prince of persia :two thrones

rooster

I did a search and no-one seems to have posted, so I'll mention my thoughts. The first thing that got me interested in this game was the awesome concept art posted in conceptart.org, and I figured if they got anywhere near that in the levels itd be sweet. I think they did a really great job, lighting is spot on and the palette and lighting give a good sense of progression as you go through the game.

Fighting is good, which I didn't enjoy so much in the other games (only played the demo of warrior however.) I'm at the end of the game, one thing that is really bringing me down is the cool boss fights hampered by game balance issues.

The end boss (or second last) features a bit where you have to climb up floating debris while he chucks energy balls, that you can't see coming and frequently knock you to your death. not fun. Its frustrating to play such a nicely executed game (mouse camera controlls are poor mind) and have such great artwork marred by poor design judgement. I don't know if I'll even bother finishing it thanks to that boss, knowing he's sat there smirking just waiting to lob an energy ball at the most inconvenient moment. Grr

Keg

it's not really a pc game, the controls and gameplay better suit the console. the whole series has been that way. only way to play it on the pc is to use a gamepad. played through the entire series, but I still consider the sands of time to be the best of the series. warrior within and two thrones felt a little rushed, but still solid artwork and gameplay.

rooster

Hm, no I thought the first one had well suited controls even on PC, controls and camera responded well. This time around the camera is much more sluggish when using the mouse. And that last boss, I can't imagine is any different on other platforms- you can't see his attacks coming and they can kill you instantly- tell me if I'm wrong.

But still, I payed for a PC product, should I accept that since its console focussed they shouldn't hone the controls to suit the platform?

Joshua Stubbles

[ QUOTE ]
should I accept that since its console focused, they shouldn't hone the controls to suit the platform?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yup. Happens with a lot of games. Granted, it's not the right thing to do. But I doubt it will ever change.

FunkaDelicDass

I just finished Warrior Within yesterday so I can play this one. I loved Sands of Time, and I bought Warrior Within when it came out, but I could barely get through it at the time because of the changes. The metal music and arrogant Prince VO were just awful. Two Thrones got me excited so I plowed through Warrior for continuity's sake.

So yeah, nothing to add, yet, but I can't wait to play this one.

JKim3

I've played both SoT and WW, and am currently on this one. Once again, the combat sucks. The biggest complaint I have about the combat is that first, he has so many combo attacks that look the same so it feels like you're just button mashing. It doesn't help that when you attack, there's no clear time to press the next button for the combo. There's nothing like a split-second pause at the end of the attack to signal the time, which makes you just mash in hopes you'll hit the button at the right time. Also, a lot of the combos are a bit on the too-long side, so you don't get that bit of satisfaction of finishing a combo. The addition of the Speed Kill system is cool, but mainly because it lets you avoid the normal combat. I HATE fighting as the Dark Prince. The same complaints as above are here, but multiplied cause of the daggertail swinging looking all the same and such. When you're attacking with the daggertail, it takes forever for him to stop so you can get moving again.

The platforming, however, is still solid. They should really should cut out the combat and make it a platformer. The additions of the dagger plates and daggertail swinging are cool. Let the level designers put in some new puzzles. I also like the Dark Prince platforming since it has a bit of the rushed feel of the Dhahaka chases from WW. The chases were great because since you had to move quickly and had no time to stop and think, the levels were layed out so well that what you had to do and where you had to go was clear, but still challenging. I would like it if the platforming sections had environemnts that were a bit more dynamic. It's all still static. Maybe something like you're falling down a deep ass pit, with all this debris falling with you, so you have to use all the Prince's movement abilities to make your way up. But, I am glad this is the end of this trilogy because after 3 games, I've had enough of it.

Not too keen on the voices and acting for the Prince and his female companion.

As a last note, I'm glad this game is less buggy than WW. The secondary weapon now has sfx, yay! But, the block button doesn't always work, boo!

Downsizer

well, remember battle toads for the nes, and that impossible racing scene with the jet bike and the walls with one hit kills?

the game has a race scene like that, and i cant get past it. mind you, im a self proclaimed expert at 2d shooters, so my navigation and avoidance skills are top notch enough to beat einhander in one life on hard mode. but no.... i cant turn a horse to not hit a wall. i've put the game on ebay.

good games always have ultra frustrating gameplay variant garbage that halts enjoyment. i'm done.. damned thing.

moose

"As a last note, I'm glad this game is less buggy than WW"

nice. Ive been meaning to check it out, but i was concerned of its stability (i crashed Warrior Within at least 6 times)

Rooster, what you said about the inbalanced boss fights is *exactly* why i hated Warrior within. The game itself wasnt that hard, but as you progress and get swords that cut dudes easier, they do less damage to bosses. It just seemed like a balance issue that could have been polished a bit more to actually be fun. I'm at the final boss (or at least, i hope its the final boss), and i doubt ill ever finish it because it pissed me off so much. I think i may have deleted my save game, i was so mad. heh.

Deimos

I beat it the other day...loved it...yeah, that climbing bit is a bit of a pain, but you can hear when he shoots, and you just have to make sure that you are on top of the rock/pole - and not hanging from it - when you get hit, and the prince should grab the edge and save you from a messy end. That boss was a piece of cake compared to the previous 2 (the woman and the sword/axemen) and the bosses in Warrior Within (for which, incidently, i actually like the metal soundtrack, and felt was only let down by the terrible game-ending bugs that forced me to replay most of the game from scratch...).

I felt the most frustrating part was platforming as the dark prince...the draining health was ok to a point, but I didn't like the way that you could actually die from it. At least with the sandwraith in WW your health stopped draining when it reached a certain point, making combat and trap evasion more difficult, but keeping you alive; in Two Thrones, I often found myself having to continuously re-traverse long platforming segments with particularly tough traps, because by the time you figured out what you had to do, you had insufficient time to do it, and rewind couldn't take you far enough back to do anything about it

All in all, I love what Ubisoft has done with the POP trilogy; great gameplay, graphics, sound and, in particular, story. I hope they make more (although obviously starting a new story arc); the scale of the environments and traps they could do with the next gen consoles should be amazing to see...

Keg

shotgun I agree they should have worked nicely on the pc with a keyboard and mouse setup, but alas that isn't always the case. the cinematics were probably one of my more favourite parts of the series other than the platforming. for the fighting i really just did button mashing which got irritating. another pet peeve was the invisible enemies, feels like a cop out to make things slightly harder.

blocking as mention wasn't the greatest. half the time I wouldn't block which got slightly fustrating.