There are three swords which you'll use during the game. The most frustrating are the medusa heads, but once you learn when to strike and after you get the new sword, they'll be piece of cake. With each level their life and difficulty increases, so it's essential to learn their attack patterns. Speaking of enemies, there's an entire selection of them: guards, skeletons, medusa heads, snakes, cultists (birdmen) and special characters.

For example The Abandoned City copies perfectly Castlevania's levels, there are even medusa heads and snakes. It's clear that the artists were inspired from different titles of that age. The levels are now diverse and detailed, starting from the harbor, continuing on the beaches and in The Abandoned City, and finally ending with the cultists' temple and the Grand Palace. Of course, 3 years of technological progress have brought better graphics. When loading a game you will start either at the beginning of the level, or at the checkpoint after which you saved. The checkpoints help you a lot, because the levels are bigger and like I said, harder. They have introduced also a rudimentary checkpoint system (usually one checkpoint per level). To bring up the saving menu you press Alt+G, and to load a previous game - Alt+L. Comparing it with the first PoP, where you could have only one save file, you now have 10 slots. Another addition is the multiple saving slots. When in combat, Ctrl serves also for attacking, Up Arrow to block, Right/Left to move and Down Arrow to sheathe your sword and exit 'combat mode'. Now you can activate it whenever you want, not necessarily having an enemy in front of you. The keyboard control configuration has also suffered some modifications, if we don't consider the 'free running' mode which has remained the same: Down Arrow to crouch, Up Arrow to jump and scale ledges, Right Arrow and Left Arrow to run in one of the directions and Shift to move cautiosly and hang from ledges when falling. The movement is not smooth anymore and the actions are made with an annoying lag after pressing the respective key, which often kills your attempts at jumping over a pit, for example. The developers have really improved what was lacking consistence in Prince of Persia, but also ruined the element that made it popular in the first place: character control. Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow & The Flame is a collection of 15 levels of pain and frustration, that is, comparing it with the first title in the series. Yes, Jaffar and his magic have returned! At the Vizier's command, the guards rushed to dispose of our hero. Great was his astonishment when he saw near the throne his perfect twin, as if ripped from his own flesh, acting in his place. One day, when the prince returned to the castle he noticed, confused, that noone recognised him, not even the princess. And so, the young couple lived happily.well, for eleven days. But the stranger had only one wish - to marry his daughter. Thought the story ended with Jaffar's death? Not so fast! After the prince defeated the evil Vizier, the Sultan, who has returned from the foreign wars, offered him great riches.

Prince of persia 2