Prince of Persia The Two Thrones

The Prince of Persia saga has come a long way since its early beginnings on the PC so long ago but it is UbiSoft Montreal’s resurrection of the series that has caught the attention of new gamers with its fresh new gameplay introduced in Prince of Persia: Sands of Time and its recent sequel Prince of Persia 2.  So its no surprise that the Prince is set to make yet another return and we get a first look at the Xbox version in this year’s E3.

This third outing sees the Prince of Persia, fresh from his adventures on the Island of Time, returning home to Babylon with his ladylove Kaileena.  Yet instead of finding his homeland ready to receive him with open arms he finds his people turned against him and the lands devastated by a bloody war.  During a violent skirmish against his new enemies the Prince is captured and in an act of desperation Kaileena unleashes the power of the Sands of Time by sacrificing her own life.  Left out in the streets and hunted by his enemies, the Prince comes to realize that  past battles he has fought have awaken a Dark Prince, a deadly spirit within him.

While the second game was pretty dark, this one moves to darker territories and has the Prince performing different combat styles and mastering deadlier weapons than before.  One such new weapon we got to see in action is the Daggertail (a bladed weapon attached to a lengthy chain), which is used to strangle enemies from afar.  You can also choose to perform stealth kills that, if executed correctly, will treat gamers to some truly gruesome decapitations.  Or if stealth isn’t your cup of tea you can always face your enemies head-on and execute powerful attacks.  These choices are left entirely up to the gamer thanks to this new Free-Form Fighting system.

Yet one of the features that gave the series its own unique appeal--aside from the cool acrobatics--is the ability to manipulate time by slowing down or rewinding time and there’s plenty of that in this game.  One of the new features, however, will be sure to become a new favorite.  The Dark Prince spirit has his own set of combat styles and aside from looking a lot meaner he even acts more differently from the Prince we’re already familiar with.  ((Just how different is yet to be seen but from the sounds of it this is almost like controlling two different characters)).

The game has also gotten an even richer visual upgrade with incredibly detailed environments and even greater lighting.  Even the cut scenes shown will not fail to impress those gamers big on plenty of eye candy. 

From the looks of it, Prince of Persia 3 might not be a massive step in a different direction but with all the new goods we’ve seen so far it’s a step in the right direction.

Prince of Persia 3 will also be available on the PC, PS2, GameCube, Game Boy Advance and the Nintendo DS.

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