Prince of Persia 3 : The Two Thrones

[Runnen]

Considering how much I enjoyed the prequels Sands of Time and Warrior Within, I had extremely high expectations for the sequel The Two Thrones..

But it looks like my expectations will be blown away based on the information on the official website of the game.

Click here to see the official site.

Apparently, they kept most of the game mechanics that worked well in the prequels..

You still can use the powers of the Sands of Time to travel back in time after you've screwed up, or to slow down enemies and use powerful attacks..

You have two characters (apparently both in the same body but completely different gameplay).. the Prince and the Dark Prince.

The Prince still uses swords and continues to bounce and run along walls, while the Dark Prince uses a long spiked chain as main weapon and apparently also as a grappling hook for more platforming fun and deadly attacks (à la Ivy in Soul Calibur games).

What sounds really awesome is that now you can kill the monsters and various enemies using stealth techniques, jumping on them from rooftops, or sneaking behind them for a backstab..

For those wondering about the storyline, it follows directly the "good" ending of Warrior Within..

The Prince has destroyed the Dahaka, Guardian of the Sands of Time and Protector of the Time Line, and has saved the life of Kaileena, the Empress of Time. They have left the Island of Time to return to Babylone, and as they reached the Persian shores, they saw Babylone in flames.

The crown of the King of Persia rolled to the ground covered with blood, and the gloved hands of the Dark Prince picked it up, claiming to take what should rightfully be his, as the scene zoomed out and let us see Fara (from Sands of Time) tied to a wooden cross.

Apparently, the very beginning of The Two Thrones has Kaileena get killed by the Dark Prince and thus the Sands of Time are released once again, unleashing devastation upon Persia again.. and the Dark Prince seeps into the Prince and slowly takes over his body.

[Vorph]

I loved Sands of Time, but the direction they took the game for Warrior Within was fucking retarded. Whoever decided that going "dark" was the l33t trend of the moment and cut Farah out should be shot for ruining a series with such great potential.

I like dark/evil themes as much as the next guy (ok, much more than most people), but it absolutely did not belong in PoP. Part 3 looks like more of the same thing as Warrior Within.

[Runnen]

Well, I see your point about the change between Sands of Time and Warrior Within.. but it also makes sense storywise.

In Sands of Time, the Prince is a young man who doesn't know a whole lot about the world but is incredibly skilled at combat and manages to invert the catastrophy he unleashed by freeing the Sands of Time, and eventually saves Fara, the Princess he met during the adventure and who helped him all along against the evil Vizier.

In Warrior Within, the Prince has been chased night and day by the Dahaka ever since the end of Sands of Time, he is restless, paranoid everywhere he goes, and he has become manipulative because his only purpose in life is to stop the Sands of Time so the Dahaka won't chase him anymore..

You can see how manipulative the Prince has become when he realizes that Kaileena's death releases the Sands of Time and thus decides to go back into the past and take her to the present time to kill her again and prevent the Dahaka from finding him..

Or even further, when the Prince, now a Sand Wraith thanks to the powers of the Mask of Revenants, pushes himself (from another time line) into the Dahaka's clutches to save his own existence.


Yet at the very end of Warrior Within, it seems a split occured and that all that had become dark and scheming in the Prince has formed an entirely other entity, the Dark Prince.

Also at the very end, you can see Fara tied by the Dark Prince on a cross, and we know for a fact that Kaileena dies at the beginning of The Two Thrones, so I'd say it's almost certain Fara will be back on the front of the stage.

[Severak]

Official site says Kaileena kills herself to release the Sands so the prince can save himself...interesting. And from the way they casted the Prince's dialogue in the E3 trailer ("this is my war, leave my people out of it blah blah"), it looks like our hero is back to the valiant good guy from Sands of Time. I'd be lying if i said i wasn't greatly looking forward to this game, but it has very high expectations, so I hope they won't rush the production and they'll come through once again.

[Runnen]

Yeah, the video on the official website shows Kaileena letting herself fall off a cliff Kratos-style.

I guess she realizes that the Prince will not be able to do much against the armies of monsters taking over Babylone without the powers of the Sands of Time to help him once again..

It's a shame though, Kaileena was smokin' hot compared to Fara I thought =(

Maybe it's just because Kaileena was done better in CGI, I'll have to see new generation Fara before I pass judgement!

[Luthair]

Has anyone played PoP on both a console and a PC? I ask as I've thought about picking up Warrior Within but I'm not sure if I ought to get the PC version or the PS2. I played Sands of Time on the PC but I can't help but wonder if a controller beats a keyboard

[Runnen]

Well, I have never played them on a PC, I own both Sands of Time and Warrior Within on a PlayStation 2 and I must say the controls feel as if they had been made for the controller. Personnally, I have trouble imagining a platforming game, let alone one that requires so much meticulous accuracy in your jumps and runs on a keyboard.

[Szlia]

If one is very optimistic, one can point out that both SoT and WW have flaws, but not the same ones, so if Ubi manages to take the good parts of both game, they could make an insanely cool game with TTT.

In the first game the mix of combat and exploration was not very good. Huge chunks of exploration without a single combat and then never ending combats with always a couple waves too much of enemies. WW corrected that and gave additional depth and energy to the combat system.

In WW, you get crappy ethno-metal, female characters out of cheap RnB videos and you ask yourself "WTF is this shit?", because UBI did not notice that the strength of the first episode was the 1001 Nights feel to it.

Sadly for the optimists, it seems the retarded teenagers UBI polls in focus groups want more of WW, since we go again with something that does not sound at all in the spirit of 1001 Nights...

[Runnen]

Um, I understand that it's nice and all to get that "1001 Nights" feeling, but you have to realize that the Sands of Time had some pretty dark stuff in it..

I mean the Prince has to kill his own father who has become a Sand Wraith, and later in the game Farah falls to her death.. granted both characters ultimately return because the Prince manages to invert the timeline, but still..

Besides, what did you expect? The Prince and Farah singing "Blue Dream" on a carpet ride?