The Prince Of Persia: The Two Thrones

I have to echo Stan's sentiments on the sudden burst of popularity on the Back-Blog- I've called many out for abandoning the blog, so it's really nice to see the ridiculous number of posts in this month that's not even half done! I myself have only made one post so far this month, but my initial monthly goal (with some likely modifications) still seems attainable. Final Fantasy Tactics probably isn't going down in January, but if I can get to its fourth and final chapter before the month ends, and post an additional game of medium length, that's good enough for me. Anyway here's a game that has nothing to do with any of the ones I've previously mentioned- The Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, the third and final game in the Prince of Persia Sands trilogy. The first, The Sands of Time has already been posted twice and has a reputation as one of the top games of all time; the second, The Warrior Within was a thoroughly disappointing follow-up that did at least introduce a few interesting ideas. The Two Thrones completes the trilogy on a positive note, however, taking those fleeting moments of goodness from Warrior Within and building a much better game around it. The titular Prince makes his return trip to his kingdom from Warrior Within's mysterious island setting, only to find the city full of invading monsters who have left few surviving citizens. It looks like all that meddling with time and trying to fix all of his huge mistakes has screwed up yet another thing (like his entire kingdom's safety), so yet again the Prince is determined to get to the bottom of the problem so he can use the sands to somehow re-do things the right way. The free-running mechanics here are basically the same as in the first two installments, the only new addition being plates in walls that can be stabbed into with a sword. The camera issues from Warrior Within appear to be fixed for the most part, and thankfully Ubisoft decided to do away with that game's heavy emphasis on combat- Prince of Persia is at its best when you're bouncing around some sort of giant parkour course, figuring it out like a puzzle; combat and trap-heavy sections are best used sparingly to break up the monotony now and then. The Two Thrones seems to have the right mix (although a few chariot-riding segments provided diminishing returns) and while not quite reaching the greatness of Sands of Time, turned out to be a very enjoyable experience.