Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones

Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones concludes the story of the Sands of Time and has the player fighting the dark side of the prince he has carried within him since the previous installment. The foundation is again acrobatic movement across walls, columns, and ledges combined with fast combat, into which the game newly introduces the Speed Kills system — a flashy, instant finishing blow on a weakened opponent after an unnoticed approach, which replaces the more drawn-out fights of previous entries. The game also introduces chariot chases through the streets of Babylon, which break up the pace of the classic platforming sections and give the story a cinematic momentum that the Sands of Time trilogy leaned on most heavily in this final chapter, closing out the prince's story with a more open ending than the previous two installments.

The PC version was released alongside the console versions at the end of 2005 and is identical in content to them, including the complete story, all levels and game mechanics, the same soundtrack, and the same amount of hidden bonus content for more thorough players. The advantage was the ability to set higher resolution and detail than on the consoles of that generation; the disadvantage, on the other hand, was the controls — the game was designed primarily for a gamepad, and playing with keyboard and mouse was less comfortable, especially during precise acrobatic sections requiring rapid sequences of button presses, where a console controller offered a more natural combination of directional and action buttons than a keyboard. On a powerful PC of the time the game ran smoothly with short loading times, but on weaker setups it could suffer from stuttering similar to the GameCube version, so a truly smooth experience was only enjoyed by owners of more powerful hardware. In terms of content, number of levels, or length, the PC release did not differ from the console versions in any way, and players got the same story with the same ending as offered by the PS2, Xbox, and GameCube versions, including the same voice acting and musical accompaniment.

Why play it: Content-wise it's the same experience as on consoles, and the PC version additionally offers higher resolution — but for the acrobatic sections with rapid button sequences, reach for a gamepad instead.