Prince of Persia: Warrior Within

The Short


Pros
- Takes the core gameplay elements of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and improves all of it
- Platforming is harder, funner, and has more moves
- Combat, while not perfect, is streamlined and certainly improved
- Environments are less "this is where you obviously go" and instead require problem solving
- Going between an old, ruined temple and the past, fixed temple is a neat concept
- Dahaka chases are crazy intense, resulting in some of the best moments of the series
- Wild plot twist at about the 3/4 mark completely changes up gameplay in a crazy way

Cons
- Nearly every fantastic story element from the first game has been completely ruined by the "dark" tone
- New Prince is an angsty, raging jerk who has lost all his wit and charm
- In addition to adding blood and gore to make it "dark," there's bonus tasteless cleavage and iron thongs. Seriously, who thought this was a good idea?
- The female enemies make weird, sexual/painful moans as you hit them and it's just...ugh
- Story is an incoherent mess about "fixing the timeline" or some such nonsense
- Still has some camera problems that the first game did, bosses are lame and unfun

The Prince is back, but not for the better. 

The Long

I love Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, and stand by my statement that it was one of the best games released last console generation. The fast-paced, free-form platforming integrated with excellent puzzles is ingenious, and coupled with the charming story and brilliant script it really makes for one great trip. I played it for the first time my freshman year of college, and everybody in my dorm loved it to death. We were all crazy pumped when we heard the second one, Warrior Within, was coming out soon, and it looked like it was going to be bloodier, darker, and basically improve all the minor problems we had with the first game. It's worth noting that Prince of Persia: Warrior Within was the first game I ever bought full price, and on release day (and for the Gamecube, no less). I brought it back to my dorm, popped it in, and began round two of the Prince's crazy aerobics exercises. 

It...wasn't everything I expected. 

The difficulty in this game has been ramped up. 

Something must have happened between 2003 and 2004 at Ubisoft. I have no idea what it was. They couldn't have played God of War, because that game didn't come out until 2005. Maybe they thought having a cute, funny story didn't work with their game of running around sawblades and leaping from high areas to a crushing demise. Regardless, somebody decided that having a happy-go-lucky, somewhat sexist, actually three-dimensional witty character was a "bad thing," and that they needed to change him up to appeal to the "kids these days."

So they took the Prince we knew and loved and made him a generic, angsty, rage-filled idiot with a gravelly voice who curses frequently and is generally a cold-hearted bastard. And his hair color changed, inexplicably. Because he probably dyed it black after picking up some new threads at Hot Topic. 

Who are you, and what have you done with that guy I liked from the last game?

I'm going to try and not dwell on this, but it's hard not to because the Prince of Persia series (the Sands of Time offshoot, anyway) is still struggling to overcome this radical makeover they thought was a good idea for this second game. Replacing our sassy, funny sidekick we now have an oversexualized woman who I have no idea how her dress stays on. Biggest bonus is during the first 3D CGI scene you get a "nice" scene of a new girl villain, who apparently somehow got a one-piece metal suit that has an included thong and shows vast amounts of her chest. Seriously, who the hell saw the first game and thought this was a good idea? 

I find this ironic, seeing as one of the Prince's character arcs in the first game was overcoming the fact he was a misogynistic prick

The story itself is also all sorts of nonsense. When you used the Dagger of Time to mess up the Sands of Time, apparently that made some time-flux or something, and some nasty Time-Beastie called the Dahaka wants the Prince eaten or killed or something to fix this. So he sails to the Isle of Time to talk to the Empress of Time in the Palace of Time to...geez, you can't just take every normal word and add "of Time" at the end to make it fix. Come on, people. It was bad enough in the first game, this is just overkill.

Anyway, there's a twist at the 2/3 mark and a twist near the end, and luckily you kill the annoying metal-thong woman about 15 minutes in and the red hooker/empress woman is just gone most of the game so you don't have anybody to talk to. Unlike the first game, where the Prince was narrating throughout (often with hilarious results), this game is mostly done in silence. Which I guess fits the somber mood, but again it feels like something was taken away that shouldn't have been.

Point being that having the new baditude Prince shouting "YOU BITCH!" as one of his first lines of dialogue after going on a swashbuckling, roguish adventure with him in the last game was startling. Ubisoft is still trying to recover from this misstep in tone, with the two games following this one being heavily emphasized that "Yes, we messed up, the Prince is sane in this one. Sorry." Somebody probably got fired for this game, now that I think about it, and maybe I'm ok with that. Who knows. 

