Prince of Persia: Warrior Within

After thoroughly enjoying the previous game, The Sands of Time, I was excited to find that Ubisoft were creating a sequel to it. At first, Warrior Within may look like your typical goth-brawling epic, but look behind the daunting colours and you've got an action adventure/platform romp that will challenge you in many hours of incredible game play.

In this game, you play as the Prince as he attempts to change his fate to die before the guardian of time, the Dahaka kills him. You can still do all the acrobatic moves and stunts that were available in the first game and more (including the ability to slide down curtains using your sword as a brake), but the thing that has improved the most is the combat. Now, you pick up temporary secondary weapons and chain together buttons to execute blood-spilling combos. It's good, because The Sands of Time's battles were rather linear with few combat moves. This game has over 50 combos to slice and dice your enemies with.

Thanks to a magical Medallion, the Prince can use the Sand Powers that made Sands of Time's game play so unique - rewind time, slow down time and learn some new sand moves (including a cool move called Ravages of Time which lets you hack away at enemies at breakneck speed). Unlike the previous game though, you can only obtain up to six sand slots - in Sands of Time you could have MUCH MUCH more. This is a particularly bad feature of the game because it feels like it's been downgraded a bit. Also, Power Tanks are not included - every sand move (even the Slow-mo move) consumes at least one sand tank. Later powers often cost even more. This provides an unfair element to the game, seeing as Power Tanks were in the original.

This is a very good game. despite minor elements of bad features, it is still worth buying. You should get it definitely if you had the last one.

This picks up after the previous one, and does so well. The basic stuff is the same, with some tweaks(among them, notable improvements). The plot is summed up, since it relates to that of this one(which is quite good, and very nearly has everything coming together as well as that of the prior one). Between the two, The Prince has changed... I suppose being mercilessly hunted down by a seemingly unstoppable force will do that to a man(you are chased by it, as well, in highly intense and exciting portions). Almost all of the emo is gone, and, well, he's turned into a sheer bad-ass, which fits the surroundings and, well, all of this production. With this comes one of the new things to this: The Free Form Fighting System. This adds a lot of attacks, around 50, including about 30 combos... only a few are in The Sands of Time. Sadly, this is at the cost of the amazing updated chess-match style combat of aforementioned, where you need tactics, countering your opponent and skill(the rest of this still requires that, as well as the patience and trained fingers that the former did), and you're left with typically being free to just spam powerful strikes. There are two entire sets of swordplay: A single blade, and one for having something in the other hand, as well. And that can be a variety of weapons: Maces, daggers, axes... 50+ individual ones, total. You can pick up what others drop, or you can smash one of the plenty of cases of them. You can even throw the secondary one straight into someone else... and you'll literally see it there, sticking out of them. There is a greater amount of battle in this than before in these, and sometimes they last longer against the specific ones. Unfortunately, it gets to be too much, and they wind up being annoying. This one heals you right before saving(not counting the Auto ones, that you don't control and can't return from if you quit), with next to no exceptions. Apart from that, this is tougher than the one it immediately succeeds(it does have three difficulties, however), but it may also be shorter... it does have at least two different endings, though. There are also unlock-ables, artwork, and even videos, behind-the-scenes type and others, to give more re-playability still. They went overboard on the Bosses... the frequency is silly, so many in this, at the length it is... and the last one can be downright ludicrous in how hard it is. You have, well, gain, the same abilities(and new ones) as last time around, and this has Tutorials, as well... it also has a pretty nice slow-motion death feature, that you can adjust, and it's got subtitles. The story develops nicely, and it's a marvelous idea. It is not as vague and has less mystery, not as much room for interpretation, as that of the one this is the direct sequel to. This has a few bugs, but I didn't run into any big ones. The puzzles are well-done, and they tend to make sense. The story-telling ranges, but the cut-scenes are effective and well-directed when at their best. The CGI is astounding. The graphics and animation are smooth, crisp and excellent. Realistic water, dust, etc. The lighting is stunning. The engine is close to the same as the first of this new trilogy, which also means that the camera problems remain. You won't always get to move it the way you want to, and if it suddenly turns on its own, you'd better be prepared to press the corresponding directional keys right away. You still have regular, First Person view and the panoramic one. This does still not happen all that often. The enemies are well-done, and the AI is almost exclusively not half bad. They don't only block, now, they also dodge. The team decided to throw in taunts, and this can get goofy, as it has elsewhere. And please don't ask me why there are vampiric dominatrixes in this. The types of foes are fairly diverse. This takes place in the same location, with numerous areas... however, it also operates in the past along with the present, so you'll see the appearance of them in not only one, no, two periods. You'll want to remember what you work your way past... chances are you'll pass it again. Thus, this is the first of these to give you a map, not to mention put you in a situation where you *need* it. The level design is remarkable. This is definitely darker than the earlier ones... there is blood and some gore(although that does not reach the heights of the original two), you can grab a stranglehold and proceed to cut across the torso, and slice those you are up against in half, etc. The tone is bleak, grim. The humor from the one that precedes this of the recent ones is largely gone. This is arguably a tragic tale, more-so than that. It can be downright disturbing. The music is mainly hard rock, yet there is a somber orchestral(well, on piano) score, as well. And there is Persian-style tunes, they're just integrated into aforementioned heavy metal... think of it as remixing. If you're into brooding and awesomeness, you should get a real kick out of this. I sure did. The audio in general is rather well-done... the voice acting is marvelous. The character writing is credible. Sounds all seem right. This brings a couple of traps into the series that haven't been done before, and alter a thing or two. Acrobatics are pretty much the same. Violence is perhaps a relative matter here. The nudity is once again as close as they can come without it actually revealing anything. I recommend this to any fan of the franchise, the concept, and/or the continued adventures of the Persian heir to the throne, who simply will not spill the beans on what on Earth his name is. 8/10

