TVG looks for the warrior within as we walk through the sands of time to discover exactly who's sitting on the two thrones...

The winter of 2005 sees the last part of Ubisoft's Prince of Persia Sands of Time trilogy released. The adventure, which began back in 2003 with the release of 'Sands of Time' and continued with last year's darker and more gothic 'Warrior Within', reinvented the classic early 1990s franchise that brought fluidly animated platforming to the 16-bit era. Set in ancient Babylon, the story introduced the idea of the Sands of Time, which allowed the Prince to control the flow of time itself (handy when trying to prevent fatally high falls.) After defeating his enemy at the end of the first part the Prince discovered that through his actions of releasing the sands, he had brought about the Dahaka, a mystical beast that subsequently chased the character from the Island of Time where he sought to stop the sands from even existing in the first place. The Prince succeeded, and four weeks after setting sail for a return voyage to Bablyon he finds himself shipwrecked and washed ashore, only to find his homeland at war - and so begins The Two Thrones.

TVG first had a First Look at Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones back in the summer at Ubisoft's inaugural Spotlight event though the game was not available to play at the time. However after being formally christened The Two Thrones in September (an earlier title, Kindred Blades, was accidentally released to the public before the game reverted back to the simpler Prince of Persia 3), we have now been able to put this final current generation outing for the Babylonian Prince to the test thanks to a closed preview build.

Certain fans of the original Sands of Time title were somewhat unhappy with the gothic setting of Warrior Within (especially the rocking soundtrack that accompanied it), and whilst Two Thrones does see a return to the desert entrenched city of Babylon it retains strong dark undertones from it's immediate predecessor. This is mainly due to the inclusion of the Dark Prince character; an alter-ego of the Prince created by his many years in the wilderness and fed on a growing burden. A plot spoiler it may be, but when Kaileena, the Empress of Time, is killed in Babylon thus releasing the Sands of Time, this alter-ego (with more than a passing resemblance of the darkest demon from the depths of hell itself), intermittently manifests with his 'Daggertail' chained weapon in tow.

Being a closed build the selection of levels available was limited though Ubi did provide a range of gameplay experiences from the game. It also has to be noted that the build version that we played for this preview was very much Work in Progress, evident thanks to a list of bugs that we experience through the several eclectic levels on the disk together with the fact that the words "Work in Progress" were watermarked on screen at all time (we get the picture, Ubi.) Aside from the rare occurrences of the Prince being able to walk through walls, fly through the streets and buildings of Babylon in a Lotus position, and some unfinished visual/sound effects, the build seemed fairly stable though it did have a slight habit of crashing on more than one occasion.

As you'd expect Two Thrones follows the legacy of the previous POP titles and as such continues with the acrobatic puzzles of its predecessors, developing the various techniques with a selection that includes diagonal wall jumps and making use of wall plates that dot some of the interiors in the game. The Free-Form combat techniques make a return in Two Thrones with both guises of the Prince capable fighters though the enemies certainly seem more formidable this time around. Having said that the combos for both characters soon cut most opponents to ribbons but that’s still not an excuse to jump into a fight with several opponents hence the integration of the new Speed Kill system, which makes the process of inflicting death far more efficient.

An in-depth description as to what Speed Kills are is perhaps not exactly necessary as they are exactly what they say they are: kills at speed. Strange though it may seem the enemies in Prince of Persia aren't capable of seeing the acrobatic Prince if he's above their head height (perhaps they don't have any neck muscles) and they also seem to be a bit hard of hearing unless objects are broken in which case they turn rather nasty. In such circumstances the screen turns a monochromatic green acknowledging that a Speed Kill can be performed. Initialising these are begun with a single button press that kick starts a short sequence where the Prince attacks. In the case of playing the 'normal' Prince players have to time their button presses to the flash of his blade; miss and the move is broken leaving the Babylonian no other choice but to defeat his foe the old fashioned way. The Speed Kill moves can be particularly vicious, especially when executed by the Dark Prince who uses the Daggertail chain to garrotte victims when he dangles from a rope…

The integration of the Speed Kill system into the gameplay of Prince of Persia has meant that there's a strong element of stealth in the title though this shouldn't dissuade those usually turned off by such an experience. In fact the system actually continues to develop the important sense of timing that precipitates throughout the POP franchise and the preview build certainly implies that it should be a feature that the series benefits from. Besides the Speed Kills the Dark Prince is also capable of using the Daggertail chain to swing across gaps during the course of the level puzzles, and he also uses it as a rather effective weapon. Changing into the Dark Prince does affect the gameplay in a way more than just a change in combat skills; the Prince has always relied on water fountains to replenish lost health but never betraying his origins the sinister alter-ego relies on the sand left behind by slayed victims. Failing to collect sand ultimately kills him since his health ticks down over time and does help to push for confrontations with opponents.

One area of gameplay demonstrated during the closed build was the chariot racing sequences where the Prince has to smash his opponents as they rush through the streets of Babylon. Whilst it's understandable that some die-hard POP fans will turn their nose up at such a feature it does have to be said that even at this stage the mission works very well within the Prince of Persia universe and even acts as a respite between some of the puzzles scattered throughout the game. That isn't to say that the sequences aren't plodding; the chariots move quickly and there's a definite knack to timing the charges into enemy chariots - get it wrong and you'll find the transportation just splinter.