RETRO – The Prince’s fate will be fulfilled in the third episode and we will finally know if his soul will be forever consumed by the sands of Time or if he will grow old in peace and happiness, side by side with the one he has chosen…

even apart from the release of < strong>Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones. 2003 was the year of Ubisoft. They came out with so many excellent games this year that we were left scratching our heads: Beyond Good & Evil, Splinter Cell, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time… The latter in particular received a huge ovation in the press and although for some strange reason it initially sold less than Splinter Cell, it slowly became known as a treat.

So Prince was a sleeper hit: it took a while for people to get fully hooked, to get a taste of its oriental charm, its great story, or simply to realise that it was the most polished platform TPS in recent times. As much as the first part of the trilogy failed to sink into the public consciousness before its release, there was a lot of anticipation, a real hysteria, before the sequel.

Some were already in love with the beautiful Monica Bellucci’s Kaileena, shuddering at the much darker, more cruel atmosphere and wondering what happened to the romance between the Prince and Farah. Well, although the second part was superior to the first, many were disappointed, as they didn’t like the darker, more depressing atmosphere and undertones, and missed the oriental, fairytale atmosphere that characterised Sands of Time – not to mention poor Farah.

Others, however, were just as enthusiastic about the sequel as they were about the first part. In retrospect, the brilliantly twisted story and the two endings, not to mention the “freeform fighting” combat system, made me like Warrior Within more, but I gave it a slightly lower percentage than the first because of the disastrous bugs and because it didn’t have the novelty of the first part.

With the third instalment, < strong> Ubisoft tried to do the impossible: please everyone – those who preferred the oriental, fairytale feel, but also those who liked the dark, gritty feel. You can feel it in < strong>Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones: the makers didn’t just want to end the Prince series with a single stroke of the pen, they put their all into this final chord.

You’ve done it wrong again…

But where were we in our tale, what happened to the Prince, the young heir to the throne of Persia, since we either killed Kalieena or made up with her and executed Dahaka and sailed back to Babylon with the beautiful Empress of Time? (For those who have only played Warrior Within one way: the true ending is the latter and can only be achieved by taking the hard way through the game.)

Now, after a hot night on a boat, the new lovers arrive in the once glamorous city, but things, naturally, go wrong again. Despite the Prince’s promises to Kalieena of peace and a warm welcome from the Persian people, our heroes receive only fiery arrows and cannonballs on board. Once again, the Prince is forced to crawl slightly damp from the sea to shore, and the unconscious Kaileena is dragged away by soldiers, once again infected with sand, to do… unspeakable things to her.

Poor Duke is once again tormented by guilt because he has “blown it” again: he failed to protect his wife, even though he promised her that everything would be all right. So at the beginning of the game we have no choice but to follow the kidnapped Kaileena, but during the seemingly simple mission to rescue her, the threads of the termite bed become tangled again, old characters who we thought were dead appear, and our hero will regularly transform into the “Dark Prince” from a certain point onwards.

The “Dark Prince” is our hero’s evil alter ego, infected by the sands of time, and if he takes control of it, he will regain his life force by feeding on the sand clouds, just like the Sandspawn in the second part. Like the Sandspawn, the Dark Prince needs the time clouds almost like a drug: his life force is constantly diminished if he does not get his due.

A particular difficulty is that while the Sand Prince’s life force has not diminished after a while, the Dark Prince will die if he doesn’t get sand in time. So much for the Dark Prince, and I don’t want to give too much away about the story, except to say that it’s just as twisty as the previous episode and there will be a lot of surprises at the end of the tale…

“By the rivers of Babylon…”

So with our hero, we must fight our way through the streets of Babylon, getting closer and closer to the legendary Tower of Babel, where the final showdown will take place. This time, we don’t know yet who the arch-enemy will be – we can guess… The first thing that struck us during our playtesting was that the < strong>Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones visuals… well, somehow, at first glance, they don’t look right, a bit washed out, a bit dated. As Kaileena is being dragged away, her posture is somehow strikingly amateurishly animated, and the beautiful woman’s arms and hands are reminiscent of PlayStation 1…

The first one or two maps aren’t very nice, as if they’ve been smashed together a bit… But that’s about all the negatives you can say about the graphics of < strong>Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, which gradually become more and more eye-catching and surpass the equally stunning visuals of Warrior Within.

I’m sure you’ve noticed from the < strong>Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones preview images that, in addition to the dark locations, there are finally plenty of light environments to visit with the Prince. The sunlit streets of Babylon, its matted stone buildings and wooden chalets, its majestic palaces, its rose-painted temple towers are not only simply eye-catching, but have been created with an incredible sense of style. While it’s undeniable that the creators didn’t use the most cutting-edge engine, they certainly got the most out of it.

Once again, Ubisoft’s graphic designers have shown a fantastic artistic flair: every frame shows how deeply they have immersed themselves in the style of the time and place. Although it’s a console title, on PC, the textures are extremely rich in detail, with one or two exceptions. Since Paris is < strong> Ubisoft could only provide me with a fairly mediocre machine, I was unfortunately unable to admire the game in its full beauty at maximum resolution, but even the PC version I tested is far inferior to the console version, which I also had the pleasure of playing, but this time I need not worry about it being a mere console transcript.

Sneak of Persia

The previous two episodes are famous for the animation of the Prince, among other things. The Persian youth spun, spun and amazingly jumped in the air while fencing: he almost didn’t fight, he danced. In Warrior Within the “freeform fighting” combat system has expanded the range of his movements even further, so that for the third part there are no more amazing innovations in this area – at least as far as the fighting moves themselves are concerned.

