Prince of Persia The Two Thrones

Last week I heard the new Prince of Persia game is out. I had been anticipating this for quite some time, and after hearing it's out I couldn't stop myself from getting it. Also, since I'm really busy these days, I didn't want this game to take over my life for many weeks, and I decided to finish it as fast as I could. After a couple of days of hardcore play, I finally finished it.

Third person action/platforming games are my favorite. In fact, I can't really stand playing anything else (except FIFA). PoP: The Two Thrones had gotten extremely good reviews, and was said to be far superior than the previous game, PoP: Warrior Within. I had enjoyed Warrion Within quite a lot, so I was looking forward to playing the Two Thrones.

It was definitely a highly enjoyable game to play with. The engine, as expected, is the same, so don't expect the game to 'feel' much different than the previous ones. But there have been quite a few cool new additions. The best, is the new 'speed kill' system. With it, you have the chance to kill enemies without them really putting up a fight. The trick is to sneak up on them from the back, then by pressing a button you enter the 'speed kill' sequence, which is basically a cool cinematic (i.e. you don't have control over 'how' the enemy is killed). It's not all that simple though, during the cinematic, at a few points your blade shines, and that's your queue to hit the action button. If during any of those points you fail to hit it at the exact split second, the attempt is foiled and you have to kill the enemies the old fashioned way.

Another cool addition is the great new environments, specially the great urban setting of ancient Babylon, and the rooftops, where you get striking views of the city. Finally, your new self, the Dark Prince, takes over you at many points during the game. The dark prince looks extremely cool and his daggertail is the funnest weapon I've seen in a game. The great Tarzan-esque swings you can do with it are really fun. When you're playing as the Dark Prince, you are on the clock though, as your health gradually (and rather rapidly) degrades. This gives an extreme sense of urgency, meaning you can't fool around. Still, it's much less nerve recking than the Dahaka chase sequences in the Warrior Within.

As far as the soundtrack goes, the departure form the heavy-metal sounds of the WW is a pleasant one. Still, I think the sountrack has major room for improvements, and at no point does it really take over and influence the game. Also, it's highly non-persian and much closer to Arabic sounds.

Regular enemies were disappointing (note to self: don't choose the 'easy mode' ever again). But the bosses were challenging enough. I really enjoyed the surprising last bit of the game. (No spoilers, you can safely read on). Just when you think the game is over and you watch the nice ending cut-scene, you find out it's not quite the end yet, as you take a playable journey into the prince's psyche. This segment, although quite linear, is still highly enjoyable and I've never seen a more psychadelic gameplay environment anywhere else. Really interesting sequence.

Having said all that, I was really disappointed once again, when I read the names on the credits and I couldn't find a SINGLE Persian name; just as it was for the Warrior Within. For the environments, the developers had gone to Morroco and northern africa to model Persia! And that was distinctly evident in the game as well. Although they had used some Persian elements and patterns on walls and surfaces, a lot of the places looked squarely Arabic. I can't realluy blame Ubisoft for that. That's going to happen as long as there are no Persians in the development team, and the reason there are no Persians in the development team is that I'm sure no competent Persians have ever applied!!! That's when I have to change things. I'd be damned if I'm not working on the next PoP.