Prince of Persia: Warrior Within

"The Prince is back... back again..."

I personally liked Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, although it is no Sands of Time. I loved Sands of Time, and was thoroughly excited when I received Warrior Within as a birthday present not too long ago.

Nearly every aspect of SoT was great. It featured an amature prince having to save his world because he was tricked into unleashing the Sands of Time, putting a curse on the Sultan's kingdom. SoT had a splendid storyline, and the puzzles were perhaps its greatest feature. The only things in the Sands of Time that lacked were boss battles and the fighting system, which was basically: Mash X repeatably and throw in a Y every once in a while and hope to kick some ass. Otherwise, completely awesome game.

Then Warrior Within came around. It promised greatness because of SoT's reputation. However, WW took a 360 degree turnaround from SoT. Instead of a story-type game based on the Prince's retelling of his adventure, Warrior Within is played as the Prince lives it. Not to mention he isn't the Prince we remember. In SoT he is innocent, bright, and “bubbly” (if I can get away with saying that), he is now dark, depressed, and much more mature. This isn't the Prince most loved. His appearance has changed completely as well; his hair's black, the poofy Aladdin pants have vanished, and is now wearing metal armor, an occasional cloak, and what we assume is Farah's pendant.

The game itself is dark and depressed, reflecting the Prince's emotions. It's an interesting twist from SoT: He's being chased by the Dahaka, a creature born from the unleashing of the Sands of Time. So the Prince, in order to change his fate and save his life, goes to the Island of Time to consult/kill the Empress of Time to stop the making of the Sands of Time (Redundant, isn't it?). This is as much as we know at the beginning; the story continues and the plot thickens as the player progresses through the game.

Story (6/10)
Pretty good storyline, until you boil it down to the main point: Rewrite the Prince's fate and stop the Dahaka. Then it gets a little bland. Other than that, it's a story that stands out and is original. However, the characters in the game are featureless—they don't really give the impressions of people in the game, just stuck in there to fill in the “evil” or “good” slots. Shadee is a perfect example of this kind of character, as is the Empress. The Empress just has a twist, but it isn't anything too special. I had hoped she was cooler than she turned out to be.

Graphics (7/10)
I think the graphics in Sands of Time are a crapload better than Warrior Within. It's mainly because it's so dark in the game; however, the garden tower was absolutely beautiful, with its lush environment and great detail. Although I don't think they're as good as SoT, I have to give UbiSoft credit because they did what they could in that dark environment to make it look as good as it did.

Sound (9/10)
I am so sick of nearly everyone bashing the music in this game. I will admit that when UbiSoft put a lot of rock/metal they appealed to a certain audience—those who love rock. I am a rock fan, so I love the fact they have Godsmack and other stuff playing on there. My point is, the music fits in with the game because of its dark setting. I don't like twangy music that much, but I think it was great in SoT. But people can't tell me that you can have that kind of twangy music in WW and it make much sense. Every once in while, the music would cut out and stop, but that's really the only problem I ran into with music.

Gameplay (8/10)
The main difference between Sands of Time and Warrior Within is the fact that Warrior Within has a “free-form” fighting system, which basically means that you, the player, can do combos and are not restricted to: X,X,Y,X,X,X,Y. And the combos are pretty damn cool. Just like in SoT, you use the surroundings around you to defeat enemies, like running up a wall and pressing Y, which results in the Prince kicking off the wall and spinning around. Unlike SoT, you can pick up secondary weapons from fallen foes, but they don't last long. There are special things like the secret secondary weapons (which are hidden and unbreakable), and there are nine life upgrades scattered in the game. Something else new in WW is the fact that the Dahaka chases you constantly, and is only stopped by water. Warrior Within has the same crappy camera angles that more often than not screw you up and kill you. This happens to me occasionally during the Dahaka chases. But as vets of PoP do, you learn to deal with it. The puzzles that I loved from SoT have vanished, and you gain a few new powers using sand in WW. I think they're pointless, except for Eye of the Storm (slows time) and Recall (rewind time 8 seconds of time). Everything else is the same: running across walls, swinging from ropes and bars, jumping from pole to poles, pressing switches and etc.

Replayability (7/10)
This game is pretty short, but it seems so long because you're constantly moving back and forth between the past and present. Moving back and forth gets a little annoying after a while, because you're going over the same path, one's just overgrown and destroyed and one's all nice and pretty. The game has a harder level, so that may be a reason to play again. Or maybe because you want all the life upgrades or secret secondary weapons. I would play it again because I enjoyed it, but it's the player's call because I don't know anyone who wants to replay a game they hate.
My main suggestion? Unless it's cheap, rent it first.

Other Stuff
-WATCH OUT for glitches. I know there aren't many save points, but save whenever you can. I've ran into QUITE few glitches, but I don't know if that's my disc or the game. The only thing you can do is to reload from your last save point.
-I must stress again that the camera angle SUCKS at times. And all you can do is cope with it.

Shoot, what the Hell happened to Farah anyway?

I rambled on for FAR too long…

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/26/06, Updated 07/16/06