I have been looking forward to this game since I first completed Sands of Time, and for me, unlike many others, it failed to disappoint. It is definitely better than the Sands of Time, which was a very straightforward game, too easy, and completed within the day.

Yes, the Prince has grown up, and he is no longer a boy looking for his father's acceptance. He is not as lovable as the original prince. I do not believe this to be a bad thing, for it truly reflects the story. People who say otherwise either have a completely different opinion, or are too obsessed with the fact that the game isn't "Persian" enough to focus on the actual story.

The prince is darker, angrier, and with a definite edge to his personality. This, I found to be very enticing.

However, There are a lot of problems with the way characters are dressed. The women in this game are scantily dressed, especially Kailina and Shadhee, who seem to be practically naked apart from their thin garments and very revealing armour. The prince also has a strange armour. Everything except his chest is absolutely wonderful. His chest though...putting it lightly, it looks like he has breasts from certain camera angles.

The music is amazing, still retaining much of the Arabian style, although others may have missed this due to the strength of the Heavy Metal in the background. It is all a matter of taste, really. Don't like the music? Turn the music off and turn on your stereo. There, problem solved.

The graphics are spectacular, letting you see true contrast between the past and "present". However, I regret that the graphics were dumbed down for the PS2 version of the game. Really, this is a game made for the X-Box, since it's that that has a lot of the cool features...although I've only played on the PC and PS2 versions of the game.

Fighting, as Ubisoft promised, is breathtaking. However, it is not quite as "free-form" as you might think. I found myself repeating the strongest moves in the game over and over, as I'm sure many others have as well. It is still strongly a free-form fighting system, nonetheless. You just have to learn how to use it.

I am definitely looking forward to a sequel. I suggest you go out and buy/rent this game, and see just how much better it is than the Sands of Time, which was undoubtedly good in its own right.

Prince of persia : the warrior within is an excellent game that reveals its greatness as you progress. It starts off a bit run of mill with our moody hero slicing up bad guys, but things take a turn for the best when you get to the island . From here on its mind bending challenge after mind bending challenge- each more well thought out and engrossing than the last .

The graphics are very dark and atmospheric and the gameplay is great too. The character of the prince feels nice to control as he runs across walls , swings on poles and does tons of cool acrobatic tricks.

Prince of persia : warrior within is a challenging and fun game that requires brawns ,brains and an appreciation of wicked looking back flips and stuff.

This game came to me by accident. About two years ago a friend of mine was trying to install it on his computer, but luckily to me his computer was not running very well so he asked me if he could give it a try on mine. I had very little idea about the game, a couple of years before I watched the Two Thrones announce but still it didn't appeal to me.

When I got to play this since it worked very well on my computer I got instantly dragged into the world of Prince of Persia again (I used to play the first installment of this series a long time before). I think this is an excellent game. It has everything in the Adventure/Action genre. You are able to perform incredible acrobatics in order to avoid the classic traps from the original game (Blades, those sharp thing that come out of the floor, etc.) You have tons of deadly combos to use in the different minions, but above that all is the use of time. The features to control time are for example going back for a few seconds (to avoid a fall for example) slow motion for everyone and everything except for you, increase your speed, etc. with incredible results.

Even if the adventure takes place in a castle (and a bit in your ship), it's still a really big castle where you can get lost(I don't like games that show you every step to win them, therefore you never get lost and always know what to do without doing some exploring, like God of War, which was the only title that I liked despite the characteristic mentioned above). So you can be sure there's a lot of adventure in Prince of Persia.

Many people don't like this new aggressive, darker prince, but I think it works better this way. The prince is a bit soft for my taste in "The Sands of Time" and in "The Two Thrones", and I said a bit because he is a terrific main character. But I prefer the non-typical hero, and this darker prince fits that role very well. The other two titles intended to be little funny while this one didn't. An example would be some conversations between Farah and the prince in "The Sands of Time" and another would be a conversation between the prince and the dark prince in "The Two Thrones". Now about the soundtrack, there's no doubt that the other two surpassed this one. That is the only negative aspect I found in this title.

Overall this game is really great and might be enjoyable for everyone. It is for me the best game in the sands trilogy. It kept me wanting more.