Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones

THE BAD:
-Does get too challenging at times.

SUMMARY:
The Prince of Persia trilogy-ending entry gives something that everyone can get behind. Intense platforming segments are perfectly balanced to highlight the joy of movement and the glory of getting a sequence right. Brutal combat is changed with cinematic finishers and more ties to action and platforming. In all, the Ubisoft Montreal team appears to have split the difference between the two earlier with this one, with design ideas clearly aped from each other, while judiciously cutting less successful ones. The is spot on, meaning that the good is left and the jaggy parts of this title are largely new hurdles for the series.

Platforming is still the main show for the Prince, and the inclusion of the Dark Prince the Prince's alter ego adds a different flavor to this part of the game. When in Dark Prince form, the character is constantly losing health and regains by obtaining sand found in either fallen enemies or by breaking the crates and baskets strewn around. This built in race against time makes every action more urgent and forces players to think faster. To the game's credit, the platforming sections as the Dark Prince are just intuitive enough to make the intended path more apparent, but still hard enough to make you feel like a rock star for getting through them.

Combat also benefits from the Prince's two personalities. After a series with difficult battle with the Prince, the Dark Prince's brutal efficiency is a great bonus. Cutting viciously through guards is immensely satisfying after struggling with hordes of them just minutes before. The game's other new feature, stealth kills, also provides the same rewarding action as the Dark Prince's brutality. These deaths are highly scripted, but require precise button presses for success. Frustratingly enough getting speed kills is practically required in battles, making the battles even more difficult.

The faults that the Two Thrones has are few but occur frequently, and are, without a doubt, worth bullying through. The biggest of these is an uneven difficulty level that really challenges the focus of gameplay-with more falling platforms and the Dark Prince's slow loss of health, most of the game has a very fast, fluid, just give-it-a-go mentality. Interrupting these joyful smooth sections is a series of very hard fights with no health between them. This and other flaws like it bring the fun factor down.

As said before though don't let this stop you from purchasing a great game. The delicious platforming is paired with great platforming, artwork design, and writing, and a story that is really great. I would say that this is the best Prince of Persia installment overall.