Painting a Prince

We recently published a lengthy preview of Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, but today we'd like to focus specifically on the game's new art style.

The first current generation Prince of Persia title, Sands of Time, featured an overwhelming amount of cavernous interiors woven directly into a few dramatic vistas. Its sequel, Warrior Within, also had a similar indoor vs. outdoor ratio, but purposefully replaced the usually elegant and magical levels of its predecessor with more conventionally dark and dirty locales.

In terms of character design, Sands of Time used simple, plainly adorned cartoonish characters, whereas Warrior Within tried to enhance its sinister appearance with shadowy enemies and wailing beasts.

And now we have Two Thrones...

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PEOPLE While the principal characters in Two Thrones share the worn and hardened looks of Warrior Within's stars, the outrageous attire of the female leads has been axed (no more leather thongs). But judging from what we've seen so far, the biggest change to character design has to do with the villains. Enemies are now more human, or just plain human. The bosses, however, will be the ones to represent the gruesome horrors of Sand infection.

Of course, the Prince himself will eventually change into the Dark Prince. Early on in development Dark Prince somewhat resembled Blood Omen's Kain, a pasty, menacing vampire. He's since changed into a more wraith-like being, which ties into Warrior Within's Sand enemies and Sand Wraith.

Prince

Dark Prince

Farah

Kaileena

Old Man

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PLACES Here's where Two Thrones gets juicy. In place of the dimly lit dungeons and dank caverns of Warrior Within, Two Thrones features a great deal of open city. But the rooftops of Prince's homeland aren't so clean and wonderful as you might think. Since a marauding army is raging all across the city, the once proud and beautiful Persian metropolis has turned into a fiery wreck. This gives the game a cool sense of shattered majesty.

We've also gotten to see a return of posh Persian interiors. Intricately designed rugs and tapestries adorn the many regal bedchambers and grand halls of Two Thrones' awesome interiors. It's this combination of old magic, new chaos and constant scale that should really kick some ass.

Airy

Vast

Palatial

Flowery

Babel-y

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AND SHARP THINGS No Prince game would be complete without a healthy amount of deadly traps. Trust us... Two Thrones is complete.

The new traps don't differ drastically from what we've seen in past titles, but you can tell from the attached artwork that they're being more lavishly decorated with complex engravings and gaudy patterns. In taking the adventure to the Prince's capitol city, we think the developers wanted to gussy up the traps so that they'd not look so primitive. Royalty should have only the finest killing devices in their service, don't you think?

	Sword Pillar
	Knife Log
	Round Saw
	Spike Pit
	Spin Blade

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VIDEO FEATURETTE Enough with the art! This exclusive video interview focuses heavily on Two Thrones' new speed kill system. By watching it you'll be able to appreciate some of the artistic changes and advancements made to this third Prince of Persia title, sure, but we really just wanted to show off some of the slick new action segments. Dig the movie by clicking the above links.

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Ubisoft Montreal and Morocco are working steadily to finish up Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones and it should release in early December. We'll be running more features in the near future, so please keep checking back with us for the latest details.

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