This is the first time I'm revisiting The Two Thrones since the PS2. Having now replayed the whole Sands of Time trilogy within the last couple years, I'm surprised to say that Warrior Within held up the best.
All three games hold a special place in my heart, especially The Sands of Time, which beautifully blended acrobatic 3D platforming and puzzling with a charming aesthetic and story.
The weakest part of SoT of course being the combat, which is slow and repetitive, and boils down to killing every enemy by vaulting over and slicing. It's flashy at first but outstays its welcome by the end.
Warrior Within massively improves on the combat by adding secondary weapons, combos, more environmental interaction, and generally being faster and flowing way better.
So it's bizarre to see The Two Thrones take such a step backward and return to slow, awkward, clunky combat. This probably has to do with my choosing hard mode, but enemies have way too much health and take an eternity to kill. Taking several minutes to chip away at two or three enemies just to see another appear when you finally get one down is exhausting.
There's also the strange addition of a stealth takedown QTE system, which works fine and can be quite satisfying taking out an entire room nearly instantly. But if you fail or are detected, your punishment is having to fight every enemy plus reinforcements, which takes eons longer than stealth would've. There were multiple occasions where I'd opted to get killed and try again than even attempt the combat sequence.
At the very least, many enemy encounters aren't actually required and I found myself simply running past them whenever I could.
Besides the combat, everything else I like about PoP is here and done as well as usual, i.e. the platforming and light environmental puzzles. The story is serviceable, mostly a return to form to the style of Sands of Time both in how its told and returning characters like Farah and the Vizier. Glad to have Yuri Lowenthal, the original voice of the Prince, back as well.
The ending was also very cool, with the dreamlike sequence fighting the Dark Prince and being transported to locations from throughout the trilogy. And reenacting the Prince telling the story to Farah was a nice touch.
I had a good time revisiting these games. Nostalgia aside, they all had their frustrating moments, but mostly hold up as very solid with some of the jank expected of the early 2000s.
I just found it funny that Warrior Within, what I expected to come away thinking the black sheep of the trilogy, with its comical shift in tone from lighthearted to overly edgy, held up as the best experience overall. I started to miss the metal soundtrack in The Two Thrones!
All three games hold a special place in my heart, especially The Sands of Time, which beautifully blended acrobatic 3D platforming and puzzling with a charming aesthetic and story.
The weakest part of SoT of course being the combat, which is slow and repetitive, and boils down to killing every enemy by vaulting over and slicing. It's flashy at first but outstays its welcome by the end.
Warrior Within massively improves on the combat by adding secondary weapons, combos, more environmental interaction, and generally being faster and flowing way better.
So it's bizarre to see The Two Thrones take such a step backward and return to slow, awkward, clunky combat. This probably has to do with my choosing hard mode, but enemies have way too much health and take an eternity to kill. Taking several minutes to chip away at two or three enemies just to see another appear when you finally get one down is exhausting.
There's also the strange addition of a stealth takedown QTE system, which works fine and can be quite satisfying taking out an entire room nearly instantly. But if you fail or are detected, your punishment is having to fight every enemy plus reinforcements, which takes eons longer than stealth would've. There were multiple occasions where I'd opted to get killed and try again than even attempt the combat sequence.
At the very least, many enemy encounters aren't actually required and I found myself simply running past them whenever I could.
Besides the combat, everything else I like about PoP is here and done as well as usual, i.e. the platforming and light environmental puzzles. The story is serviceable, mostly a return to form to the style of Sands of Time both in how its told and returning characters like Farah and the Vizier. Glad to have Yuri Lowenthal, the original voice of the Prince, back as well.
The ending was also very cool, with the dreamlike sequence fighting the Dark Prince and being transported to locations from throughout the trilogy. And reenacting the Prince telling the story to Farah was a nice touch.
I had a good time revisiting these games. Nostalgia aside, they all had their frustrating moments, but mostly hold up as very solid with some of the jank expected of the early 2000s.
I just found it funny that Warrior Within, what I expected to come away thinking the black sheep of the trilogy, with its comical shift in tone from lighthearted to overly edgy, held up as the best experience overall. I started to miss the metal soundtrack in The Two Thrones!