Can't recapture the feel of the first
It's just that T2T fails to capture that great atmosphere of the first Prince of Persia: SOT. What made SOT so different? The fact is that the first game took place entirely in the palace of a wealthy Sultan. The second (though I have not played it) I understand takes place on the Island of Time (or whatever) which is an overall gloomy place. The third, apart from a small portion of the game, takes place in the medieval streets of Babylon. It just feels a lot more industrial. I know I shouldn't go on raving and craving for what's lost but just so much was lost. It just feels so... industrial... I don't know. The first game was also a lot more varied which gave it more... pacing...? I don't know... there was such an artistic chiaroscuro of colors and sounds, and it just felt like it was more defined.
Now that I've probably bored all of you I will go on complaining about the more technical issues of the game. The environments are well designed but the characters... ugh! I think the Prince and Farah looked a lot better in the first game. Anyways, I saw Farah's ponytail pass through her chest and come out through her cleavage too many times! The Prince's hair looks semi-dreadlocked (you know, like a homeless person) except for during the cutscenes. And to go back to artistic direction, the Prince just doesn't look as realistic with so much muscle, running on walls and stuff. In SOT, he was a lot skinnier, so I sort of bought it. It looked real enough. But now, he just looks heavy and clumsy. So his movements don't really match his look.
The sound... is not bad... it just doesn't live up to it's great predecessor, SOT. At least the music. The voices seem a lot clearer (at least in the Japanese version, which is what I have).
Finally gameplay; where should I begin? It's generally the same as SOT except with a lot of extra stuff. The dagger plates, and all those extra mechanics are just what I called them: extra. They aren't needed. The transitions from animation to animation look clunky, (compared to the great SOT). And all the fighting... what do I say? I don't know, I imagine to a lot of people it made the game a lot better but I didn't really enjoy it. It seemed I kept on using the same efficient moves over and over again and the stealth kills are too easy. And as far as seeing the same moves over and over, it's a lot worse when your the Dark Prince. Because you don't see a definite shape like a sword, but just a swirly whip-thingy, it just looks like your swinging a whip-thingy the same way over and over. And basically the Dark Prince is... boring.
But don't mistake me. It's not a bad game. In fact, I think this review would have been generally positive if I hadn't played SOT before. So if you played SOT, and the artistic direction and simple acrobatic mechanics are what enticed you, don't get it. It'll disappoint you. But I think if you're thinking about introducing yourself to the PoP trilogy, this is a good place to start. You'll get the feel for it, and if you like it, you can feel it a lot more potent by playing SOT -after- this.