Persia Battle: Warrior Within

They have given rise to a deadly Dark Prince, whose spirit gradually possesses him. Rival Swords/Two Thrones is the conclusion of the Sands of Time trilogy, but the homecoming hasn't gone down according to the Prince's plan.

When she is kidnapped, the Princes tracks her to the palace – only to see her murdered by a powerful enemy.

But instead of the peace he longs for, he finds his kingdom ravaged by war and target of a brutal plot.

Cast out on the streets, hunted as a fugitive, the Princes soon discovers that the Sands have tainted him, too.

Her death unleashes the Sands of Time, which strike the Princes and threaten to destroy everything he holds dear.

In Persia Warrior fighting, the Princes makes his way home to Babylon, bearing with him, the enigmatic Empress of Time, and unspeakable scars from the Island of Time.

Instead of a sedate life spent getting fat and carousing with the Empress of Time, he finds Babylon burning, a foe once defeated returning immortal, and some maniacal madman installing wicked-confusing elevator systems throughout his city.

Vexing for sure, made all the worse when his charge is stabbed in the gut and he inadvertently turns himself into a sand demon.

What this means is that the Vizier was free to enact his plans of world domination, and, after sidestepping a few plot holes, he promptly does.

Turns out, using magic to mess with space-time has a nasty way of coming full circle to kick you in the teeth, so by rescuing the Empress from her fate in Warrior, the effectively negated his actions in the trilogy's first game, The Sands of Time. So, after joining forces again with an old ally for the first time, you're off to rectify your actions by bouncing around all skewering creeps with a blade--two skills the Prince happens to excel at.

A dramatic orchestral score complements some uniformly excellent voice acting, and the game's sound effects are top-notch. With the added content comes some additional voice work that provides a bit more exposition on the story, and these sound bites were seamlessly inserted into the game.

Unfortunately, the version of Rival Swords has more than a few sound anomalies. Though not as disruptive as it was in Revelations, the music frequently blips out.

Also, the dialogue rarely matches up with the speaker's animation. These aren't catastrophic issues, but they do disrupt the immersive qualities of the sound and weigh down the otherwise great presentation.