Prince Of Persia : Two Thrones (The Dark Side of Me?)

Intro:
The Prince of Persia, a seasoned warrior, returns from the Island of Time to Babylon with his love, Kaileena. Instead of the peace that he longs for, he finds his homeland ravaged by war and the kingdom turned against him. The Prince is rapidly captured and Kaileena has no choice but to sacrifice herself and kill the Vazier. Now cast out on the streets and hunted as a fugitive, the Prince soon discovers that past battles have given rise to a deadly Dark Prince, whose spirit gradually possesses him.
Utilizing the concept of "duality," the player can play as two separate warriors with different combat styles, attitudes, and histories. The Prince, using the Dagger and another disposable weapon, uses a Speed Kill system that focuses on timing and precision. The Dark Prince utilizes a style that is based more on violence and aggression, and he makes deadly use of the Daggertail, allowing for long-range attacks.

True to the Prince of Persia franchise, the game provides a variety of action combat, agility, and story-driven puzzles - all masterfully blended together to provide a rich gaming experience. Explore incredible platforming environments such as the dangerous urban babylon. Dominate enemies on the perilous rooftops, dodge through chaotic streets, and ambush pursuers in dark, underground passageways. You can even seize the reins of a chariot to fend off hordes of enemies at breakneck speed in impossibly tight pursuits!
Manipulate time to surprise enemies: Execute powerful attacks against entire armies by slowing down or rewinding time, or surprise them by using some all-new Sands of Time powers.

Play and master two distinct characters: Wield the powers and weapons of two master warriors with different combat styles, attitudes, and histories.
Expanded Free-Form Fighting system lets destroy enemies in your own style--strangle from afar with the deadly Daggertail or use a new stealth art to inflict surprise decapitations and other attacks.

Battle freely through Babylon: Dominate enemies on the perilous rooftops, dodge through chaotic streets, and ambush pursuers in dark, underground passageways.
Immerse yourself in a dramatic story: Experience unparalleled depth in storytelling as you fight your way through a twisting tale filled with adrenaline, tension, and discovery. And as usual you have to watch his womanizing character and at least one female gets into trouble because of him. :)




























    






Whilst The Two Thrones might fail to strike a perfect balance, it does still indeed have a balance and that itself is worthy of investigation. The core problem with The Two Thrones is that it borrows from previous games without understanding what fundamentally made the borrowed material effective in their respective titles. The whole game is narrated by his "wife" Kaileena. Though the game starts with the Prince trying to rescue her, he does a good job in forgetting her when he sees Vazier and Farah. Good job Prince. 

Ubisoft does attempt something of a “zoom out” of the trilogy at the end, attempting to somehow link everything to Sands of Time, but it’s a total after thought. It’s not a complete fail though as, according to developers, her role is to be the objective overseer 3rd party who watches over the conflict, in which she follows out the role well.

The narrative joints between Sands of Time and Warrior Within were forcibly creaky. In The Two Thrones though the assumptions made between games are further farfetched and disjointed, only confusing to the player, particularly players new to the universe. Even as someone who has intently played through the previous games, I was left clueless. Reading the Wikipedia article later for context had me baffled too. How did I miss all that?

This is initially problematic as Warrior Within ended with either one of two conclusions, one which is rejected and the other accepted as cannon in The Two Thrones – I got stuck with the dud ending.

The Two Thrones revisits the original setting of Sands of Time, which itself would be fine if Ubisoft hadn’t become so ambitious as to over complicate the narrative. Supposedly the events of Warrior Within meant that the events of Sands of Time never happened, ie. the Vazier is still alive and the Prince never met Farah.

This results in an intentionally heavy amount of Sands of Time redux as the various characters reprise their roles, and the events unfold in similar fashion. It’s both good and bad. Good because the Prince and Farah’s romantic quibbling and the tale of maturation is all very nostalgic. Bad because this retread tramples all over the ethos on which Sands of Time’s narrative was created. While the events from the Sands of Time remain lost in another dimension, the Prince still experienced it – he’s the outlier in this whole equation (it’s also the reason he knows Farah’s name). This is itself rather clever in a very Back to the Future 2 kind of way. Now, SoT’s story is a metaphoric telling of a boy becoming a man and said boy growing affection for girl. Therefore, by the end of the game the Prince is suitably the hero of the story. The Two Thrones unflinching regurgitates this component of Sands of Time. The narration dot points the Prince’s personal growth, yet the reasoning for his maturation here is weakly supported. Hasn’t he already become a man? Well, yes, but now he’s on the path of redemption you see. Somewhere along the road the Prince did something bad (I still haven’t figured out what it is yet) and he’s determined to redeem himself for it, all the while being a little too mopey for comfort. I don’t believe that his sins are ever clearly made apparent to the player which makes the maturation part of the tale seem completely unfounded and therefore unnecessary.

