Darker, yes. but still a great follow up to SOT
User Rating: 8.8 | Prince of Persia: Warrior Within PS2
After just one year of playing POP: sands of time, the prince is back again in prince of Persia warrior within. So what is it about this game that makes it different from the sands of time? Well, not much really, but there’s enough to make it new, lively, and still VERY appealing to sands of time fans. Warrior within is basically the sands of time with a darker twist. A very dark, mature, decapitation loaded, twist. It speaks about how the prince must change his fate, and destroy the sands to do it. There is a major flaw in the story however. The prince of Persia is in fact, not the prince of Persia at all. Actually, he is the prince of Babylon. Babylon was, and still is, a city that was located in Mesopotamia, which is modern day Iraq. There is no such thing as Babylon in Persia, and as proof that this is Iraq, the tower of Babel is shown in the introduction of the game, and that is only found in Babylon Mesopotamia. Given the ridiculous amount of stress that the prince put on being the “Prince of Persia”, I was wondering if Ubisoft actually took the time to do their homework :P But anyways, back to the details: the graphics in this game are enhanced graphics from the sands of time. There is more lighting in the game, and the prince’s face model looks significantly different this time around. Goodbye fairytale world and hello raging hell. The graphics run on the same engine as SOT but everything is given a darker tone. Lighting and shading both help make everything creepier. The animations in the game are also very well done, especially the prince’s acrobatic fighting maneuvers. Moving onto sound, as you all know, Monica bellucci does the voice of Kaileena. So her voice sounds decent. The prince only ahs a few lines in which he sounds like a robot and the rest of the sounds run and match fairly well with the environment. This time the combat system has gotten a complete makeover. As you play through the game, you will be able to look at a combo list which gives you pages over pages of moves you can perform. It’s certainly not repetitive like SOT at all. And if you thought SOT was too easy for you, then you’re in for a major butt-kicking in warrior within because the enemies are HARD, AND THEY DON’T GET EASIER AT ALL TRUST ME. And one of the best features is the game length. The story spans anywhere from 15 –20 hours of gameplay, maybe a bit less if you’re an SOT genius, but it is still MUCH longer than SOT could ever hope to be. And that length is filled up with some very interesting and intriguing plot twists so you’re not running though 500 rooms to get one extra small story element. Some people say that the middle portion of the game slows things down or makes the pace very slow. After hearing this, I played through the entire game, waiting for that “middle” part, but to me it never came. It seems to be a matter of opinion. The story is decently told so unless you want action 24/7, you won’t find that “middle”. Overall, prince of Persia warrior within serves to be a very true sequel to SOT minus the dark theme. Still, make no mistake, this is still a very good, and very much worth you time game. 
