Prince of Persia: Warrior Within

Written by D'Marcus Beatty  on September 29, 2004

Final Glimpse: Could you be, the most beautiful game in the world?

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The original Prince of Persia was an instant classic, being one of the first titles to actually animate its character realistically. In addition to this aesthetic innovation, PoP was also a solid adventure platformer, with well designed level layouts and intriguing gameplay. Last year's Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time lived up to its pedigree, revisiting PoP's award-winning recipe with today's technological advances to create another critically acclaimed gameplay experience. With a track record like that, gamers are understandably excited about the next chapter in our favorite Prince's life, entitled The Warrior Within.

The Warrior Within builds upon the story began by The Sands of Time. However, there are a number of changes. The first and most noticeable is a much grittier, darker look to the environment and the Prince himself. Apparently, Fate is after the Prince, intending to destroy him for good. Because of this, Prince is fleeing from his inevitable death at the hands of the invincible assassin that Fate has dispatched to kill him.

The Prince is also responsible for the death of a close friend, which has made his own viewpoint much darker. This is obvious in his appearance with a coarser, less clean cut look. Ubisoft's goal was to make the Prince look less naяve and more threatening, following the current trend in game hero/anti-heroes. Another area where the game is clearly darker is in the game's combat engine, which has gone through a revamping.

Knowing that The Sands of Time as a game didn't have very many flaws, the game's developers decided to focus on making the combat in the game deeper as well as getting rid of the transitions between combat and puzzle solving to make the game feel more seamless. The new combat system has been dubbed free-form, referring to the Prince's ability to stream together moves in a way of the player's choosing. Each move has a number of options that the player can choose, which opens the door for more options, allowing for unprecedented freedom in combat. For example, after grabbing a foe, players can choose to either throw the enemy, cut him in half, strangle him, or rebound off of him. Each move in combat has a similar choice for the player, and most choices also have choices, so the combat in the game promises to be fresh and unique each time.

In addition to the free form combat system, the Prince can now pick up and use other weapons in the game. There are four classes of weapons, and each of them break after extended use, but they will definitely add variety to an already refreshing system. There are also projectiles, such as knives, that can be thrown at enemies.

Something that should be obvious from some of the Prince's aforementioned moves is how the grittier look factors into the gameplay. Players can expect a lot more violence this time around as the protagonist chops opponents in half, chops off limbs, and even lops off heads, sometimes while wielding dual swords.

Players can also expect bosses this time around. In one scene, a giant many times larger than the Prince attacks him, and the Prince must use his speed to stay a step ahead of the behemoth, slashing at his ankles until the monster kneels in pain. The Prince then climbs up his back, dodging the monster's attempts to grab him, and drives his sword through his giant foe's neck.

As for the graphic engine, Prince of Persia looks as good, if not better, than its predecessor. The Prince still animates like no other character in video gaming, with fitting fluidity that showcases just how agile our hero is.

Of course the Prince still has the powers that the Sands of Time endowed him with in the previous game, along with a few new tricks. We've been promised that now the Prince can travel through time, and some puzzles will revolve around manipulating objects in the past to affect the future. The Prince can also now selectively speed and slow time, making himself incredibly fast or his enemies ridiculously slow, which has clear advantages in combat.