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Prince Of Persia: Warrior Within Playstation 2 Ubisoft  When
'Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time' was released in 2003 it was
met with much praise; and rightly so. No other game has matched the
simplistic yet immersive control system that's used to guide the Prince
through the many environmental puzzles and traps provided throughout
the highly detailed levels. And of course, the Sands of Time mechanic
was pure genius. Using a special sword, the Prince was able to shift
time, so if you screwed up royally, you could reverse back to where
you messed up and try again.The beloved Prince is back in 'Warrior Within' and this time he's pissed! After screwing with time, he's been followed by the Dahaka, an Iron Maiden album cover wannabe that serves fate and will pursue the Prince until he is dead. Desperate, the Prince heads to the Island of Time so he can go to the past and stop the Sands of Time from ever being created (and steal the sports guide from the evil Biff Tannen... er, hold on...). The most noticeable difference with 'Warrior Within' is that it has a much darker look and feel. The blue hues of 'Sands Of Time' are now much earthier, the Prince looks like a Persian Snake Pliskin, and even the music will make you seriously consider giving your virgin soul to the gods of thunder and rock'n'roll. The combat is also much bloodier, including decapitations and body slicing, which is slowed down to give even more of a gore-ific effect. The Prince has the ability to travel back and forth in time via special rooms scattered throughout the game. Levels will change accordingly depending on the time period: pristine fortress rooms in the past are collapsed ruins in the present. This means that the paths that you can take in each room will vary depending on the time period. This has added a welcome new level of puzzle solving to the series. 'Warrior Within' also sees the Prince versed with a bunch of new combat moves, including duel weapon attacks. This is by far the biggest improvement over 'Sands Of Time': the prince is now capable of many different single and dual weapon combos. With a single weapon, you can grab enemies and throw them into their buddies. Dual-wielding disables throwing but lets you perform much more powerful combos, and once you tire of your secondary weapon you can throw it at enemies for some sweet impaling action. There's also a new pole-swinging attack that lets you slice and dice numerous enemies at once. As in 'Sands Of Time' the prince has the ability to rewind, slow down, and speed up time. There are additional abilities that'll deal out damage to multiple enemies in combat. All these moves are limited by sand slots, which can be recharged by defeating enemies in combat or by breaking open jars and other items. When I began playing 'Warrior Within' I was worried that Ubisoft may have lost some of the superb atmosphere and energy of the 'Sands Of Time', but thankfully I was wrong: it's all there, and in some areas there have even been improvements. This is easily one of the best releases of 2004 and is definitely worthy of your hard-earned pennies.  |
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