n established series. A convoluted story. A myriad of different attacks. A million different ways to get lost. And a ready supply of sand. Combine all this and what do you get? The most annoying game you will ever play, yet quite possibly enjoy. Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, sequel to 2003�s brilliant remake of the classic series, is here, and not without some controversy.
Let's start from the beginning, shall we? You play as the Prince of the ancient kingdom of Persia. He is no stranger to the hells of battle, as he has survived the previous game and still lives to tell his weaving tale. However, his actions in Warrior Within�s predecessor, The Sands of Time, has caused the higher powers to take notice. A beast that guards all of time, and can destroy even the most powerful of warriors at a mere whim is awoken. And the Prince is it's next target.
To escape this beast, the Prince comes up with a plan to go to the Island of Time, and find a way to reshape time so that the aforementioned beast would cease to follow him. What follows is a very complicated plot, that will likely make you play the game three or four times just to wrap your head around it and comprehend everything. This gives it some very impressive replay value, as one might think, but the real challenge here is making it through the first playing without going into a rage.
You see, there are many things that will make you throw your controller at the wall in a fit of rage over and over again, until you eventually give up for your controller's sake. First on this list, and in fact one of only two things on this list is the previously covered plot, which has more twists and turns in it than a Slinky. The second is the unnerving feeling you get playing the game that you have no idea where the heck you're going.
Often in this game, you will be at a loss as to where to go next. When you stand in the middle of a room, and look around, finding that you're standing on a lone platform with very little hope of getting anywhere, you almost feel like curling up in a corner and quietly muttering to yourself until someone comes along and brings you back to your senses, so you can try again. Seriously though, the amount of times you'll feel as if you're reduced to a gibbering wreck will be nothing to the joy you'll feel when you do complete the puzzles, so you can move on.
It seems as if the developers of the modern Prince of Persia titles, Ubisoft Montreal, has to push thing to the extreme here. Extreme puzzles, where there's always a new way of combining the wide range of actions the Prince is capable of. Extreme angst, as the formerly mild-mannered Prince gets all angry on everybody. And extreme gameplay where you beat a puzzle only to fight droves of crazy simplified enemies.
Speaking of which, the actual gameplay, once you get past all the annoying things about this game, is one of the main reasons you should stick around to see it through. The battle system is expertly done, with any number moves available; from simple slashes to stealing weapons from enemies and using said weapons against them. Once you master it (which doesn't take long), you'll be using it as if you yourself are cutting through swathes of enemies.
The game's famous dual-wielding weapons system adds even more variety to the gameplay, and using a simple combination of only two buttons you'll see the Prince do things that will leave you gasping in awe. Also, when you pull off impressive kills, the game slows down to a Matrix-y slow-motion speed, giving you time to bask in the resulting bloody kill in all its glory, adding to the gameplay immersion. And, of course, the impressive acrobatic displays that the Prince can pull off not only helps to make the game even more attractive, but also provides the only means of getting through the game itself. Last, but by no means least, the manipulation of time that is so central to the game adds nothing but more intriguing aspects to the gameplay, and when you combine the effects of slowing time with the incredible, and incredibly gory, attacks the Prince can pull off, you've got a surefire recipe for catastrophe.
The graphics are pretty nicely done, and since the game is a fairly recent release, the game is not very eye-gougingly painful to look at. The tone is a lot darker than that of previous games in the series, which fits in nicely with the tone and the urgency of the storyline, though it may shock at first. The enemies you will face, as well as the couple of main NPC characters in the story are nicely fleshed out, and look impressive. Both groups seem to fit in well with their roles. Fitting with the dark tone, the Prince, fresh off of Beloved Characters Extreme Makeover, has a brooding, dangerous and lonely personality, and the looks to match. You will grasp this fact the moment you see him, and is a big change from the last game, for sure, but it can be dealt with.
The environments are beautifully rendered, and even though they are extremely aggravating to progress through, they look good enough to at least alleviate the anger of getting past them somewhat. The sound and music also help to do this, although music is only a background to the action. Indeed, the sound effects will comprise most of what you hear - and they are excellent. Slashes are satisfying to hear, and his time-manipulating powers sound as if you could believe they are happening. And while this doesn't sound like much, it's the highest accolade I could give.
The game�s music rounds off what is, in fact, a wonderful game to play. If you were just looking for an action game to run around in, killing things, you'd be hard pressed to find a better game than this. The actual gameplay is refined almost to the point of perfection. It's just that when the developers tried to give this game a purpose (and a darker, deeper theme), they sullied it, and consequentially hid all of the game�s shining moments behind a curtain of cheesy attempts at being "cool".
Indeed, the overriding experience of this game is one of pity. If you ever get around to finishing this game, you'll think "What a relief", and then experience a brief moment of sadness for what the game could have been. It could have been an epic, if only the game wasn't so�draining. Yes, that's what this game is. It's an effort, a task. A task that occasionally feels like fun and, when you get down to the points of the game where you don't have to worry about anything but surviving attacks or proceeding along, is a fantastic game to play. It's just the moments that you get to a point where you have to work out what to do next, that's when the game becomes a chore. And when a game becomes a chore, people don't want to play it. It�s just not fun.
Despite itself, Warrior Within somehow manages to ruin the excellent features lying hidden beneath it's gritty surface. You absolutely will not find a better game like this anywhere else, period. This game is a test in patience, and I'm afraid it's a test that many gamers would likely fail. But if you can push through Warrior Within, you will find the masterpiece within.