Back to the traps

Character sabotaging aside, Prince of Persia: Warrior Within is actually a pretty big step up from its predecessor in nearly every gameplay element. First off, the game just feels better. The Prince is a bit faster (though he still takes a second to stop after a run, a realistic handicap you'll have to quickly master), his wall runs are quicker, and he just controls smoother. Second, the platforming segments of this game might actually be the best in the series (with the exception of the next-gen prequel, The Forgotten Sands). In the first game, it was almost blatantly obvious where you were supposed to go, with platforms and handholds easy to spot. They mixed it up in Warrior Within where the environments are more like actual background rather than a means to a puzzle (unless they are a means to a larger puzzle), so it can be tricker to even know where to go. They addition of being able to slow down time from nearly the offset can make certain segments a lot easier, but since it costs a rewind to pull it off you have to make an important decision: can I do it in two runs or less, or should I try slowing it down first?

It's just a better platformer overall, with harder puzzles and crazier setpieces. That element certainly was improved, and I haven't even talked about the Dahaka chases yet.

Death from above!

Stupid plot reasons aside, the Dahaka is cool. Basically he shows up every once in a while to scare the crap out of you, and you have to run as fast as you can to get away from him or he'll insta-kill you. He can't be beaten so you can't fight, you just gotta blitz across some crazy-hard platforming until you get to a safe spot. These tend to pop up right when you least expect it, and are quite intense. It was a good design choice, as a lot of people (like myself) spend big chunks of time figuring out where to go in these game before even attempting it, and this way it forced you to just go by instincts.

The game also has a cool feature where you switch back and forth in time between the "old" Island of Time and the "new" Island of Time, with the aesthetics being the opposite of what you thought. "Old" Island was before it was busted up, so everything is green and stuff is fixed and generally nicer. "New" is the modern setting where it's a big crappy ruin, stuff is a lot darker, and machines that were running before are now busted. While it's sort of them recycling content, the changes are so dramatic I never really minded. You don't really get to freely shift or anything to solve puzzles (the game decides when the swap happens) which is too bad, but it's a good aesthetic change that fits with the series' theme on time manipulation..."of time."

Oh yeah, it's more violent now. BADITUDE. 

Combat has seen a decent improvement, though it's a bit more button-mashy now than it was before. You don't have to knock enemies over and then suck 'em up with the Dagger of Time anymore, instead you can just cut their various body parts off and call it good. You have one sword at all times and then on your off hand you pick up weapons from the environment or enemies, all of which will eventually break. You have daggers, maces, axes, and swords, though most use the same combos. Once you figure out one or two good combos (the duel-blade "spin around in a circle so everything falls in half" is essentially a win-all) you can just spam them through most of the game, until the rare instance that it doesn't work and then just general mashing is ok. 

He can be a bit more aerobic in fights, too. You can spin around poles to cut heads, jump up walls and them leap back and dive down on people, and even attack on the walls now. This is actually my favorite improvement: being able to use his crazy platforming abilities in combat. It isn't done very well, but it's a step forward. 

Suffer not a beastie OF TIME to live

This game also has bosses for some retarded reason, all of which involve slashing at its ankles until you can jump on it, avoid him grabbing you, and punching at its head until you can get a stab in. They are boring and all are exactly the same. There's also boss fights against people (two boss fights against people) that are almost exactly the same as well: awful. In both instances you are put in rooms where you can't use your acrobatics (no walls), and instead have to just roll around and attack. Gee, great idea there. Take everything that made your game unique during the normal fights and get rid of it for what should have been some awesome boss encounters. Way to be. 

The game looks pretty good. Mostly. 

Graphically, this game looks loads better than Sands of Time, though you can tell it's on an aged engine. Environments are a bit muddy but still look really good. Character models are less blocky and polygonal but still exhibit the same "this person is a bunch of pieces put together" problem of earlyish PS2 games. The animations are all fantastic, however, with the Prince looking awesome as he runs, flips, and flies around. 

The music is horrible. The middle-eastern sounds of the first game are replaced by heavy metal licks to prove how "hardcore" the game is, and when you are running from the Dahaka the chorus of Godsmack's "Alive" blasts in the background (thankfully without lyrics). The voice are also terrible, with the Prince having a completely different voice actor and the voices of the enemies being annoying. The blatantly-sexual moans of pain from the female enemies, accompanied by such classic lines as "There's so much...pleasure in pain" makes you wish they would all just shut up like the enemies in the first game. That being said, you do spend most of this game in quiet (until you get to a cutscene or combat), so it isn't that awful I guess, but compared to Sands of Time this game sounds ugly. 

