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> Results: Prince of Persia: Warrior Within
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"When a man knows he is going to die, the impossible doesn't seem so hard." That's a fitting quote for our embattled prince. Prince of Persia: Warrior Within picks up where Sands of Time left off: the prince is now hunted by a dark beast called the Dahaka who is intent on making the prince face his fate and imminent death. To defeat this creature of darkness, he must travel to a mysterious island where the Sands of Time were created and stop the Empress of Time. Have you figured out that you'll be time traveling yet?
This is a gorgeous game. As you travel back and forth through time, the fortress that you must infiltrate changes both in feel and structure in the past. At the height of the Empress' power, the palace is shown in warm tones and lit by fire. In the present, the fortress is crumbling and overgrown. There are lots of little details here and there, a little sand trickling down the ledge you just barely grabbed, dust coming off the flag poles, even being able to run under the curtains and drag them on your head a little (hey I got distracted). Warrior Within sounds good too. Similar to Tomb Raider, the music does not play constantly, only right before a battle or other conspicuous event. Speaking of the music, it is a hard rock/heavy metal mixture, with just a touch of far eastern flavor mixed in. The prince moves very fluidly. The animation for the bad guys seems to suffer though.  Warrior Within takes a different stylistic turn than some of the past installments of Prince of Persia. This is much more violent than any of the others. There is a lot more focus on fighting and destroying your enemies than in past games. Fortunately, as in past games, the fighting is as much fun as the exploration. There is a new battle system, referred to as free-form fighting. Mash in the right combo and the prince will slash, flip, twist and dismember his way through enemies. I don't know about free-form, but it is extremely fun and easy to learn. Every thing from simple slashes, to Matrix inspired wall runs ending in a back flip followed by a slick decapitation. The awesome "time rewind", "time slow" and "time stop" powers return again to help both in the battles and the devious platform and environmental puzzles Prince of Persia is known for showcasing. 
Okay, now for the bad part - someone there needs a girlfriend. Egad! Not even 5 minutes into the game and I have a leather-clad, g-string wearing warrior attacking me. I hadn't even laid sword to enemy before the game shows off its M-rating. Later on, I ran into another lady (of the night?) dressed in red, with a neckline down to her belly button. The game is also super-violent. Maybe it's not as bad as Manhunt, but far worse than other Prince of Persia games. Decapitation, bisection, being impaled on a spike, eek! There is an option to turn off the blood in the display options, but um, there are still all those heads flying around! Perhaps they should have included a modesty option too.
This is a great game. Unfortunately, it earned its M rating. Prince of Persia Warrior Within is definitely not one for the kids based both on the challenge and the content. Younger players insisting on swashbuckling and daring do let me recommend Gamer Dad's Game of the Year from 2003, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time or, even further back to Prince of Persia on the Super Nintendo. Sorry kids, this one's for the Gamer DAD. Kid Factor by Wayne Belton Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us | Buy This Game Browse Amazon.com's selection of "Prince of Persia" themed games Home > Review Archive > Video Games > Results: Prince of Persia: Warrior Within |
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