Prince of Persia: Warrior Within

"The Prince may die, but his legacy never will!"

Last year, "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" by Ubisoft and the POP team won the 2003 game of the year award by EGM. This had caught many gamers by surprise, for the Prince of Persia series always had some kind of platformer touch to it but never alive and up-to-date with other leading games - until then. And now, the sequel, Warrior Within, has come out, and I must demand "Forget Halo 2 - this absolutely ROCKS!!!"

Storyline - 6/10

Why a 6, you say? Well, for one thing, I must first admit that I think a story and character like the Prince of Persia fits into a darker tone much, much better than people like Jak and Conker, and they did a good job for it. It is also pretty neat how there are more characters are involved, and how the Prince discovers more and more things within the castle the game takes place in as he goes. But it doesn't have the charming, fairytale touch that the last game had, like dramatic character development, interesting and well-related personality and even moments that were sad and humorous. But this doesn't have that - the Prince has turned into a rowdy killer out to save his own life. Not only that, but it would've been better if he was out for revenge or something like that instead of saving himself.

Graphics - 10/10

Last year's prequel had triumphed over others in extremely decent and realistic animation, along with a few good graphics. Now, I admit that it wasn't the best, but this game takes that up to a whole new level - the gory combat is better than any historic mythical or educational R-rated movie like "Gladiator" and "Alexander" I've ever seen. The castle, even when in ruins during the present, looks beautifully realistic. The Prince's appearance beckons his attitude in a way we all can recognize that he means business. Let's face it - it's near perfect, and just on a thin line with being able to compete with the X-Box version of "Soul Calibur 2".

Sounds - 10/10

I had gotten the prequel for Nintendo GameCube, and the only problem with it is that it sounded a little unrealistic in the sand beast's voices and the echoey feeling of when the Prince unsheathed or used his sword and all of that made it kind of tedious and not very exciting. But this changes all of that - it makes you feel like you're right in the game! You would actually think that the Prince is cutting people instead of some fabricated noise from a record room, the voice acting is absolutely amazing, and you can hear almost anything for any action!

Gameplay - 10/10

Now, here is the main reason you should have bought either this, the prequel, or both. The Prince has a large variety of acrobatic moves to pull off in puzzle-solving, escaping, combat, or just plain making his way around the place while looking cool, which makes him seem more dextrous than a monkey. He has gone where no man has gone before in the puzzle-solving and Dahaka escaping, for you have you use anything you can, if not even the enemies, the weapons, but mainly the environment, and during the extremely frightening chase scenes which make Silent Hill 4 look like Elmo's ABCs, you have only a split second to navigate through the area to avoid the immediately fatal horror that is the dark giant. Another golden instant classic is how the Prince has taken the meaning of "time powers" to a whole new level - he can rewind, slow down, and foretell events in his life to ensure his safety, right a wrong, and even now change the environment.

Rent or Buy? - Buy

If you don't like this game, it's probably because you're not very good at it. If you never tried it before, take a crack at it with a rental and see what you think. This game actually makes it very easy to pull off the coolest stunts - figuring out what to do is the hard part. For people who were amazed by the prequel and absolutely loved it, not just the story but the gameplay as well, absolutely get this.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/03/05