The real genius is the Splinter Cell, or rather Thief-like stealth, which lets you sneak up on your intended victims undetected and then use speed kill moves to take them out in one hair-trigger, savage slash. (See also boxed.) I was a little worried that this Splinter Cell “crossover” wouldn’t do the game series, famous for its acrobatic combat moves, much good, but thankfully < strong> Ubisoft has also cleverly integrated this gameplay element into Two Thrones.

It’s an incredible feeling, sneaking up behind the unsuspecting guard with a knife in your hand, or maybe you’re about to jump him from behind the narrow walls of an alley, but you can also stab your enemy in the neck while hanging upside down from a chain.

Of course, a good dose of precision is needed to execute the move successfully: if you press the button at the wrong moment, before or a little after the blue flash of your knife, your enemy will throw you aside and the duel will begin…

Deadly dancing and blade snapping

Combat itself hasn’t changed much since the second part: it’s pretty much the same freeform fighting as in Warrior Within: you’re completely free to make the most spectacular combat moves, taking full advantage of your surroundings. Of course, there are a few new moves, but the previous instalment set the bar so high that it was unnecessary to add to the existing ones or add too much.

Controls on PC may not be as precise this time when using a keyboard and mouse, but it could also be that I’m just too used to the gamepad from the previous episode, which is still highly recommended. The various monsters proved to be tougher foes this time around: it took me much longer to deal with a small or large army than in Warrior Within, but thankfully this time the critters don’t respawn when you go back to a new location, which was quite annoying there.

I found the variety of enemies a bit lacking in some maps, and there was too much variety coming back from WW: it was as if the creators’ creativity in terms of basic monsters had run a bit thin. Fortunately, the bosses are much more original and creepy than in previous episodes. One of the most terrifying is a huge fat mutant wearing a mask reminiscent of the killer in Halloween movies, which can only be taken out by using speed kill moves to stab both eyes in succession. The boss fights as a whole are more spectacular, more original and require more brain work than in Warrior Within.

In a chain of events

In the scene where our hero transforms into the Dark Prince, infected by the sands of time, a chain with claws is embedded in his flesh, which we can use as a weapon when we are confronting the Prince’s more ferocious self. The chain acts a bit like Indiana Jones’ whip: not only can we whip it, but it’s also excellent for swinging over various obstacles. Compared to Indy, the Duke is also much more skilful with it: on the precipices you can grab onto not just one kind of landmark, but all kinds of angles – making the swing much more lifelike and exciting than Indy’s.

As a weapon, the long barbed chain is as cruel and effective as any weapon the Prince has ever used. You can use it to perform hurricane-like moves, slicing through enemy bodies like a windstorm to free them of their precious sand. The speed kills give you a whole new range of moves: you can choke enemies from behind or hanging upside down by pressing the buttons at a steady pace, or even slice off heads in certain situations. The Dark Prince’s whip is probably one of the most enjoyable new features in the game, and it’s not even advertised as much…

We’re getting closer

The new feature that has been heavily promoted by Ubisoft, however, is the gear drive. You can see that the makers have tried to recreate a bit of the Ben Hur feel, although it’s not a race, but rather an adventure where you occasionally hop on a horse-drawn carriage to escape from the sand-infested soldiers hunting you. Unlike other raid games, the conditions for survival are much more brutal in < strong>Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones: it takes a lot less for the carriage to go into a trope, and if you hit a landmark head-on, not only does the carriage jump, but the Prince (and his horses) are smeared on the pavement.

Because this is a more realistic and non-competitive game of chasing, no tricky blades are sticking out to slash your rivals’ wheels, which I was glad about, because I was afraid it would ruin the original feel of Prince if it became too Ben Hur with this horse and cart story. Occasionally, enemy soldiers would jump from the road or the carriages galloping alongside us, so that if they couldn’t push us over, they could at least stab our hero with their own hands.

In such cases, a single push or jab can get rid of the annoying company. To add to the cinematic feel, the camera pans and moves away from your hero’s car for the bigger, more spectacular jumps. Thanks to these, the car racing sections are incredibly atmospheric and feel more like an adventure film than an adventure game.

Bouncing puzzles, jumping puzzles

As in the previous episodes, there’s a huge role for ingeniously crafted skill-based exploration of space, with jumping and jumping sections that work your reflexes and logic. In the vast throne rooms, rocky, abyssal caverns and streets of Babylon, you’ll need to look carefully first for special places to grab hold of and then move on, and then quickly plan your route.

These puzzle-like sections are still the most enjoyable part of the game, alongside the combat, and have been expanded with new challenges in the sequel. For example, you can often find round discs that you can use your dagger to swing back and forth into, and you can jump off the spring-loaded wooden boards in a slanted direction. On Sam Fisher, you can slide down the narrow walls on the palm of your hand or climb up. Although these new, special options don’t really revolutionise the whole jumping part, they do freshen up the already excellent recipe enough to make the third part feel like a ‘reheated soup’ in this respect.

HAPPY END? How the Prince’s story ends with a happy ending, I won’t say, but I’m sure that I was very happy with this third part. The< strong> Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones is clearly a fitting conclusion to the story of a man who began his adventures as a young man with a flabby chin and, by the end, was tired and disfigured by many scars.

< strong> Ubisoft Montreal has kept enough surprises and new features for all three episodes to never feel like a mere sequel, like so many other game series. Moreover, this new-generation< strong> Prince of Persia is one of those rare “revivals” that not only simply continues the previous series, but surpasses it with its unforgettable atmosphere, its excellent dramatic, sometimes tragic storyline reminiscent of the tales of the Millennium Nights, and above all, its incredibly well-developed gameplay. My only regret is: what will happen to me next year without another < strong>Prince of Persia episode?

< strong>-Bad Sector- (2005)

Publisher:</strong Ubisoft>

Developer: Ubisoft Montreal

Style: Action-adventure

Publication date: 2005