2008 Woodie Awards
Prince of Persia 2 Sells Out
Kristen Bussanich
Issue date: 3/2/05 Section: Arts & Entertainment
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The plot of this game is reminiscent of the sorry excuse for a film, Final Destination. The Prince unwittingly set free the destructive Sands of Time in the first game. Now, the-powers-that-be have decided that since the Prince escaped death before, he must pay. An evil and unstoppable force called the Dahaka now chases him. His only way out is to track down the Empress of Time at her fortress on the predictably named Island of Time.
The darker mood of the game is emphasized most dramatically by the revamped playing mechanics. The emphasis used to be on the Prince's amazing gymnastic abilities, allowing him to turn an enormous room within the fortress into his own personal jungle gym. These abilities are still present, but the environments were of higher quality in the original game. Fighting, on the other hand, is actually more entertaining than it was in the previous title, where combat was rather shallow. Battle is more fun, but still not good enough to keep the player entertained for as long as the game requires you to be. The Prince now has the ability to wield two weapons. His right hand holds a standard weapon that gets upgraded as you play.
With his left hand, the Prince can pick up any swords, daggers, axes, or other weapons he sees lying around, including those left behind by enemies he has defeated. He also has the ability to take weapons from opponents in the middle of a fight. The gamer can choose what he fights with in his left hand by picking up any weapons left lying around. You could, for instance, hack away at an opponent by alternating between the weapons in each hand, throw the axe in your left hand at them, and finish by tossing them off the edge of a cliff.
All of the moves are particularly simple to execute, especially considering just how many of them there are. This is due, in part, to a very well-planned control scheme. The controls are intuitive, making the many different combinations easy to string together on the fly.