Prince of Persia Warrior Within is a sword-slashing sequel to the hit game, Prince Of Persia: Sands Of Time. This time, our Prince is hunted by Dahaka, an immortal incarnation of Fate. The spirit seeks retirbution against the Prince, but he is wiser and deadlier than he was. To avoid his preordained death, he'll travel to the infernal core of mankind's worst fears.
Features:
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Fight against an entire island of most brutal, unrelenting monsters who exist only to torment mankind
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Manipulate the environments and use your enemies against each other, for a new kind of fighting
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Use the Sands Of Time from the first game in all-new ways -- create devastating new combos you create as you battle enemies
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120 of 130 found the following review helpful:
Good, but pales in comparison to Sands of Time.Dec 20, 2004
By sporkdude
"sporkdude"
Prince of Persia, the Sands of Time was a unique and revolutionary game that relied on intuitive and slow paced gameplay with increased emphasis on thoughts and visuals as opposed to button twitching action. This game, the sequel, moves the game more towards the ordinary action, cliched video game, with increased annoyances from large fights, backtracking, and bosses. Original games shouldn't move back towards the standard, formulaic game, but unfortunately, this does.
The first thing everyone is probably wondering is how different is this from the Sands of Time? Well, the puzzles, the intuitive and graceful controls and the fun movements are all there. Many of the same elements of gameplay still exist. Just getting from point A to point B in a large room with pillars, ledges, running on walls, swing on ropes, sliding down drapes, it's all there. Still the same reliance on thinking, visuals. In fact, there is actual improvement. The last game had jumps that were questionable and jumps were made blindly. This game has eliminated much of that. Other improvements include the fact that you traverse the same palace within two different time periods, meaning that the same rooms will have different traps or different lighting. A very interesting and unique concept.
The other changes are more dramatic. The videos and styles are a little darker, they've added chase scenes, and most drastic of all, they changed the fighting system and added a lot more fighting.
First off, the videos, audio, and visuals of the enemies are of a slightly darker nature, which is pretty much the only reason why it's a mature rating. It's worth noting that they fixed the sound problems from SOT and added subtitles. They changed some of the music. While still ambient, fighting scenes switch to guitar riffs from Godsmack (I think). While I like Godsmack and I own a few albums of theirs, the guitar music is annoying and does not fit well in this game. The story is decent, and CGI is pretty good though. Unfortunately, I have no idea why they made it rated mature. Just removing a few lines, and removing the blood, and making small changes would make this rated T or E. It's pretty pathetic when a video game feels it needs to add sexual connotations and needless blood just to increase sales. All it does is embarrass anyone who sees the game (polygon half-naked woman are just lame) and alienates a large group of players.
Secondly, they added more time-based schemes, most notably, chase scenes. Basically, a monster comes in and chases you and you have a limited amount of time to move from one room to another. Now, unfortunately, this does not work. The main reason is that the camera angles switch so often that orienting yourself takes a second, a second you cannot spare. What's worse is that sometimes the cutscenes themselves ruin the momentum and cause you to lose you life. The chase scenes are basically just a sequence of run to room, get caught, start the scene over, run to the next room, get caught, repeat. Just boring, iterative, and badly designed. What's worse is that some controls, noticeably swinging on ropes are poles, are not intuitive when timing is concerned.
Thirdly, there are also other cliched things that just annoyed me. Backtracking is slightly annoying, but the lack of balance is huge. The backtracking means that you'll actually go through many of the same rooms a few times. One time I got really lost and had to refer to a walkthrough in order to get my bearings straight. It didn't help that the map is absolutely useless, and it's one big picture with two markers. Not too fun, and a large step backwards in gaming in my opinion. When I say lack of balance, I talk about the distribution of save points and life regeneration points. To reach one point will be dirt easy, then next would require tons of enemies, tons of timed jumps, and a chase scene, which would sometimes takes forever. Also of note is the fact that life upgrades are harder to find. If you want the "good" ending, you've got to get all the life upgrades. This either requires you to get lucky (good luck with that), follow a walkthrough, which isn't fun, or backtrack a lot and do a lot of random searching. Either way, it's boring and I didn't even bother.
Finally, there are some huge glitches. One caused me to lose about twenty minutes or work, and another would have forced me to restart if I didn't keep multiple save games on my memory cards. Two huge bugs discovered in my first try. Talk about a rushed game.
All in all, it's a pretty good game, but a little too much like every other game out there. A bad direction for the series, but it still has a bit of the Sands of Time magic to make it very enjoyable.
Pros:
Incredible atmosphere
Controls are still pretty intuitive for the puzzles
Great concept of travelling the same Palace in two different times
Good Videos
No walkthrough or guide needed for most of the game
Cons:
Repetitive, dull, and an unnecessary large amount of fighting
Cameras angles still lacking, especially during timed action
Unbalanced game
Needless backtracking
Needless Mature rating.
Useless Map
Huge glitches
Guitar Riffs don't work well
Time to complete: 20 hours
Difficulty level: Medium/Low (on Easy)
Frustration level: Medium
7 of 7 found the following review helpful:
i don't care what people say, the darker the better.Dec 17, 2005
By ryobe2k5
"Ryan"
first of all, this game is definitely one of my all time favorites. I got hooked into the genre by playing SOT, which was a good game, but in my opinion could have had just a little bit more edge, which is what they did with this game. It could be that i'm just a sucker for the new free-form fighting system, in which you can pull off a slew of ridiculously awesome looking combos,or the fact that it's just dark in general. I don't want to steer anyone wrong though, SOT was great, i thought how they played the prince off as an innocent bystander of the vizier's twisted little plan was good, even possibly legendary, but honestly this is a different time period in the prince's life...it's not even realistic to claim that he wouldn't be battle-scarred after all those years. So personally i think the change is good and thats all i have to say about that.
