sections and boss fights, but they get repetitive and do not integrate very organically in the gameplay, quickly getting annoying. Due to this, TTT's combat does not always live up to the standards set by the previous game. And yet, I would argue that these faults are fairly minor, and that the game is an overall extremely enjoyable experience. First, the platforming sections are as good as ever, taking cues from previous games and even improving on them: the movement seems a bit faster and more controllable in this game, and the level design is mostly great, providing tons of awesome parkour (with a few new elements) and puzzle solving. Plus, while the story and atmosphere were a bit lackluster in the previous game, this one makes real efforts to renew with the dreamlike oriental setting and solid storytelling of Sand of Time, throwing you in a colorful and detailed Babylon, bringing back a few familiar faces, while also developing the Prince as a character, since this storyline has him confronting his own flaws and motivations. While it's not the most fun entry in the trilogy combat-wise, The Two Thrones still has a lot of amusement to offer and provides a solid conclusion to this series.

The gamaplay is fantastic, the storyline is cool and the graphics wonderful, but everything in the game feels like an odd blend of Sands of Time and Warrior Within

This adds more to the platforming than Warrior Within. You have to keep track of a bunch of different moves and carefully read your surroundings. This has by far the best boss fights in the trilogy. I appreciate that some people absolutely despise quick time events but when you really only have the ability to run around hack and slash you do have to get creative in order for the boss enemies to be interesting to not simply be the same basic type of thing just with them having much more health. This was when they finally nailed that. Every so often you get taken over by your dark side on account of Sands of Time related magic. He has different moves including for the parkour elements, is a lot of fun to play as and works really well thematically. If the original of these three was the Prince as basically a child experiencing the world for the first time, the second was him as an edgy teenager, this is him growing up becoming an adult. And as such it makes a ton of sense for him to be struggling with the side of himself that is still irresponsible and potentially dangerous. As others have noted this is slightly shorter than the others. I ran into more bugs and glitches and it's definitely good that after this they made a new graphics engine instead of these upgrades that push it right up against the edge of what it can do. The story is interesting following the time travel shenanigans with delivering an alternate present day, thus taking another page from the book of Back to the Future Part Two. This changes the freeform combat somewhat making it less of an exploited cheesy mess. It adds in some very Splinter Cell stealth elements that worked a lot better than I had thought they would. Basically if you manage to get past one of these sections without attracting any attention you won't have to fight in that area. And if you fail it you better make sure to deal with the teleporter that keeps bringing in a seemingly ceaseless supply of enemies.