Prince of Persia: Warrior Within

"Tries to improve on its predecessor, but stumbles along the way"

After the decent commercial showing and great critical acclaim of The Sands of Time, Ubisoft decided to follow that game up with a sequel that attempted to fix the first Prince of Persia game's weaknesses. And we end up with Warrior Within, a game that generally succeeds in fixing the first games problems, but has a whole slew of it's own.

I Stand Alone

Warrior Within is a direct sequel to The Sands of Time. Due to event in Sands of Time that involve the Prince messing with time (I know, who'd have thought), he is now being chased by a beast of enormous power, the Dahaka. As it has proven invincible over the years of chasing that it has been engaged with the Prince in, the Prince has sought a way to get it to leave him alone. It is in this endeavor that the Prince travels to the Isle of Time to prevent the creation of the Sands of Time. Of course, for reasons unbeknownst to the Prince, the Empress of Time seems against him meeting her and sends a ship full of dudes (and one lady as shown in the FMV opening) to stop him.

And here we begin. The ship serves as a tutorial for those who haven't played the previous Prince of Persia game as well as for the few added features (get to those later). I will say I don't recommend playing this before The Sands of Time, as it's a major spoiler in about the first five minutes of the game. But eh, it's your life. Once you reach the Isle of Time, you'll get a much better feel for the game quite quickly, at least the basics.

So what are these added features? Well, they're numerous, and they basically all have to deal with combat. As the Prince no longer has the Dagger of Time, he now has a free hand, and oh the damage he can do with that one hand. All the combat features of the last game that didn't involve the dagger of time have returned, but now the Prince is capable of grapple moves. Using the Y button (at least on the GCN version), the prince and leap over a foe and grab on to them from behind and then use them as a human shield, throw them, attempt to decapitate them, or choke them to death and steal their weapon. “Steal their weapon!!!?!” you say, yes, in case you don't like the idea of fighting with one free hand, you can pick up the weapons of your fallen enemies and fight with them. These weapons are generally more powerful than your main weapon and allow you to do devastating two weapon combos to your enemies (as well as throw the weapon at the enemy for heavy damage). These combos can be used to finish off your enemy or attack an area. The catch is that these secondary weapons all have a limited durability, meaning that after relatively few whacks (or being thrown) they break and you'll have to find a new one.

But this brings us to my first gripe with the new battle system. While these new Grapple/Two Weapon moves are nice, they also become absolutely necessary to avoid tedium in battle. You see, every enemy now has an unbearable amount of life. Unless you use the new Two Weapon Combos or Choke them to death, it takes a long time and several knock downs to finish them off. Even if you stab them while they're down, they still are likely to get back up. This can be quite annoying as you beat on the same enemy for the fifth time. I'd be more generous to it if there was some reliable way to quickly kill them off, but there really isn't (At least not until you get the final sword at the end of the game). Even Two Weapon combos can still take a couple of rounds to finish them off.

The other big improvement in Warrior Within is that other Sand Powers besides Recall and Freeze are useful (and freeze has been removed). Slow Time becomes a god send in both puzzle navigation and battles, and the Rapid Speed move allows you to inflict major damage upon your enemies. OF course, as a sort of balance to this, now all abilities use Sand Tanks instead of just Recall (there are no Power Tanks). Also, the game got quite stingy about giving you Sand Tanks and withholds them for longer and doesn't give as many by the end. Combined with the additional pull on their use, I found myself out of Sand far more often than I did in Sands of Time.

Straight Out of Line?

Warrior Within also is slightly less linear than the Sands of Time. There comes a point about midway through where you have to go to these two towers on either side of the castle, and these can be conquered in either order. Also, locations in the castle are spread out so that you'll find yourself backtracking a fair amount. This feeling of backtracking is further compounded by the fact that you travel between the Present and Past numerous times in order to solve the puzzles. While seeing the areas at different times is sort of cool, it also can be slightly frustrating to see the same areas over and over again.

Other than the previously mentioned changes, everything's basically the same as it was in Sands of Time. Lots of Wall Running, Pole Swinging and Beam Balancing. Additionally, a couple of new platforming mechanics have been added, such as Curtains (use them to slow your fall) and Ropes on the wall (extend your wall run). New Traps have been added as well, cause you know it just wouldn't be the same without those lovely pits of doom. For those new to the series it's important to know that this game is still a platformer first and foremost, even if the combat has taken a larger stance. Nonetheless, traversing the castle will take feats of acrobatics that will make even the most experienced circus acrobat envious. To progress through the game you must leap, run, and swing through the various environments. Control is generally quite responsive, though it does fail you occasionally ( I said JUMP!!!). One feature I'm sad to have lost is the future view of the last game. This little feature was nice for the platforming stages because it limited the amount of head scratching “I have no idea what to do next”. You just had to think back to figure it out. Now sometimes the answer is hidden so well that it really almost takes pure luck to find it. Some people downplay the platforming in Warrior Within, but it seems just as prominent (if generally a little easier) to me.

A final added little surprise to the Platforming are the Dahaka chase sequences. What, you thought he'd just leave you alone while you schemed? No sir. Occasionally the Dahaka will find you and force you to run through the area as quickly as possible or get annihilated from existence by it. They are nice little pressure inducing scenes that I “enjoyed” in one sense of the word.

It's unfortunate, but now comes the part where I have to expose Warrior Within's dirty little secret. What is that secret you ask? Glitches. Oh the Glitches. The glitches in Warrior Within are numerous and range from a simple placement skip (what, I moved five feet instantly) to a shift (that can make you miss your jump) to a whole game. These can be QUITE annoying and game breaking. So be warned, your game could crash too!

While I'm on complaints, I must say that I missed the light-hearted banter that existed in The Sands of Time. The Prince spends most of his time alone and so there is little opportunity, but in general, it's a much more serious tale than before. While certainly there was a serious situation before, the characters themselves seemed to take it in stride for the most part. It's still a vastly interesting story, but I just felt a little disappointed that it had abandoned the lighter parts.

Summary

Pros

+++ Still Solid Platforming Action
++ Improved Combat System
++ An Interesting Darker tale

Cons

---Serious Glitches
-- Combat System still has some kinks to work out
-- Still Short
-- Still no Replay

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within is a good game that follows up its predecessor well. However, sloppy rushed presentation lands a serious blow to it. Also, while the game did seem a little longer than the last one, it's still quite short and still has no real replay. Once you've beaten it, it's over. For this reason, Warrior Within is a rental, but nothing more. Fans of the first should definitely play through this one, but again, it just isn't long enough to warrant a purchase.

6/10

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 04/23/07