Buy Prince of Persia: Warrior Within™

Of the Sands of Time trilogy, Warrior Within is easily the most controversial of the bunch. Forgoing the whimsical Nights of Arabia theme of the much beloved Sands of Time, Warrior Within employs a much darker tone, replacing melodic instrumentals with blood pumping metal music, and an emperor’s majestic castle with that of some dreadful thing from a metal album cover. Gone, too, is the storybook hero known only as the Prince, who is now a curse spewing, murder loving psychopath, easy to anger and eager to slice open stomachs. Understandably, not all took a liking to the new Prince of Persia, and many either wrote it off or gave up after dying in the first 10 minutes, all while cursing the monsters at Ubisoft who would dare slight their beloved franchise so vehemently. I am ashamed to admit that while I did not join in the publisher bashing those many years prior, I did assume the many fans’ angers as legitimate. After having neglected the franchise for many years since the original, I have finally played through the trilogy’s entirety. Lo and behold, my judgment is thus: Warrior Within is the best of the Prince of Persia trilogy, and one of the most challenging and equally frustrating and rewarding titles I have ever had the pleasure of besting.

Where its predecessor, The Sands of Time, relied on linear level progression, a typically gradually increasing difficulty, and relatively basic (and easy) combat, Warrior Within features a (sort of) open world, varied weapons of combat, and enemies that will break your face if you’re not perfect. It also features a higher emphasis on combat than its predecessor, and some of the most frustrating puzzle and enemy design than any other game I’ve played in years. But understand what I mean by that. Warrior Within, for the entire duration, never held my hand. The moment I felt I had a handle on how to deal with an enemy type, a brand new exploding, near unavoidable dog animal thing would be introduced. Obviously, it wasn’t always an exploding dog thing, but you get the point. WW is never easy or gradual in its difficulty. It’s not typically fair, either, but it also never felt impossible, and that’s what made it fantastic. For comparison, while playing Demon’s Souls, I always felt in control of what I was doing, and typically only died if I was quick to run into a room before checking for barriers to hide behind, traps or tricky enemies in the shadows. WW will put you in a room and deal death unto you until you learn to deal with it, and the experience became infinitely rewarding upon besting said situations.

Puzzles don’t quite follow the same degree of difficulty that the combat does, but the challenge comes in unintended traversal. By puzzles, I refer to the Prince of Persia’s method of travel; running along walls, sliding down ropes and hanging banners, and avoiding the many, many spikes and saw blades inexplicably sticking out of walls. The open world aspect of Warrior Within allows you to re-visit any portion of the island that you’ve previously visited, and you don’t necessarily have to follow the same paths. However, the design of these pathways are sometimes altered by the game’s events, and even when they aren’t, traversal in any way different from the standard is a challenge in and of itself, as the developers clearly did not design these paths to be easily followed backwards (or forwards, for that matter), as you will have to do. Worse yet, enemy spawns remain, especially those ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ dogs I mentioned previously, the ones that can take half of your health. If this sounds frustrating to you, it should. But by the point you should even be considering doing anything like this, you will have already become invested in beating down this seemingly personal hell that the developers have created just for you.

I won’t divulge any of my secrets for passing through Warrior Within, and quite frankly, I would recommend any and all to refrain from guides as much as possible throughout (except for the collectibles, you’ll need a guide for those). Warrior Within is a truly brutal and often unfair achievement in sadistic game design. It’s also one of my most satisfying completions in the entirety of my gaming career. Nearly every instance of combat in this title will chew on your face and kick you in your ♥♥♥ until you really learn to play it. The learning curve can be steep and unfair, and you will want to quit. Don’t. There are no tricks to Warrior Within, and only your skill, and hopefully a share of dumb luck, will see you succeed. What faults it has, of which there are plenty, only add to the experience.

best game ever

Regardless of what everyone says, to me this is the most iconic Prince of Persia game and it surely will always have a place in my heart. Overall, it glitches a little from time to time, but it still holds its own in terms of gameplay, even with dated graphics. It is a great game.

Ubisoft, if you are out there, revamp this PoP trilogy!

The Assassin's Creed game before the Assassin's Creed series ever existed.

10/10

The second part of the amazing Prince of Persia trilogy. This time it's a whole lot different kind of adventure. No more fancy palace and no more romance in the air. This game tells you a different story.

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within is an excellent game that reveals its greatness as you progress. It starts off a bit run of mill with our moody hero slicing up bad guys, but things take a turn for the best when you get to the island. From here on it's a mind bending challenge after mind bending challenge - each more well thought out and engrossing than the last.

The graphics are very dark and atmospheric and the gameplay is great too. The Prince feels nice to control as he runs across walls, swings on poles and does tons of cool acrobatic tricks.

They made some huge changes to the fighting system. Now there are lots of combos and even enviormental kills. Now you can grab and throw enemies off ledges and over them.

The voice acting seems worse to me. Especially because Yuri Lowenthal's voice is gone.

The music is very different from the first game. This time it's all rock and metal, which I didn't really like. Because I'm not a fan of such. But it was necessary. The game forces you to run away from an dark, terrifying guardian of time named Dahaka. And the music is chosen well for this part of the game.

The game looks and feels awesome. The plot is a sick sticky web that makes you think fast and act faster. New powers and weapons are always nice to see in a game. And trust me, there are a lot of weapons here. Especially because the Prince can now Dual Wield.

Lots of secret areas, just like the first game. And some awesome hidden weapons too. You'll have to stray off course in order to find them.

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within is a challenging and fun game. It requires brawn, brains and an appreciation of wicked looking island. It doesn't beat the first game, but still...



10/10

The best game in the series without a doubt!
This is most definitely one of my favorite games from the PS2 and is still amazing to this date!

- Superb combat (Best in the series)
- Good story line
- Very fun gameplay
- Very interesting areas!
- Awesome story twists

All in all a game that should not be missed! 10/10

I've Completed it on PC, PSP, Mobile and PS2... Did I mention this game is awesome?

Combat and overall gameplay has been significantly improved over The Sands of Time. It makes for challenging and continuously engaging fight sequences broken up by exploring reliably beautiful environments. I can recommend Warrior Within because the combat in it's predecessor was in dire need of refinement and this game meets those needs thoroughly. However, I want to know exactly what was going through Ubisoft's collective heads when they thought changing the light hearted, funny, and romantic tone of The Sands of Time to the angry and serious tone in Warrior Within was a good idea. If you enjoyed the characterization and storytelling from the first game then you'll be sad to hear that neither of which make any sort of return in this game. However, If good combat and thrilling visuals sells it to you, then Warrior Within is certainly worth a look.

Prince Of Persia:
As a guy who have grown up with the POP series on the PS2, I can only say that the Prince Of Persia is one of the best games that Ubisoft have ever made. You can just play each game over and over again. Its really a classic.
+ The graphics (For the year each game came out) are good! Its really well made.
+ The control system and gameplay system are totally amazing! (Highly recommended to play on the PS2, with a PS controller.)
+ The story behind each game is very cool and good.
+ The soundtracks are really good.
This game is highly recommended, Its very fun and it worth every cent.

An amazing series, and its best piece. You cannot change your fate. No man can. 10/10

The best part of Prince of Persia for me. Balance of fairy tale and grim world was perfect here. Maybe Two Trones had speed-kills, but here you can find nice atmosphere and Dahaka, the Guardian of Time, who is downright scary.
P.S. Played it before steam was around.