Either way, one thing is made clear: this evil he is trying to free himself of exists within the persona of the “Dark Prince”. Early on in the game, the Vizier does a whole bunch of evil stuff which in turn causes the Prince’s right arm to be infused with a daggertail (you know, a whip made of sharp blades) and talking evil persona who butts in whenever he feels like demeaning the hero.

 

One of the best parts is the way Dark Prince makes fun  of when the Prince and Farah are having their "moments". Believe me he's got sense of humor. he doesn't find time for all those lovey dovey talk and is rather focused on killing on the Vazier. Honestly he is much better than the "real" him and he rocks.

This good and evil dichotomy (alternatively: Sands of Time/Warrior Within) is the main theme of The Two Thrones and is made a central element by the regular and dark personas of the Prince. Rather than mixing hot and cold water, the two factions are individually broken up into sequences of play piecing together the linear progression. You begin as the normal Prince and then upon reaching a certain area the Dark Prince will take possession and the gameplay alters before switching back – and so forth. Cleverly Ubisoft chose water as the means to transform the Dark Prince back into his former self. Those who’ve been observant in prior games will note that within the trilogy water is symbolic of life (and hence anti-evil). Drinking water heals the Prince’s health, while waterfalls acted as path blockages to fend off the evil Dahaka. In The Two Thrones water is the gateway between personas.

The regular Prince is as you already know him from previous games – no changes there. The Dark Prince is rather different though. In terms of platforming he can use his dagger tail to pull stone slabs out from walls and use them as makeshift platforms. He can also use the daggertail to swing along the interior lighting. Essentially this action is the same as swinging via rope except that the player must prompt the swings.

Combat sees the majority of character divergences. The Dark Prince’s primary weapon is the daggertail (everything links to the daggertail!) which he swings about in a very God of War fashion, albeit without the finesse or appeal of Kratos.(It’s more like a lassoing cowboy). The new set of abilities gained by the daggertail play into this touted free-form combat system which basically means a lot of random button pressing. The system isn’t as punctual as the regular Prince’s move set, instead it’s more of a far- flung twirl of pain which hastily obliterates enemies. The haste is very much required as in Dark Prince mode the Prince’s health is constantly draining, with the sands from downed enemies (or simply random tables and chairs) acting as the magic elixir. Designing around the constant draining of life essentially means that when playing as the Dark Prince, the player will move from quick breaths of platforming, into a mild combat refresher and then back again

The switch between personas also chapterizes the game a little better. So you’ll play the game for an hour or so and then the Prince will swap into the opposing ego implying the closure of that particular sequence of gameplay.

The most significant additions to The Two Thrones though are predominately shared between the two personas. Stealth kills are a new feature and are very much a welcomed middle ground between both of the previous games, a clear example of Ubisoft getting it right. When in range of unsuspecting enemies the Prince will duck into a sneak, allowing him to get behind enemies and launch into an efficient context sensitive stabathon. These moments vary per enemy type and allow the Prince to avoid the sluggish combat. In fact, their frequency creates a huge sense of relief as it ensures that combat is (optionally) kept to a minimum. Fortunately blood has been removed from The Two Thrones too which acts in taste to the rest of the series yet the stabbing and strangulation aligns itself with Warrior Within; a happy compromise.

The platforming also sees a number of fresh faced additions to the chain of ledges, open walls and columns. Namely we’re talking about dagger mounts and squishing between closed walls. Dagger mounts are circular mounts built into walls which allow the Prince to drive his dagger into and hold himself up above ground. They more or less function as a brief stopgap between rounds, and due to their singular form comfortably integrate amongst the existing objects. Similarly, squishing between closed walls is simple and effective. Basically the Prince can push himself between two walls, allowing him to climb up or slide down at will.

The final new addition to The Two Thrones are the chariot races. These fixed set pieces splice their way into the game occasionally and provide a good distraction from the regular routine. In such events the Prince rides a chariot through the streets of Persia fending off an onslaught of enemies while avoiding obstacles along the way. The controls aren’t perfect but do a solid job.

The Two Thrones is much more sophisticated in the way it melds play styles. Platforming deviates from pure free running to stealth, the stealth provides the player with greater options on how to tackle combat, combat is now split between the two egos with chariot races making occasional appearances. By never hanging onto a single approach and giving choice to the player, The Two Thrones in terms of gameplay structures alone is the pinnacle of the trilogy. The Two Thrones is an overall more focused entry in the series and admirably achieves an interesting concoction of gameplay styles. I would say its one of the best   of the series and the credit goes to Dark Prince.