"I AM THE PRINCE OF PERSIA RAAAAWR"

Despite all my complaints about the radical shift in tone, I can't deny that Prince of Persia: Warrior Within is actually a very solid game underneath the awful new coat of paint. It's still a blast to play, the combat being fun if not particularly deep, the platforming being completely incredible, and the new setpieces both great to look at and fun to traverse. It's still an extremely solid game, mostly because it was based off the formula of it's much better predecessor, and I have to recommend it on those merits alone.

However, if you were really sold on the Prince's character in Sands of Time, this game might be a bit painful to experience. In all truth, you could wiki the story if it really mattered and jump straight to The Two Thrones without losing all that much, since it ties up most Warrior Within plot threads in the first fifteen minutes of The Two Thrones anyway (almost as if they wanted everybody to forget this game's story ever happened. Huh...).

This is part of a Prince of Persia HD Collection on PS3, which I really should own because I love these games so damn much, but it was also on every last-gen system (so if you have a backwards-compatible Wii, PS3, or Xbox 360 you should be set) and on PC, and it actually looks best on PC so that might be the way to do it. I still wholly recommend this series despite this game's...setbacks, but it certainly wasn't the sequel I expected back in 2004. 

Four out of five stars. 

Though I wish I could lobotomize the story from my brain. 

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

The Short


Pros
- Superb evolution of the platforming formula
- Excellent platforming puzzles and traps
- Introduction of the "time reverse" mechanic relieves the frustration of failure
- Charming characters and witty dialogue
- Story told as a narration fits the Arabian theme
- Excellent graphics for the time, still hold up reasonably well
- Great music

Cons
- Combat isn't particularly enthralling and can be "broken" with a few attacks
- Some of the puzzles can have obscure solutions
- Pre-rendered cutscenes look pretty bad in this day and age
- The game eventually ends

This ain't your momma's Prince of Persia

The Long

Back when I was a child, my time was primarily occupied by three games: The Incredible Machine 2, Lords of the Realm II, and Prince of Persia, all on the computer. The original Prince of Persia was a 2D platformer with a focus on "realistic," meaning you couldn't drop down 100 feet and just walk it off. It had an interesting mix of puzzles, platforming, and climbing combined with some pretty mediocre combat and a difficulty curve that was out of this world. After making a few successful versions of the 2D Prince, the original creators tried their hand with Prince of Persia 3D, which was a pretty bad attempt to modernize the series. Needless to say it was forgotten, and the whole series was abandoned for several years until Ubisoft decided to bring it back in 2003 with Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. As another attempt to put the prince in 3D, this time the formula was...let's say a little more successful.

Welcome to the new 3D platformer. 

The story this time around revolves around a young, brash, headstrong Prince (of Persia) who aspires for glory in battle under the watchful gaze of his father, the king. When Persia invades a city, the Prince (in a hunt for treasure) acquires the Dagger of Time, a weapon whose full potential is initially unknown to him. After returning to Persia with both the Dagger of Time and the Sands of Time, a massive hourglass, a treacherous Vizier tricks the Prince into putting the dagger into the Sands, causing time to mess up and everybody in Persia to turn into crazy sand monsters. As one of three people who were't changed (the Prince, the Vizier, and a captured girl from the original city called Farah), the Prince has to confront his arrogance in order to undo his mistake and fix both time and the mess he brought upon his family and country.

It's a simple story, but what shines is how well it is played out. The entire thing has an Arabian Nights feel to it, because the Prince is actually narrating this story to an unknown audience throughout the entire game. Should you fail completely, the Prince will hesitate and say, "Hmm...no, that's not how it happened." before you reload a checkpoint. But what is probably the most endearing is the Prince himself, and how he interacts with Farah.

Video game romances are overdrawn affairs, often a mix of forced circumstances, melodrama, and just a general lack of development. While PoP: SoT certainly has a little bit of these things, it is completely overshadowed by just how damned charming both the Prince and Farah are. Farah is a sensible, if a bit uptight, woman who wants to fix things and blames the Prince for this old mess. The Prince (initially) thinks he isn't to blame for anything, and will defend himself with perhaps a little too much vigor throughout. The dialogue is clever and natural, the character interactions realistic, and as a whole it's a charming love story hidden inside an action-adventure game about sand monsters. I'm not going to say it's the greatest story ever, but it has a certain freshness that no other game I've played has been able to emulate, and that makes the characters and their situations memorable. 

Plus the Prince is kind of a jerk, which is entertaining in and of itself. 

But what about the actual game? Well, PoP:SoT could actually be considered revolutionary. While the failed Prince of Persia 3D didn't work because they tried to emulate the original games without evolving enough, PoP:SoT manages to both take the original ideas from the first Prince of Persia and blend them into something completely new.

