Prince of Persia: Warrior Within

"Fate doesn't like to be toyed with..."

First Impression: Different. Just different. From the initial CGI sequence I noticed that there has been a change in the game's mood. The prince's appearance has changed either for better or worse (depending if you like the light-hearted prince from the first or a darker moodier prince from Warrior Within). Although this is just my opinion I wasn't solely impressed by the first tidbits of the game.7/10

Story: The prince has escaped the hands of death in the Sands of Time. However, this time around a beast by the name of Dahaka (like the grim reaper) is after the prince because he has interfered with fate by defying death. So the prince must travel back in time in order to stop the sands of time (the essence of the prince's ability to defy death by rewinding time) from ever being created. The prince must travel to the Island of Time and eliminate the Empress of Time (creator of the sands). Time this, time that, you'll be hearing a lot of that. Great story with a cool twist. 8/10

Graphics: Is it just me or do the graphics don't look as good as they did in the first? I don't know but the graphics aren't as beautiful as the first. The whole atmosphere is darker and edgier. Ubisoft realized that blood and sex sells, and you'll be witnessing a handful of that this time around. There are also some glitches you'll run into where textures stay in place when they are not supposed to or enemies hop all over the place in an odd fashion. Not saying that this isn't a beautiful game, but in PoP: TSoT environments looked much better and livelier. 8/10

Gameplay: Now this where it matters the most. If you have played PoP:TSoT then you know that battles got repetitive fast because all you needed to do is vault over the enemy and strike them. In PoP: WW the entire battle system has been revamped. The buttons are context sensitive which allows you hold buttons for stronger attacks or tap them for swift strikes. There is an enormous amount of combos that can be pulled off and you can refer back to the combo list in your pause menu. The effects of taking down your enemies are very cool too. The time abilities that the prince has now resembles the ones he had in the first with some newer ones that I'll let you find out on your own. A lot of the puzzles are the same. A majority of them require you to jump from platform to platform avoiding traps until you reach the other side. In PoP: TSoT there were puzzles that actually required you to think more; puzzles such as mirror puzzles that required you to reflect light from mirror to mirror until you achieved the ray of light in the designated goal. Some may argue that puzzles in PoP: TSoT slowed down the pace of the game, but I think they were perfect. The problem with WW is its level design in which requires players to constantly backtrack in an enormous map with a horrible directions system. I constantly told myself that it'd be helpful if there was a compass. Although there is a cool feature in WW's level design and that is that you'll be able to travel to the past and present via time portals in order to solve puzzles (like The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past) Great combat and puzzles that require perfect timing, but poor level-design that consists of the most awkward of backtracking. 9/10

Overall: Warrior Within is a fun game and makes a worthy sequel to the Prince of Persia series. To those try to achieve the overall feeling of those in the first Prince of Persia might be disappointed. It just doesn't have the same charm as the Sands of Times. Nonetheless you will enjoy this game thoroughly if you are into platformers, puzzles, and great combat.8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/08/04