Prince of Persia: Warrior Within

Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher:  Ubisoft
Played on: Prince of Persia TRILOGY HD

The sequel to the excellent Sands of Time was very off-putting for a lot of people, the main reason being the artistic and thematic changes, now, going from a storybook feel to a more violent and heavy metal themed adventure, this was probably used as a ploy to sell more copies.

In this game, the Prince is being hunted by a monster known as the Dahaka, this mythical beast is trying to undo all the changes in the timestream created by our main character in the previous game, so he travels to the Island of time, where he hopes to undo all of the chaos that he created in both games.

For some reason the Prince's voice actor changed (why?), to be fair he does a good job at portraying a darker character, but I miss the old Prince, but to me, the real issue is the fact that Farrah is not in this game (Nooooo!), instead having been replaced with Kayleena, a very attractive but also very boring and cliché character who gets very little screen time, she also happens to be voiced by famous Hollywood actress Monica Belucci, though she really doesn't add anything to the role that any decent actress wouldn't be able to replicate, it's just a shame that all the smart and whimsical dialog from the first game was instead replaced with dark and broody inner monologues from the Prince itself with the occasional swearing.

Luckily, not all of the changes in this game were as off-putting, for starters the combat received a much needed (albeit violent) upgrade, you can now pull off dozens of new moves, my favorite being the decapitation and use different swords. The platforming also received some subtle upgrades, they're barely worth mentioning and that's a good thing really, if it's not broke, don't fix it, I also like how you can return to previous areas you've been to and look for secrets, giving the game an almost sandbox feel to it

I can't say I fully understand the changes made to the series, but if I judge the game by its own merits I have to say I enjoyed it about as much as its predecessor for different reasons, yes the dialog was pretty much your typical standard fare, but at least the plot itself was much tighter and even had a few interesting twists, the combat was much improved and the platforming is still VERY fun, but the locations weren't nearly as interesting and the heavy metal soundtrack was a bit hit and miss, overall it's still a great entry to the series that gets a bit too much hate from fans of the first game.

Trivia: Did you know the creator of the original Ms-Dos Prince of Persia did not work on this title? He also mentioned he "wasn't a fan" of the artistic and tonal changes.

Pros:
- Platforming is still fun
- Quasi-sandbox feel to the game
- Combat was vastly improved
- The soundtrack isn't as good as Sands of time, but it's still good
- I actually like the Heavy Metal feel to the game

Cons:
- But not everyone will, enjoy the changes to the feel and pacing of the game
- Prince? Is that you? Why do you act nothing like you did before?
- Good God Shadee, put some clothes on!

Final Grade: A-

Packaging review: Found in the Prince of Persia TRILOGY HD review