Warrior Within is just as good, if not better than it's predecessor.
The Bad: The prince turned into a Kratos wanna-be – Hard rock music doesn't really fit – Some small graphical glitches – Backtracking can be annoying
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Introduction:
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Warrior Within is the sequel to the much acclaimed Sands of Time, and if you're wondering how the prince changed from a peaceful, charming guy to a generic badass then the answer is because of Ubisoft.
Yes Sands of Times was critically acclaimed, but it didn't sell well enough, so Ubisoft decided to give this game a "God of War" feel to boost sales and while the darker prince is a little bland and only a Kratos wanna-be, the rest of the changes actually improve the overall atmosphere and give it a mature feel that the previous one didn't have.
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Presentation: 8/10
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The game's darker tone is present everywhere, so people will think that it lost the charm of Sands of Time, it can be true in some ways, certain things such as the prince's more agrgessive attitude, the hard rock music and the dialogue are not necessarily welcome, for example early in the game the prince will scream to his enemy: "you b**ch!" he also yells out things like "is that the best you got?" during battles. The game is also heavy on sexualization of female characters and looses the persian-inspired soundtrack.
But other things are wonderfully done, the voice actors are great, the cutscenes and graphics are amazing, though there's something that doesn't look quite good, but more on that latter. Warrior Within also includes more gore and violence, which is actually good because it makes combat more realistic.
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Story & Characters: 8/10
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Seven years after Sands of Time, the prince finds himself followed by a creature called Dahaka, who is some kind of Guardian of the timeline, and since the prince escaped his fate and survived, he know has to kill him and restore order to the timeline.
The prince finds a way to stop the Dahaka by going to the island of time and going to the past to kill the Empress of time and like that preventing the sands from being created.
He sets sail to the island, but soon his ship is attacked by Shadee, a mysterious woman. The ship is destroyed and all his crew is dead, but the prince manages to survive and drifts ashore on the Island.
This huge island includes a castle and is now up to him to go in there a find the Empress, kill her and survive. Overall a great story, but is not memorable.
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Gameplay: 9/10
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The core platforming elements of the game are mostly unchanged and the prince still is really acrobatic. So if you've played the first one you'll be running across walls, jumping from ledges, swinging from ropes, avoiding traps and such before you know it. And the environmental puzzles are harder and better done than last time. Exploring is the core of the game and it's more enjoyable this time thanks to the brilliant level design, this castle is huge and un-linear, it's sad though, that the map is so poorly done, it does tell you were to go but since it lacks any real detail you don't really know how to get there, so you'll be wondering around a lot.
You can also travel in time, much like in Ocarina of Time, so you get to see different ares in two time periods, this is great because all areas are wonderfully created, but it does add a little bit of backtracking and that can be annoying. And the prince keeps all his sand powers from the previous game, like the ability to rewind and stop time, you can't freeze enemies any more though, because it lacks the dagger of time.
The real change in gameplay is the new battle system, now the prince has dozens of new moves and combos, these variate depending on whether you have one or two weapons. With only one weapon, the prince's left hand is free so you can grab opponents and throw them, or cut their necks, or simply choke them to death, but the combos are less effective. With two weapons the combos are far more powerful but you lack the ability to grab opponents, you can always throw your second weapon to the opponent though. You can also use the environment to your advantage, you can bounce off walls to kill your enemies for example.
It also helps that the enemies are harder this time and like i said there's more gore, making the kills seem more realistic and visceral. Also new to the game are the boss battles, which are not particularly great, or memorable, but at least they are there because Sands of Time didn't have any boss battle; and they are interesting enough to make you want to play them. Overall the fighting is incredibly satisfying, but it doesn't take much of the spotlight from the platforming, they are both incredibly balanced.
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Visuals: 9/10
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Warrior Within is just as good looking as it's predecessor, but there are a few changes in the art style, this time the game takes a more realistic approach to the environments, characters and design. All these changes are for the best because it looks wonderful, the little details and superb lighting effects that were present in Sands of Time still is here, and the animation is fantastic. But surprisingly, the development team didn't fix the clunky facial animations, and since this game looks more realistic, they are much creepier this time, there are also some graphical glitches that don't ruin the experience, but they are very noticeable
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Sound: 7/10
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Sound effects are wonderful and voice acting is fantastic no matter which language you choose (the game includes english, spanish and french). But the game drops the magnificent persian soundtrack and instead uses a Heavy Metal score, this is incredibly disappointing because it doesn't fit at all, except maybe during fights, but the game is not as atmospheric.
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Performance: 8/10
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Steady framerate and camera, great enemie AI regardless of the difficulty you choose, it never makes the game too easy or too hard; little loading times. On the bad side of things the game does have a few bugs and glitches.
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Replay Value: 8/10
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It's noticeably longer than it's predecessor taking somewhere between 10 to 20 hours to beat (depending on your experience and the difficulty) there are two endings, so you may want to replay it to get the other one and you can also unlock various art designs of the game during single player.
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Fun Factor: 9/10
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Extremely fun, the satisfying combat, great puzzles, awesome graphics and fantastic make this a highly addictive game.
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Appeal: 9/10
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The M rating surely helped boosting the sales for the game and it did sell better than Sands of time, the game gave the gamecube it's much needed mature action adventure game (it came out before Resident Evil 4), but it still is a worthy purchase today and holds up quite well, amazing game that you will enjoy.
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Tilt: 10/10
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The new mature look can be a curse sometimes, but in the end it's more of a blessing and the game improves many things over Sands of Time. One of the best action adventure titles ever and also one of the best games released on the gamecube in my opinion. Just as good, if not better than it's predecessor.