The most immediate thing you notice about Warrior Within is that, in terms of style, it is a big change when compared to Sands of Time. While the first game was basically an exotic adventure through a magical Arabian-like world, the new Prince of Persia is a much darker and more aggressive action game. Things like bad language and blood, that were absent from the previous title, now litter the game. As an action game, Sands of Time wasn’t lacking in the ‘violence’ department, but Warrior Within is a much more gory affair. Not only is the games combat more brutal, the general feel and design applied to the game has changed to in order to build a darker, grittier atmosphere.
In a change from the first game, Warrior Within spans two time periods – the past and present. In the past, everything seems clean, crisp, and as if it were built yesterday. There also seems to be a vibrance about the past and is visually more reminiscent of Sands of Time. However, the present is a lot darker and more moody with of all the colour found in the past gone. This helps in two ways when playing through the game. First, you’ll be able to distinctively tell which time period you are in, and second, you’ll see that each is the perfect backdrop for any part of the story presented during the time period. While the past features story elements that are a bit more dramatic, there's a stronger sense of urgancy in the present as it's where most of the fighting takes place.
The main character, the Prince, is practically another person in this game, turning from the charming, proud hero of the first game into a bitter and hardened man by consequence of his recent life. Prince is constantly running from death. As the man who unleashed the sands of time was destined to die, a dark figure called the 'Dahaka' is constantly pursuing the Prince until he meets his fate. Weary by years of fleeing from his doom ridden destiny, he decides to attempt one desperate move: he heads for the island of time, where he will try to go back into the past, kill the Empress of Time and prevent her making the hourglass and the Sands of Time, thus freeing him from his own curse.
The Prince gets himself into a spin...
The core gameplay hasn't been changed much from Sands of Time. You’ll still have to traverse some of the most impressive indoor and outdoor level designs ever. Shimmy along ledges, swing off beams, run along walls - Prince's abilities show no end as he now has the ability to slide down curtains and tapestries, as well as run along walls using a rope. The way the levels are designed gives a more organic feel than in Sands of Time, helping give the game a less linear feel this time around.
The fighting system has been almost completely revamped. Since this was arguably the weakest area of the last title, Ubisoft needed to do something to make combat less dull and more exciting. With the new “free-form” combat system, you can link different moves to each other from almost anything. Your combo list, viewable from the pause menu, has a long string of moves and combinations at your disposal. For example, you can now jump over your enemy, pull their arm around their neck into a choke hold and then either strangle them to death, slice them in half or even chop their head off. Also, you can now dual wield weapons, where you’ll use the main weapon you are given and then you can pick up any weapon your enemies drop and use it to perform even more moves or even use the secondary weapon as a projectile attack. Some deaths are now met with slow motion cut scenes to further add to the drama of the fight. If you don’t like the little cut scenes, you can change how often they happen or completely turn them off in the in the options menu as well. The combat possibilities are far deeper than the hack and slash of the first game.
However, while it is fun to find new ways to kill your foes, you will tend to find yourself doing a lot of the most effective combos over and over because they get the job done quickest. Another nice addition is interactive environments. You can still crack open barrels and vases laden throughout the levels, as well as destroy certain walls with better weapons. However, when in combat, you can also use certain columns to swing around and perform an attack on multiple enemies.
'Bosses' play a larger role in Warrior Within, though none of them are particularly impressive. The female assassin bosses require little more than chipping away at their energy bar whilst blocking every attack they throw at you, which is hardly impressive. The huge troll-like creature you fight is quite entertaining, but you end up fighting him a fair few more times throughout the game which becomes tiresome as he's defeated in the exact same way each time.
Throughout the game you will discover certain swords that contain interesting time-related powers with the ability to slow time, rewind time, and slow down your enemies. Mix these powers with the free-form fighting and you can grind time to a halt and defeat your enemies in seconds. Turning back the clock also makes for more dangerous and complex puzzles. A daring and open mind is needed to traverse your way through the game, so the ability to rewind time to erase your mistakes is essential for removing the potential frustration the game would bring if you died each time you failed to make a jump.
