Prince of Persia: Warrior Within – XB – Review

When the Prince of
Persia: The Sands of Time was released last year, it was praised as one of the
best action games released this generation. With that being the case, the
developers decided that a sequel should be made. As with most sequels there are
always a few changes, but with the Warrior Within it seems like the developers
might have changed a bit too much. Read on to find out more.

The Warrior Within takes
place a couple years after the conclusion of the Sands of Time. The Price
returned to his home in
Babylon,
but he soon finds out that he is being hunted by a Dahaka, a supernatural
creature bent on his destruction. He now must live his life on the run, so he
decided to seek the guidance from the wise Old Man who tells him that the Dahaka
was born when he created a rift in the timeline from his actions in the first
game. The Price now goes to the birthplace of the Sands of Time so he can stop
the Sands from being created so he can save his own life.

The talisman that Farah
gave the Prince towards the end of the first game, allows him to control time.
Just like in the first game in order to control time, you must have sand in it.
After players beat down specific enemies they will start to “leak” sand, which
is a clue to do a finishing move so players can collect the sand. These powers
are very important to the game, because in many cases it can be the difference
between life and death. One of the biggest powers is Time Travel, which allows
the Prince to travel to the past or return to the present. Recall allows the
Price to rewind time long enough to correct a single mistake. Eye of the Storm
allows the Prince to slow down time, while he continues to move at the same
speed, so he will be able to defeat some tougher enemies. If players get
surrounded they can perform three different powerful ground attacks the Breath
of Fate, Wind of Fate, or Cyclone of Fate, each one is stronger than the
pervious but uses more sand. His last power is Ravages of Time that allows the
Prince to do travel at super sonic speeds, and anything that his blade touches
will kill most enemies.

Two verses one, they don’t stand a chance!

One of the biggest
changes from the first game is the combat control. From the very first time
players will be able to control the Prince they will notice a huge change.
Ubisoft has put in a “free-form” fighting system, which means that players will
be able to pick up over 60 different weapons that players will be able to use
throughout the game, and two weapons can be used at one time. Players will be
able to pick up weapons from vanquished foes, but those weapons have a limited
used, because after using them for a while they will deteriorate and fall apart,
but before they do you can throw it at an enemy and cause extra damage. The best
thing about the combat is that players will be able to define how they play,
since they will be able to make up their own combo’s to find out what works best
for them.

One of the best things
from the first game is still in this one and it is the various puzzles. The
disappointing thing is that some of the puzzle seemed more “dumbed down” than
the first game. In the Sands of Time players had to think out all of the moves
in order to get past some of the areas, but in this game it seems more like a
simple jump here and a wall run there. While it still is fun, it is a shame that
it doesn’t create more of a challenge like the first one did.

Price of Persia: Warrior
Within is a gorgeous game. Everything that players see is just oozing with
details, it is amazing. The artwork for the levels is impressive, even though
the game is a lot “darker” than the first one, the developers made up for this
by the excellent use of lighting. The Prince and the enemies have a very high
polygonal count and highly textured to make them really stand out, and it is
worth it to see this game in action.

Wow that’s big!

One thing that the
developers certainly do right is the animation for the Prince. It is amazing how
this game looks in action, especially with all of the acrobatic things that the
Prince can accomplish. I can watch several of the acrobatic moves he does
continuously as it looks so smooth, such as running up to a wall, thrusting
yourself from it into an enemy, then flipping around the enemy and hacking away
at its back, it is so pretty to look at, and to perform.

The sound and music for
this game is a mixed bag. First players will be happy to know that the game
supports in game Dolby Digital, so if you have the setup everything sounds
extremely nice through your speakers. The music through most of the game is a
very heavy rock theme, which is good, but after a while it will get old and
repetitive, but on some occasions players will be treated to a more Arabic
themed music, similar to the first game that sounded really good. Sadly there is
not enough of the Arabic themed music.

The voiceovers for this
game are another weird turn of events. All of the voice acting during the cut
screens and the CGI movies is really well done, with great dialog. Every other
time a character opens their voice in the game is not so good, because you will
hear the same lame dialog over and over again. The comedy and quick comebacks
the Prince had in the first game is gone due to his self boasting in this game.
The sound effects that you will hear throughout this game are well done, from
the swords crashing to the explosions.

Look at all the detail.

One of the best reasons
to purchase the Xbox version of Prince of Persia: Warrior Within is that it is
the only version to support online features and downloadable content. Time
attack mode is where players race against the clock as they try to complete the
levels as quickly as possible. Next is an Arena Survival Mode which pits you
against myriads of enemies, defeating them before your timer runs out. Each room
that you go into will have more enemies, and the time limit will be reset once
you defeat the last enemies. The online part comes in because after completing
the levels you will be given a score based on how well/poor you did that gets
uploaded for the world to see. While this isn’t true online play, it is
something that none of the other versions offer, plus it gives the game more
replay value.

Prince of Persia: Warrior
Within is rated M for Mature for blood, suggestive themes, and violence.

Review Scoring Details for Prince of Persia: Warrior Within

Gameplay: 8.8
It is a shame
that the developers changed the entire tone of the game from the first one, to
make it more dark. Another bad thing is that the puzzle and platforming elements
have been “dumbed down” in comparison to the first one.

Graphics: 9.3
One thing that
didn’t change from the first game is how gorgeous this series continues to be.
Everything is dripping with detail, from the enemies to the environments. The
animation for the Price is just awesome.

Sound: 8.2
This category is
a complete mix bag, sometimes the music and the voice acting excels, and other
times it just fails.

Difficulty: Medium
This game teeters
that fine line between easy and hard. At times players will be able to blast
through a level in no time, and other times players will wish they had the
ability to rewind time more.

Concept: 8.6

The combat for
this game is really well done, but this game doesn’t really revolutionize like
the first one did.

Overall: 8.7

Prince of Persia:
The Sands of Time really revolutionized the genre, but the Warrior Within
doesn’t really continue in this tradition. Most of the things that made the
first game so great has been taken out to make the Warrior Within a darker
combat oriented game. While this game isn’t horrible it is just sad to see that
the developers decided to change the dynamics of the game so much to make it
feel totally different from the first game. Even though this is the case you
still should check out this game to see how the series continues.