Prince of Persia: Warrior Within

"A great action platformer that has better platforming than it does action."

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within is the second in the series of ubisoft's modernization of the classic series so well remembered on the older systems. Warrior Within shares many characteristics of the first game by Ubisoft, called: Prince of Persia The Sands of Time. However, due to less than stellar sales, despite stellar critical acclaim, Ubisoft went in a new and darker direction with the Warrior Within. The Prince's voice lost its accent, got deeper, like a rough American, less introspective, he wears red, needs to shave, and oh yeah, there is tons of blood. Another big addition, is the free form fighting style, but i'll get more into that later.

The story, like the presentation, is darker. The Prince is on a mission to escape the wrath of the Dahaka. A creature who guards the timeline, and wants the Prince dead because he unleashed the Sands of Time in the first game. To do this, he travels to the "Island of Time" and plans to travel back in time to stop the sands' creation, therefore making it impossible for him to unleash them, because let me tell you, unleashing something that never existed is tough to do. He believe this will get him off the hook with the big bad Dahaka. The story was not the reason I bought the game, but I was surprisingly pleased with how intricate it became as the game unfolded.

Much like the Sands of Time, this game looks excellent. Even better than the first. Its environments are nothing short of awe inspiring. The character models lack some detail, but still look good. In light of more recent games, like The Chronicles of Riddick, Doom 3, and Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, the graphics aren't on the same level as those games, but certainly not too far behind.

The sound is good, but not great. One of the biggest disappointments is the music. Passing over the eastern sounding pieces from the Sands of Time for hard rock guitar blaring pieces has a mixed effect. In theory the music works great, it does match the over the top combat happening on the screen. Its negative effect though is that it completely takes the player out of the experience. The music is jarringly obvious. The music in the Sands of Time had a much more sublte effect that drew the player into the experience.

What it all comes down to and adds up to though is the gameplay. The incredible platforming puzzles have returned. While playing on the island you will travel between different time periods. Seeing how aestetically changed the environments are, as well as the obstacles between you and your destination change is amazing. The level design is mind blowingly well thought, and well executed. There are several different enemies types that you'll battle as you progress from area to area, in between the platforming puzzles. One of the more fun enemies to battle is the golem. Once figured out, its a simple battle, but still fun and satisfying. The golem is a huge slow creating that performs some sweeping blows. The creatures are encountered several times throughout the game. The remaining enemies are a good mix of sword fodder, agile or powerful, but all challenging in their own ways. There are a few boss battles throughout the game, but their more frustrating than fun, reasons for this soon to come. The prince also has the ability to gain different types of upgrades. There are a total of nine life upgrades scattered throughout the game. If all of them are found, you get a special reward and a special ending after defeating a different boss. Its not necessary though, and entirely possible to get none of the life upgrades but only use your different abilities over time to get through the game. Another type of upgrade are the different swords you'll get. Each more powerful than the previous one, and each tied into the story in one way or another.

Now onto the free form fighting system. This is an improvement over the Sands of Time's overly simplistic fighting system. That doesn't make it good though. The different moves you can pull off look really good and feel satisfying. However, the more difficult combos provide little advantage to the simpler ones. Furthermore, the combat controls feels delayed and sluggish in their response, which when faced with agile or quick enemies, can be very very frustrating. When compared to the sword play of other current generation third person action games, like Ninja Gaiden, Warrior Within's sword play....well it really doesn't compare. Its important to note though that Ninja Gaiden's sword play is the gold standard for third person action games.

This game is highly addictive, incredibly satisfying at times, and a must buy for anyone who enjoyed The Sands of Time. Everyone else should do themselves a favor and at least rent this. The combat system could be better, but its not nearly enough of a hinderance to ruin the experience. Even that gets less and less frustrating as you become more and more adept and handling its inadequacies. Ubisoft did it again, and produced another wonderful game for current generation consoles.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/11/05