Superbuu3's review: Prince of Persia Trilogy

I'll just review the trilogy in one go as its now available together.

Sands of Time

Alright first up is prince of persia sands of times. I should start with saying this game looks fantastic and i don't think it really has aged. Now if you like platforming games this is the game for you. You are placed in the middle of an area with seemingly no way to navigate through it. You are given some hints through visions of the future. Basically you will have to scale ledges, use ridiculously complicated acrobatics to get from point A to B. The game is not really that long probably about ten hours but it is very exciting.

Now you may not like platformers generally as you are forced to plummet to your death and have to restart the section. This is where the sands of time come into play. Not far into the game the prince gains the power to control time. This means that you can actually rewind time. Everytime you fall off you can just rewind time. If during a boss fight you get hit with a critical or lethal hit you can just rewind time and evade the move. This mechanic really changes the flow of the game and is amazing. Although you do have limits on how far you can rewind time and how many times you can use this skill before you need to earn more sand. There are other powers to gain but i'll let you be suprised by those as you find them.

This game has an interesting plot and will leave you intrigued as to how the prince will sort the mess out. Combat is interesting and fun if not to a certain extent limited. However the first game in the trilogy is more based on platforming and story. All round one of the best platformers of its generation.

Warrior Within

An all round grittier and darker game. The main change in this game is the fighting system and it is a great one. It is called the free form fighting system and is extremely open ended you can dual wield or just use a single weapon. The gore in this game was upped heavily as well and you will be able to enjoy decimating the enemy in front of you. There is also the inclusion of multiple boss fights that were considerably more noticeable then the couple that were in the first game and they are genuinely fun.

The platforming sections of the game are just as good as in the first one, the only real downside is that there are no particularly interesting scenery, but unless your really bothered by graphics you probably won't be bothered. The platforming sections are slightly harder this time round with a couple of sections leaving you thinking where should i go next. You do have some freedom in this game though as there are sections of this game that you can actually do in different orders. I should also point out that out of the trilogy I would rank this as the hardest game as well. The time manipulating skills are still present in this game and they are still used very well in the game, sometimes being needed to advance.

There are a couple of problems with warrior within that leave me feeling it is the weakest in the trilogy. First i've heard the game is extremely glitchy, I personally didn't experience any of these glitches but there are some and people have had to restart games after falling victim to them.

Unfortunately I can't really discuss the story here, but I think the story in this game is still good and as a trilogy it holds an interesting complete story. The fact warrior within is the only game in the trilogy to have two different endings means there is actually replay value to be found here.

The Two Thrones

Now this game adds and takes away from warrior within, some people would say this is the best in the series. I personally can't say as i enjoyed the trilogy. As is the currently popular thing to do this game features stealth kills, though they're called speed kills, this gets rid of a lot of fights, which dude to the lack of good weapons is a god send. Unlike warrior within you are actually stuck with a weak primary weapon through almost the whole game. I think this made combat considerably more boring. Also the free form combat from warrior within seemed to be toned down to an extent, however it still is fun, just some cool moves have been removed. This game is also considerably less violent then warrior within also.

The main thing in this game is you get to control the prince and the dark prince who wields a cool new weapon. The two characters play different and it adds a lot more to a game that otherwise would've felt very similar to its previous incarnations. The plot is nicely rounded off by the end of the game and as ever the platforming sections are amazing. I am seriously amazed at how the developers managed to add in new features for the platforming in each game.

Now one terrible feature added in this game is chariot racing, fortunately there are only two sections, but they are extremely tedious especially if you have used up all your sand. The game is still great though all round and the chariot racing is a small blemish on an otherwise great game.


Overall this is an amazing trilogy and it is very cheap to buy all three games together now so i would certainly recommend it to anyone who hasn't played them. Possibly the only let down is the minimal amount of replay value in these games and general lack of interesting unlockables.

I hope this review was helpful.