Prince of Persia: Warrior Within

"An exercise in mediocrity"

Ubisoft's Prince of Persia: Sands of Time was a crystalline image of how a game should be made. The beloved Prince of Persia series was well transformed into the 3D realm, and Sands of Time unanimously received excellent reviews. A sequel was obviously in order. Fans of the game waited with ravenous fervent for the newly announced game, scrutinizing each screenshot with anticipation. Then finally, we received a definite image of how the game would play and look.

That image, dubbed Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, was not a promising one. Instead of the charming, sarcastic and funny Prince, we received a dark, brooding, and morose Prince who lost all character in this bizarre conversion of theme. The game was now laced with blood, infused with violence and interjected with sexual comments. The entire motif of the game had been radically overhauled. Some embraced the change, others did not. I was one of the latter. Despite this, when we look past the new feel of the game, we get a mediocre and frustrating game unworthy of the prestigious Prince of Persia name. In fact, Warrior Within is unfinished.

GRAPHICS: 7/10
One of the few things extracted from the previous Prince of Persia was the aesthetic quality. The game continues to look beautiful, albeit somewhat different from it's predecessor. The Gothic architecture is absolutely epic. In that sense it feels slightly more European in nature than Arabic. This change is not detrimental however, and the game looks very nice. Unfortunately, the devil is in the details. Prince of Persia: Warrior Within has many bland textures that bring down the overall pleasantness of the graphics. I never really enjoyed the models in the previous game, and my opinion is largely unchanged for this game. Special and particle effects were not handled particularly well either, and some of the models suffer because of it. All in all however, Warrior Within looks quite nice; the combination of 'Arabian Nights' feel and 'Devil May Cry' reminiscent architecture make you wish that Ubi added more time into smaller details. The framerate in the game is quite stable, although I have heard of problems, especially on the Xbox and the PS2.

SOUND/MUSIC: 5/10

MUSIC
Perhaps the biggest disappointment of the game, Warrior Within has completely disbanded it's original score. The eloquent and beautiful pseudo Persian-Rock hymns of Sands of Time have been replaced by harsh, generic rock songs. As you strike down your foes, you'll hear the tedious wailing of a guitar in the background. Or will you? The music, for some reason, cuts out on it's own accord whenever it feels so inclined. Although this may irritate some, I was quite happy with it; the less amount of time I am forced to listen to those arid songs, the better.

SOUND
Sound was a forté of Sands of Time, but Warrior Within shows it's state of completion through it's sound effects. Many sounds are simply reused throughout the game, which is just laziness on the developer's part. Occasionally (usually when the music cuts out), you'll notice that a sound effect is missing. Other sounds just don't feel quite right in correlation with their action, leaving you confused. A lot of your foes are barely audible in their hisses, and some of the more human of your opponents will yell crude, sexual comments at you.

Needless to say, I wasn't impressed.

GAMEPLAY: 6/10

COMBAT
The roundtable discussion that took place at Ubi when this game was announced obviously focused on combat. Sands of Time did not have a lot of combat, and that was a good thing; the controls were not very responsive. Despite this, your enemy was not the sand creatures that plagued your kingdom, your enemy was the level. Warrior Within completely desecrates this balance and replaces it with all out fighting. This would have been semi-accepted in the game were it not for the controls; although Warrior Within has overhauled the controls, they are still unresponsive and poor. This, coupled with the new onslaught of enemies, does not do well for the game. The AI of your enemies is not exemplary either, which can lead to some frustrating moments. Save points are another issue in the game. The save points are in fluctuating abundance, and at times you'll be stranded with practically no health, left to fight 5 monsters at the same time.

ARCHETECTURE PUZZLES
The architecture puzzles in Warrior Within are the only aspect of that game that saves it from being a complete trainwreck. All your acrobatic moves from Sands of Time (with a few additions), which is most certainly a good thing. The puzzles continue to be intricate, challenging and fun. Unfortunately, these puzzles are tainted by the frustrating and uncooperative combat the game is so insistent on including. The puzzles are now interlaced with enemies, destroying the flow of it's predecessor. Your ability to go back in time must now be used for both combat and puzzle mistakes, leaving you marooned with no resources to continue in the game.

STORY: 6/10
The story of Warrior Within is yet another example of mediocrity. The story takes place a few years after that of Sands of Time. The Prince is being pursued by a being called the Dahaka, a death-like figure that has come to carry out the Prince's fate. The Sands of Time were opened in the first game, and because of that the Prince is doomed to die. The Prince now must return to where the Sands were originally fashioned (echoes of Tolkien) and turn back time to insure the Sands are never created. The story is largely uninteresting and dissonant. There are the mandatory plot twists and sub-stories, but all of them are monotonous. The poorly written story gives you no ambition to progress further in the game.

OVERALL: 5/10
Wholly disappointing, Warrior Within is a prime example of what can happen when a game doesn't sell well. The game is utterly disgusting in it's themes; whether it be the blood splattering on the game over sequence or the ridiculous sexual innuendo, the game has lost it's attractive allure for repellent 'maturity.' I'm no purist, I play and enjoy many violent games, but there are places where adult oriented material is not appropriate. This is an example of that. Prince of Persia: Warrior Within is ultimately a mediocre, unfinished and deplorably themed game that deserves no praise.

Avoid.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 12/20/04