Prince of Persia: Warrior Within

Does the darker and bloodier prince still make the grade? Read on for our definitive verdict.

	Version PS2, Xbox, GCN, PC	Developer Ubisoft Montreal	Publisher Ubisoft	Genre Action/Adventure

By Nathan Einhorn

One of the hardest things in all of game development is changing an original title in such a way to give it a new substance, a new feel, basically giving a game a complete overhaul while still retaining the same ol' feeling that kept players coming back for more. Ubisoft Montreal set out to do just that with their sequel to the critically acclaimed and the publicly lambasted Prince of Persia: Sands of Time.

The reason behind the limp sales can never be explained, but it's obvious that the development team had its theories and it surrounded the happy go-lucky attitude of its heroine, so in Prince of Persia: Warrior Within the audience has now been presented with a deep, dark, brooding Prince with a new voice, (new acting talent was hired) a darker persona... hell, the entire game has been gutted from the ground up. Where there once resided light blues and yellows, reds, browns and blacks now take their place. But does it all work? Did they pull it off?

You play as the Prince (surprise surprise) just after the events from the first game have transpired. As you return home to Babylon planning on taking a bit of a vacation from defeating the evil doers, you realize that your time travel has created a bit of a rip in the whole space time continuum thingy that we always hear about in movies, and some bad things have begun to leak through. Most noticeably is a very disturbing creature called the Dahaka which is comparable to the grim reaper; an unstoppable death squad hell bent on two things, killing and enslaving mankind while making a hell on earth, and more importantly killing our beloved Prince.

There's only one solution to this problem and the Prince knows it, he must begrudgingly travel back and destroy the Sands of Time that he so feverishly sought to control in the first game, thus reversing everything that happened and setting things right once again. Sound confusing? On paper it can be but thankfully the writers did an excellent job of planning plot revelations and have given just enough explanation to satisfy the gamer to keep them going to the next plot turn.

The gameplay refinements tfrom last year's game are noticeable right from the outset. The combat has been given new layers of depth that were sorely missed from the Sands of Time. The great puzzles that we have come to love are still firmly in tow. You'll be forced to jump, spring, rappel, and climb your way around some of the game's tougher physical tests and it will also put your noggin' through its paces with some of the game's more brainiac style puzzles.

The fighting in the game has a much more natural feel then Sands of Time. You'll now be confronted by groups of enemies to be taken down in any number of ways. You can utilize environmental weapons, swords, and the enemies themselves to take down your foes. Ubisoft Montreal has packed more then fifty weapons into the game for you to use as you see fit. These weapons are broken up into five different classes: fortune weapons, swords, maces, axes, and daggers. Thankfully, the now common ability to dual-wield has made its way into the game - you can combine weapons however you wish until the find that perfect weapon set so you can really bring the pain. Not only can you combine weapons, but now the developers have a nicely formulated combo system that will have you reminiscing of a three dimensional fighter. Counters, combos, and beheadings are all included; each adds a nice little layer onto the already thick gameplay.

Another nice addition to this year's game is the inclusion of Xbox Live functionality. Now you shouldn't get your hopes up of challenging players to head-to-head or deathmatch style bouts, instead you can participate in a Ninja Gaiden-style tournament wherein you are put into a room full of tough AI opponents, and upon completion your scores are uploaded and compared to the competition around the world. There is also a time attack mode that allows you to work your way through certain section of the game performing certain acrobatics and defeating a few enemies. Again your time will be uploaded to Xbox Live to see how you fare with the rest of the world.

Overall the gameplay is excellently crafted. Warrior Within features nice mixtures of battle and platforming without ever overloading you with one or the other. The story moves briskly enough to keep you enthralled through the levels of fighting and puzzles solving; good pacing allows the story to be presented methodically giving the player around 16-20 hours of great gameplay.

The graphics are once again finely crafted by Ubi's Montreal art team - whoever is the art director behind this one should really get some sort of award; some of the scenes of this game are truly gorgeous. On the more technical side of the fence, there are a few slight hiccups when compared to last year's title. First of all the framerate drops below par on a few occasions, mainly when your character is flailing around the screen attempting to thwart off the bevy of enemies after your head. Next on the list is the game's aliasing which seems to feature a few too many jaggies when compared to Sands of Time. Animations are all still top-notch; the sheer quantity has been beefed up substantially to make room for the new combat system, which also performs wonderfully. All-in-all the darker, bloodier, Prince looks fantastic, less a few hiccups here and there the game is a great display of visual prowess.

In the audio department the game seems to stray a bit from last year's flock a bit too much for my tastes. I rather enjoyed listening to the Prince's running dialogue that he had with himself. Obviously this year's title is a bit darker so having a main character who sits there happily talking with himself would seem a bit off but some rage filled dialogue really wouldn't have hurt. In the cut-scenes, we do get to hear the Prince's voice which might seem a bit different from last year's game, and that's because there's a new guy providing the talent. On the music side we've got the usual for action games, some rock and roll riffs replace last year's Middle Eastern toned music which is a welcome change that will hopefully help bring this game to a wider audience.

It's great to see a game that follows so well in its predecessor's footsteps, especially when the development team took so many risks with the franchise. Giving the game a darker mood is definitely a big risk, but who better to pull it off? Anyone who lets this one pass should not be allowed to own a games console.