Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones

Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher:  Ubisoft
Played on: Prince of Persia TRILOGY HD

After its two brilliant prequels I was expecting the conclusion to the Sands of Time saga to be nothing short of epic, but instead, the series went out with a whimper.

Continuing where Warrior Within left off, the game starts with the Prince, who is now voiced by the same actor as the first game (yay!) returning to his kingdom with Kayleena, who is also voiced by a different actress (Consistency? What's that?). 

There, he discovers that the Evil Vizier (who is also voiced by a different actor) from the first game has taken over Persia and now, it's up to the Prince to write his wrongs and undo everything he did in the previous two games (noticing a pattern yet?) where along the way he'll re-meet Farrah (yay!) who is now voiced by a different actress (Noooo!).

Two Thrones was Ubisoft's attempt at appealing to fans of the Innocent and whimsical Sands of Time, while still keeping enough violence and broody dialog to lure in fans of Warrior Within and in my opinion the game completely falls flat on both ends, gone is the broody, intense Prince from the second game, which I don't personally mind, however, instead of seeing him trade witty dialog with Farrah like in the first game he does so with...himself, or rather a representation of his darker desires, this would ordinarily be a genius concept with a lot of potential but instead his "darker" is more annoying than threatening and imposes about as much respect as Krang from the old Teenage mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon and as a result, most of the conversations between them sound like something from that show.

You might like the fact that Farrah from the first game is back... that is until you realize she acts nothing like she used to, she went from a kind hearted princess with a wonder to how she views her world to a pretty generic battle hardened archer, so outside of a certain pomegranate themed conversation (you'll know when you get there) she just acts and sounds like a completely different person.

You'll notice I haven't talked much about the gameplay and that's really... because there's not much to talk about other than a few downgrades, remember the awesome combat from the first game? Well, all the blood was removed so it's not as satisfying to behead someone. Remember the quasi-sandbox of the second game? Yeah that's gone, now all levels are fully linear and you can't go back.

The only new additions were the occasional chariot races which act like a very simplistic on-rails game and the new "Dark Prince" who is better at combat but his life is constantly draining, so you'll have to kill enemies to regain it.

All in all, this game as a disappointment, downgraded gameplay elements, boring story, boring character and a serious lack of consistency with any of the previous two games killed what could have been one of the best trilogies ever made in the gaming world.

Pros:
- Platforming is still fun
- The Combat is still fun... though not as fun as in Warrior Within
- You finally get to see the Prince and Farrah together

Cons:
- The story tries to appeal to fans of both Sands of Time and Warrior Within, but it falls flat
- Sandbox feel of Warrior Within is gone
- The inner dark voice feels more like a cartoon villain
- Almost every character is voiced by a different actor
- Farrah? Is that you? What happened to your personality?

Final Grade: C+

Packaging review: Found in the Prince of Persia TRILOGY HD review