Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones

One Warrior. Two Souls.

NA release: 1st December 2005
EU release: 9th December 2005
JP release: N/A
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal, Ubisoft Casablanca
Publisher: Ubisoft
NGC Magazine Score: 74%
Mods Used: Widescreen Code

While I enjoyed the Sands of Time, I found Warrior Within to be rather frustrating. I was very glad to discover that the final part of the Prince of Persia Trilogy, The Two Thrones (I do think it’s slightly confusing to use the number two in the third game) seems to combine what I liked about both games and improving in them.

Movement is extremely solid, with lots of moves at the Prince’s disposal, all flowing nicely – wall runs, using your dagger to cling onto holes, jumping off bounce pads, swinging on poles and more. And it’s back to a more linear style – no accidentally going the wrong way because of the strange backtracking like the previous game.

Instead, you do have to look around your current area a bit more carefully to figure out how to progress, especially with the holes for clinging onto the wall with your dagger. It can be frustrating a couple of times throughout the game, but more than worth it as it feels like you’re figuring out how to progress instead of just doing what you’re told.

Combat also feels much better, with plenty of combos to perform and a few tricks based off walls and columns, it’s quite satisfying but that isn’t all, as optional stealth is a tool you can employ. It’s quite smartly implemented, too as the Prince automatically crouches (without going really slow) and when you get close enough, you can perform a stealth kill by timing some button presses (the more powerful the enemy, the more you have to do). It’s quite satisfying to perform.

The plot involves the Prince getting home from his last adventure to find Babylon under attack from the visir from the first game, and attempting to stop him caused the Prince to be infected by the Sands, creating a split personality as an evil version of the prince tries to twist his mind, with the two arguing throughout the game.

This extends into gameplay as well as some portions of the game have the Dark Prince take over, giving him new powers until a source of water is found to wash him away. The Dark Prince has a chain that can be used as a grapple, along with giving him more power and a greater range in combat. It helps mix things up throughout the game.

This all creates for a great overall game, with plenty of interesting story moments and game that’s a lot of fun, with the developers learning from their previous games.

Great

With half the atmosphere of the first game, half the carnage of the second, and a few new (if only partially sucessful additions), The Two Thrones is a welcome resting place for the Prince of Persia.
Alex Cooke, NGC Magazine #115

Remake or remaster?

A remastered collection would be good.

Official Ways to get the game

Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones is available on Steam.