Show no mercy
User Rating: 9.5 | Prince of Persia: Warrior Within PS2
There have been precious few times when I've been so utterly addicted to a game. The last time a game pulled me into its world so deeply that I played it faithfully until it was all over was perhaps when I played Beyond Good and Evil. Or Ico. Very few games have done this. Not even Halo has done this to me. Not many people bought the original and its highly unlikely that this next installment will sell well either. They're missing out. Warrior Within takes everything that made the first game a blast and improves upon it. Yeah. Sure. The Gamespot review gives this game a lower score than the first, saying that this one doesn't have the first one's storybook feel and that this one is only interested in feeling darker and grittier. And certain fans of the original might severely resist this darker, moodier feel in the way that certain fans of Ocarina of Time resisted the change to a cartoony look for Wind Waker. I honestly don't see what the big deal is. So long as the elements work and the core aspects remain faithful to the franchise, there's nothing wrong with a shift in feel every once in a while. Here in Warrior Within, you've still got the clever traps and puzzles that defined the series since its very early days. And those traps and puzzles are still just as wicked as ever. Since every artifact and stone and piece of scenery smoothly blends with everything else, you'll often find yourself looking around trying to figure out what you can climb up, where you can fall from without killing yourself, how far you can jump, and whether you should use a jump or a wall run. The Prince has a wide range of abilities and the traps and puzzles will push every single one of those abilities to the limit. But trust me, it won’t be long before you truly start to feel like an acrobatic, kick butt warrior. Many games try to give you a shot of adrenaline. Many other games try to go for a cinematic feel. Few games combine both to give you a gung ho, balls to the wall, Matrix Reloaded type feel like Prince of Persia does. Not even the so called ninja games like Shinobi seem to produce that same sense of style and elegance. Which brings us to the battle system. This has also been improved from the original. Sure. This time the Prince is lopping off heads. But blood and gore aside, Prince of Persia is all about Xena-like fighting and taking on multiple attackers at once. Warrior Within infuses an ingenious fighting system in which one opening action branches out to several possible actions, each of which can open up other possibilities. Slashing, backflipping, vaulting, rebounding off walls, breaking your enemy's back, taking their weapons. . . .it's all here. Combat is fast and responsive looks like how it's done in the movies. The only problem is that the system is so elaborate that people who tend to button mash might find themselves in trouble. Once you've locked yourself into a certain sequence, the character animations continue on until the chain is over. And determing the difference between the action that leaps you over an enemy and the one that rebounds you off his chest is sometimes difficult. Graphics have been much improved over the original. Gone are the simplified polygons. In its place are textured character models, a dark gritty atmosphere, and vast and beautiful Myst-like vistas. There's nothing quite like climbing up some stairs and seeing the camera angle shift to give you a view of an elaborate castle. The only department that suffers is the sound. The effects are top notch, but the soundtrack. . . I mean Godsmack? Ew! And of course the whole time manipulation thing is here and used to great effect(including areas where you must slow down time to proceed), so people who found this element to be gimmicky the first time around might want to stay away from this game. And contrary to what Gamespot's review says, there is a good story in this latest one, appearing in the form of brilliant cutscenes and mysterious characters you chase around. So what if it's dark and tosses out the odd curse word? To sum it up, Prince of Persia: Warrior Within is a fantastic game that's equal parts adrenaline and brains. It's still doesn't come close to another game with the initials WW, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, but it's still a masterpiece all the same.