While the platforming is smoother than ever and the fighting is vastly improved, the puzzles in Warrior Within are disappointingly easier than those found in Sands of Time. While this actually helps keep a faster pace to the game, the game doesn't need to be fast paced. The previous game had some well worked puzzles and the fact that Warrior Within rarely challenges the brain is a real shame considering the effort Ubisoft put into the other 2 'parts' of the game.
As mentioned, thelength of Sands of Time was criticised by many. Ubisoft listened to this and Warrior Within is around a 15hr game now compared to the 10 hours of the first game. While Sands of Time followed pretty much a straight path through the game, Warrior Within is much more of an open adventure. As with most open adventures, you'll be doing plenty of backtracking. While many instances place you in a different time period when you backtrack, which makes for a new experience. There are times where you will revisit the same rooms, pass the same traps and defeat the same enemies which can often leave you confused as to whether you're actually going the right way or not. Given the very linear set paths the game uses adding this kind of freedom was a bad decision in my opinion, and it only really serves to artificially extend the length of the game. If it were a linear adventure like the first game then it probably wouldn't be longer at all. The inclusion of Xbox Live 'Time Attack' and 'Arena Survival' modes plus the downloadable content that has been mentioned in the form of new maps for both modes online brings a few hours further lifespan to the Xbox version of Warrior Within should they actually support it.
The environments are now even more interactive.
Warrior Within is based on the same engine as Sands of Time and looks terrific. In fact, some scenes are downright breathtaking, making you stop just to look at the impressively huge towers and organic gardens. The soft glow of the first game is now more of a dusky hue, which certainly lends itself to the new, menacing Prince. The title character's movements are still the star of the show, and his graceful animations are excellent yet again. The physics are spot on, making all the acrobatics and wall-racing look incredible and always verging on the unbelievable. Artistically the game is a mixed bag. Some enemies are genuinely menacing while others, like the dominatrix-like women, we could have done without. The bosses are gigantic brutes that are as amazing to watch as they are difficult to defeat. There is some minor stuttering issues during cutscenes, but gameplay framerates are generally smooth and reliable throughout.
The audio, however, doesn’t fare as well. While cutscene voice acting is decent, the in-game comments that the Prince and his enemies spout out are just plain cringe worthy. The “toughness” that the Prince tries to throw out sounds extremely uncharacteristic and doesn't work at all. In fact, most of his dialogue really makes him an unlikeable character, and you'll end up not caring if he lives or dies some of the time which is a real shame considering the charm he brought to Sands of Time. Even worse is the constant heavy metal that appears frequently throughout the game. It wouldn't be so bad if it was well used, because there's been many games in the past with excellent metal soundtracks, but Warrior Within makes a real mess of things. I'm actually a metal fan myself but the guitar riffs just feel like they come out of nowhere and simply don’t belong and spoil alot of the atmosphere, something that was hugely important in Sands of Time.
With Warrior Within, Ubisoft tried to retain the core gameplay of the original while addressing a few minor issues with it: namely, its length, difficulty and relatively simple combat. And I must compliment Ubisoft for at least going out on a limb and darkening Warrior Within’s tone, proving that they didn’t intend to simply rest on the critical acclaim the game received by just giving us a second part to Sands of Time. The core puzzle-solving and acrobatics are still here, the game is a good few hours longer and the deeper combat is simply excellent. Yet, with all of these positive changes, the new 'grittier' Prince isn't a likeable character anymore. All of the little touches that made Sands of Time so wonderful, such as the environments, the characters, the music and the general Arabian feel, are gone. This means that while the gameplay of Warrior Within still makes for a very good adventure game, things such the atmosphere/immersion and the lack of connection with your character, things that are just as important as actual gameplay, spoil the enjoyment a great deal. Even if you can look past the games style, the excessive backtracking, occasional camera problems and lackluster bosses still leave this as an inferior game to Sands of Time.
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