So anyways, moving on...if you haven't played it yet and have also played the first one, what are the changes?? Well quite obviously as previously stated it has much more edge, it has some sexual themes, which honestly i don't even think are really life-changing, a teen could most definitely handle it, and the prince is much darker and battle-scarred in this one, which i think is great. Also, the added some more obstacles like the wall run rope and the curtain sliding thing. There are also some chase scenes and some godsmack to go along with em. The videos are cooler, the obstacles are harder, and i think it takes a little more thought, you really gotta look around sometimes. But without a doubt the biggest change is the free-form fighting system.
So...why complicate a game with numerous combos, when you can just have a couple......i'll answer this just by saying because it gives the game flair, edge, and by god it just looks really cool. You know what, if you dont like em, dont use em. thats what i say. you can stick to the same moves that you used in the previous game if you really wanna, but why? if you hit random buttons you can make something look cool so why not? give it a shot...reach into that inner gamer thats a sucker for sweet looking moves and just try it for gosh sakes!!! personally, i like knowing what combination of buttons is gunna make the move look like, so i just memorize, but you dont have to and thats why its great.
OK, so what is with the chase scenes...why complain? i didnt have a problem getting through any of them, personally i like them because they make you think quick, which may make it harder, but come on!! you should know when you signed up for this that you are going to be thinking just a little...this is POP, not like dynasty warriors, in which you just kill everyone. its gunna take some thought so why not make you think fast, it keeps you on your toes. Plus, i don't know about you but the "i stand alone" chase theme definitely should pump you up, a little metal never hurt anyone.
ok...the one flaw...expanding your life...this wasn't easy. I'm going to be completely honest. I cheated and looked at a walkthrough. When someone tells me the ending is going to be cooler if you get all of these i gotta do it even if that means cheating a little. Even when you get to the rooms that expand your lifes the traps are pretty friggin hard i'm not going to lie..it just takes some time, but, what doesn't these days.
alrite so finally all i have to say is ignore the rumors that they made the POP genre look bad, its not true, if you like cute little prince's running through palace's with a princess stick to SOT i guess, i don't know why people get so overeasy about the M rating but its REALLY NOT THAT BAD. Its better :)
so go and by it at your nearest video game store today, at least before you get the third one ;)
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
Far from beating it...but wow!Dec 12, 2004
By Brett Corkins I don't write reviews for games very much, well actually I never have. But for this one I couldn't help but write one. This is by far the best adventure game I have ever played, for any system. The sword play is simply breath taking and the storyline is about as good as it gets.
Basically the whole plot is that the Prince has to go back in time to destroy the Sands of Time, but while doing so you're being chased by an unbeatable creature called the Dahaka that is trying to kill you. You are also met with a slew of other twists and puzzles that truly test your skills.
Everything about this game is amazing, the acting, voice-overs, plot, action, and gameplay. The thing that I like most about this is how you can incorporate poles, walls, and even the enemies while fighting. The powers you develop over the course of the game are also an enormous treat that actually help you, and that you will use. The graphics are also a thing to behold, the cutscenes when you kill people, may it be cutting them in half (horizontal and vertical), cutting off their head, or just stabbing them are just awesome. It all has just left me wanting more.
I reccommend everybody at least rent this because it is emense fun, and the terrific plot gets you involved to a point where you just want to keep playing just see what happens next.
7 of 8 found the following review helpful:
Fun, but long and flawedDec 27, 2004
By D. Wiley
"dw"
This game is more challenging than PoP Sands of Time, longer, and somewhat buggier. I enjoyed the time I spent with it, but very close to the end I was prevented from finishing by a known and widely reported bug. (A time portal fails to operate.) Apparently the solution is to start the game over from scratch, but I lack the time and heart do the whole thing again. The game also got stuck at a couple of other points, but restoring from a saved game got around those glitches.
I like the controls in this game better than previous versions. I didn't find myself struggling to get some ultra-finicky key sequence just right. On the other hand, there are many more sequences to memorize. You don't need to know them all, but you will need more than a handful to make it through the fighting. A couple of good moves just won't cut it. This version of the game is definitely heavier on fighting and lighter on puzzles than previous versions, but it still has plenty of both.
One suggestion for people just starting: keep a map and notes. Later in the game you will be asked to navigate to various places by name. I remembered the places, but had not the foggiest idea of how to get to them. The game map is almost completely useless for this, although it will tell you where you are and where you are trying to get. Without a good memory or a good map, getting back to a particular room could be a tedious exercise at best. I resorted to an online walk-through as a memory refresher a couple of times.
On the whole I liked it, but was somewhat disappointed that I didn't get to finish.
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
You won't want to stop!May 15, 2005
This game is fantastic!I mean, you get to slash enemys in half, use stealth for a sneaky fight,you get to walk on walls, and much much more.I like how you can replenish your health by simply drinking a handful of water. The rewind button is cool, so if you snuff it, you can go a little ways back without restarting the whole level.There are so many sweet characteristics for this game, it's almost impossible to list them all. I wouldn't recommend this game game to young children though, with all the profanity and blood and stuff like that. I would have rated this game this game T for teen, if it didn't have all the stuff listed above.But overall, I think this game deserves five stars.
based on 104 reviews
( 104 customer reviews )
