Prince Of Persia: The Two Thrones (Xbox)

Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones brings a climax to the recent smash-hit series by Ubisoft. It promises to answer many questions about the Prince’s past and tie up several loose ends in the story.

The final game in the series delivers a more rounded experience than the previous stab, Warrior Within and provides some insane acrobatic moments that are balanced by frenetic fighting and even some non-mandatory stealth.

Story

The Prince has conquered the Island of Time, freed the Empress Kaileena and generally won the day. Its back home to Babylon for a well deserved rest – only when he gets there his beloved city is in flames and his dear Kaileena gets kidnapped. This forces the Prince to once again battle to save a woman he loves.

Hey what about Farah? (Relax, she’s in it, but shhh – I’m not telling you any more)

Without going into too much of the story, something happens to Kaileena and the Sands of Time are unleashed once more. An old enemy from the Prince’s past returns with the Dagger of Time and begins a cycle of events that changes our hero somewhat. The Dark Prince is born from the immersion of our Prince in the cataclysm as the Sands are released.

Gameplay

Essentially you have some common styles that are blended into the new game, taken from Warrior Within and even the racing game: Burnout. There are a number of new moves that both the Prince and his alter ego: The Dark Prince can pull off and they take into account each of the warrior’s separate abilities.

The Prince: he’s the true elegant fighter and he takes advantage of the overhauled freeform fighting system, while he can also combine his battle tactics with advanced combos and acrobatic tom-foolery unseen in the previous games.

There’s now a quick-kill system that gives a visual indication if you are unseen by blurring the screen around the edges. A quick tap of the button and you launch into a timed-button pressing sequence that will slay any enemy as long as you press the right button while the Prince’s dagger is glimmering.

The usual two-weapon combat is back and along with the ability to steal enemy weapons the Prince gains the usual mix of exotic powers, similar to the previous games.

The gameplay has been changed for this game and the level of puzzles is similar now to the first game, with less combat in places and boss fights are often puzzle orientated requiring you to think about how to tackle some large opponents, get it right and you’ll be given a visual indication again similar to the stealth indicator and the Dagger of Time will shimmer blue.

There are a number of new acrobatic moves that the Prince and his alter-ego are capable of, the Prince can use his dagger to stab certain wall sections and hang while the Dark Prince uses his chain-weapon to swing Indiana Jones style from hanging lamps and poles.

There are now springboards that must be jumped on precisely to hurl you to another section, and even a few new climbing moves. Fortunately all of this is introduced as you play the game via tutorial sections so you are never truly at a loss.

The Dark Prince has his extremely versatile chain-weapon and that has a variety of combat moves, he bleeds health however at an alarming rate and his sections force you to fight far more than in the previous games. Fortunately the enemies are very rarely a match for such a powerful character and there’s always plenty of sand to restore his health.

The Chariot sections are an interesting addition but I felt as though they could have been added at the last moment, they were fun to play but since there seem to be really only two – they seem like an addition for cool rather than anything else. The way they play reminds me of Burnout and they are brutally hard if you make one mistake, you're pretty much toast.

As with all PoP games you can use the dagger to rewind time however sand is limited and the price of failure, is a restart. The save points are few and far between at times and sometimes they’re all over the place, which makes it tricky to pick up and play the game when you just want a quick run/hack and slash time.