PoP:SoT is a parkour platformer, and could honestly be considered the first parkour platformer. For those who down't know what parkour is, it's an art/ability to run seamlessly across dangerous environments without slowing down or stopping. For example, it's common in PoP:SoT to wall run over a pit of spikes, leap to a precarious pipe, swing from it to a ledge, and then jump back and forth between a tight space before emerging victoriously at the top. It's a game that rewards preciseness and speed with some incredible sights, and a general feeling of satisfaction when you overcome some of the more difficult rooms. And it gets hard, fast, which means you'll be failing constantly. Which brings us to another excellent improvement: the Dagger of Time itself.

Every room is, itself, your biggest opponent.

It's hard to believe that once upon a time time reversal mechanics in games was unique. Now it's everywhere, from our racing games to even Rock Band 3 using it when you pause. But back in 2003, the concept was completely novel, and PoP:SoT pioneered the concept. Essentially how it works is the dagger allows the Prince to "reverse" up to the last 10-20 odd seconds, with the ability to stop reversing anytime mid-transfer. So if you leap off a ledge and just miss a button press, you can immediately back time up for another shot. This was a fantastic concept because it meant, unlike Uncharted, that you could actually put some horrendously difficult platforming puzzles in without the risk of having your players hate you for cheap deaths. 

Of course, your sand powers were limited, so you still had to be careful least you be forced to checkpoint the room over again, but the number of "do-overs" you had increased throughout the game, and along with it the difficulty increased as well. It was ingenious for this type of game, and was so good that all the sequels used it too, which I'm totally fine with. The platforming in this game is excellently designed from top to bottom, making each room a cross between a deadly puzzle, a button-pressing challenge, and a visual thrill ride as the Prince just barely makes a wall-jump in time to grab onto a pole and miss falling to his demise.

As another bonus, save points also double as hints. When you enter a glowing pillar of sand that doubles as a save point, it'll show a quick flash-forward of what is to come and how to succeed. It's presented extremely quickly, meaning you'll probably only remember small samples of it, but it's usually enough to both keep the challenge while ensuring you never get stuck. A great little touch. 

The platforming in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time set a standard. 

I'd honestly go so far as to say what Mario 64 did for 3D platformers, PoP:SoT did for its evolution. Think now on how many modern games have borrowed or taken chunks from its seamless, perfectly controlled parkour gameplay. Crackdown, Infamous, Prototype, Uncharted, and others all owe a rather hefty debt to this game. Mario 64 figured out how to make 3D platforming work, but PoP:SoT figured out how to do it in style, with a player feeling like they had full control over the awesome things they did, while still making it completely manageable. It's hard to describe the combination of elation, fear, and thrill that playing PoP:SoT invokes, but just know that there are few games as good as this one, and I've played my share. 

It's a pity they thought it needed combat. 

It isn't all sunshine and roses, though, as the combat in PoP:SoT isn't particularly great. To be honest, I never really had issue with it, it just seemed more tacked on than anything. The Prince is pretty agile in his fights, being able to run up the enemies themselves and leap over them to instantly get behind them for free hits, and he can jump off the walls and ram himself into them (the super-cheap way to breeze through the game, FYI), knocking them over for a quick kill. In order to finish enemies off, the Prince has to absorb them into the Dagger, meaning you knock them on their backs, wait for an opening, and suck their sands up before they can get back to their feet. It's simple and does a decent job displaying the Prince's acrobatic skill, but to be honest he feels a little gimped. After I've scaled a massive tower, running and leaping and jumping and getting dangerously close to falling, having him plod around with the same three moves is lame. They fixed the combat up a bit in the sequels, but for now I think it's servicable but not great. It doesn't take anything away, but it could have added so much more.

This is where the fun stuff is. 

The visuals haven't aged well at all. They still don't look awful (like most N64 games now), but they certainly appear dated. Character models have low polygon counts and their hands are just...blocky. The CG pre-renderings are extremely blurry and have janky animations. However, when you are running, jumping, and flipping in-game the Prince's animations are fantastic, all the way down to his quick ladder climbing.

The sound design is excellent throughout, with the voice actors for the Prince and Farah really bringing it home in terms of quality and presentation. The music is also amazing, with a combination of rock and Arabian themes that can be both upbeat or subtle, adding to the overarching experience very well. It's a memorable soundtrack, and that's saying something.

Good stuff.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a masterpiece of a game. Not just for what it inspired (a whole generation of games involving easy climbing, running, and jumping), but because it is just a damn solid game on its own merits. Combining lighting-fast, frustration free platforming puzzles with a clever story and well presented script, there is very little to dislike about this game, even nearly ten years after its release. It has since been re-released on the PS3 as the entire trilogy in HD, which I highly suggest picking up if you haven't played any of these games before. 

Five out of five stars. 

A job well done, Prince.