Prince of Persia : The Two Thrones

To appease the lowbrow demands of 100 million casual gamers unwilling to spend cash for Ubisoft's brilliant Sands of Time game, the company took Warrior Within into the more digestible realm of "action" and away from the realm of "thinking-man's platformer."

Swords and shadows! Dirt and "bitches!" Warrior was to be Ubi's sinister, consumer friendly modification of the fundamental Sands mechanics that were ever so thrilling and critically acclaimed. But despite best efforts and a healthy dose of hard rocking, Warrior Within cheesily fell short of the amazingly high bar its predecessor set. In trying to appeal to more folks by lining the game with more stuff, much of the original magic was lost. Indeed, an excess of scantily clad women, shadowy beasts and heavy riffs made Warrior Within ordinary, for when all is dark and grimy, even the dark and grimy become bright. A good rule of thumb is to understand when one more stroke is too many and when an excess of magic is drab.

Sadly, it seemed back then that a title of Sands of Time's caliber would just not come, given the new path laid down by Warrior Within for the Prince series. Boy does it ever feel good to be wrong! I'm dazzled. Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones is Sands of Time reborn.

Music, art, acting, acrobatics...story! Each universally applauded part of Ubisoft's first marvelous foray into the Sands of Time trilogy has been recreated here with care and cunning, save for the scarred and craggy, battle-hardened face of our champion. And yet, while this third game offers so much indisputable greatness, it still grips tight to the failing philosophies of Warrior Within in just enough key areas. Two Thrones also suffers slightly from an imposing holiday deadline and the preposterously lofty expectations fans of Sands carry with them at all times.

Narrated now by the somber and knowing Empress of Time in a way that neatly ties the end of Two Thrones to the beginning of Sands, this Prince's journey begins much like Warrior Within or Shadow and Flame, in sea and turmoil. Approaching his home port of Babylon with Empress Kaileena under arm and the Dahaka defeated, the Prince looks forward to rest and comfort, though the smoking ruin of his city will give him none. With his land besieged, his vessel burned, his woman bound, and his house in ruin, the Prince sets out to free his love, reveal his enemy, punish his rivals, and put his home to rights. But even champions are subject to the whims of fate. Along the way the Prince will encounter old friends, older relations and new foes. His story will unwind backward and at once spring forward into a climatic choice between light and dark -- the Two Thrones, one of self-serving indulgence and personal achievement, and the other of unbridled heroism despite consequence.

Reforming the Prince into his original shape was a bloody good idea! Genteel as he is, Yuri Lowenthal's Prince of Persia in The Sands of Time is far preferable to Warrior Within's Wolverine Clone #818. The gruff, self-serving madman who sought to stop the Empress's Sands at any cost was not the young royal plagued by distrust and delusions of glory we all loved. #818 was simply out of place in such a fairytale. Being back in Yuri's shoes just feels right.

Ubisoft also expertly balances Yuri's third Prince between two lines of starkly contrasting motivation, or the two thrones. Throughout the course of this adventure, the Prince must decide what's truly important. He must confront his Dark self as it struggles to gain a foothold on his conscious and he must also fess up to past crimes and move past them regardless of hardship, while listening to awesome music.

By linearly forcing the game on a railroad ride to an inevitable conclusion, and not focusing on the paradoxical "Superman can now fly around the Earth backward real fast" time traveling mechanic to undo old problems and create new ones, Ubi has done away with backtracking and also recaptured the sense of urgency and achievement that were so prevalent in Sands.

 

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Game Battle Realms Full

Battle Realms follows the basic formula for many real-time strategy games. All of its factions have similar buildings with similar uses and workers. However, unlike in most real-time strategy games, the peasant worker unit is not just used for resource gathering and construction, but also for training into military units. Thus, military buildings in Battle Realms are not used for making units, but for transforming and upgrading them. Peasants gather the two resources in the game: rice and water. They also round up horses, which can be used to enhance military units in the game and can be outfitted as pack horses for peasants. Only one type of builder unit is required.

Peasants are the only units the player can produce outright. Most of the buildings available are training structures where peasants are trained into numerous other units. All the factions start off with 3 basic central training structures, which produce units along different paths of warfare, such as melee or ranged combat. In most cases, units can be trained at up to 3 structures to produce higher tiers of infantry.

Another difference in unit generation is that peasants are produced automatically, at no cost. However, the rate at which new peasants are produced is inversely proportional to the current population of the player's army.

Certain buildings can teach special techniques, or Battle Gears (commonly abbreviated to BGs), to units to improve their combat ability for a certain resource cost. This can allow units to defeat higher tier units they would normally struggle with or be defeated by. BGs also allow the player to further define the role a unit will play in a combat situation, such as damage absorption, building destruction, or reconnaissance.

One of the key elements of Battle Realms is the Yin/Yang system. Each army obtains points of Yin or Yang when in combat, depending on their moral alliance to the forces of light or darkness. The Battle Realms hero units, or Zen Masters, require Yin/Yang to be summoned and to improve their damage. Yin and Yang are also used at structures in the faction's base for military upgrades. The rate of Yin/Yang growth depends on the military strength and flair of the army and how far they are from the main base.

There are four available clans in Battle Realms, and each have a different philosophy towards life and combat. The Dragon clan favours honourable and valourous combat, while its offshoot, the Serpent clan, uses stealth, trickery and brutality to further its goals. The Lotus clan is an ancient group of sorcerers that delves deeply into the corrupting aspects of magic. The Wolf clan is a race of formerly enslaved miners. Their clan members live basic, healthy lives.

Unlike in most strategy games, all units in Battle Realms have a melee attack. However, missile units typically have drastically weaker melee attacks. Units are very detailed and have distinct fighting animations. Units can dodge projectiles if they run fast enough, and projectiles have different speeds and fire at certain angles.

A unit's attack has a property - either cutting, piercing, blunt, explosive, magic, or fire, as well as a bonus damage against buildings. The property of a unit's missile attack may also differ from its melee attack. Most units have resistances to particular properties, and weaknesses to others. For example, the Dragon Samurai has excellent resistance against cutting attacks, but a poor resistance to explosive and magic damage.

In singleplayer, the plot mainly revolves around Kenji, last heir to the Serpent's Throne. When he returns from exile, Kenji comes across bandits raiding a peasant village. He can choose to either kill the bandits and save the peasants, or, he can side with the bandits and kill the peasants. If he chooses to save the peasants, he will follow the path of the Dragon clan. If he aids the bandits, he will follow the path of the Serpent clan.

In Kenji's Journey, the player may choose which territories he or she wishes to attack first. Kenji returns from Malcomson. He must decide whether to rebirth the Dragon Clan and save the peasants honor with righteousness or take up reigns in his brother and his father, Lord Oja's footsteps and lead the Serpent Clan. Taking specific territories might give benefits, and other Zen Masters may join Kenji. Later on, the player can summon these Zen Masters from the Keep. The Story focuses on an artifact Called Tarrant's Orb/Orb of the Serpent which Kenji and the NPC Clans, The Wolf and Lotus Clans are seeking out. Kenji must get it before them.

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