The first game in the rebooted Prince of Persia franchise ended in a manner that did not suggest that there would be a sequel. Yet, this did not deter attempts to make one.
However, in an attempt to concoct a narrative excuse for a sequel, the story-writers for Warrior Within had introduced new plots and themes that are so much moodier and harsher than those of previous Prince of Persia games.
Players who have fond memories of the previous games' charm and fairy-tale-like settings would not be pleased at all, and there would be more displeasure to come when they come across the other aspects of the story, which can be considered as thematically opposite, perhaps to the point of being anathema.
After the very dark and anger-filled intro movie has described the deadly otherworldly force that is pursuing the Prince for having messed around with time in the previous game and what he intends to do to lift his curse, the player is thrust into the main menu. It is set amidst an animated background, which is a nice method of presentation. However, the moody music and atmosphere of the main menu would be a reminder of the harsh themes of the game.
The game starts by having the Prince fighting off enemies that are attacking his ship, which was en route to the fabled Island of Time. This serves as a tutorial that teaches the player the basics of combat.
Later, the player is introduced to Warrior Within's take on the time-rewinding mechanic of the franchise. The player can still rewind time, having the game reversing its processing instructions and undo everything that has happened over several seconds. The difference this time around is that the number of rewinds that are available are fewer, which means that the player can only suffer fewer mistakes before encountering the game reload screen.
This is not to the benefit of the rebooted Prince of Persia franchise, which made its name on its time-rewind game mechanism that was a lot more intuitive and convenient as a tool to reverse mistakes than game reloads are. Of course, one can bring up the (fictional) fact that the Prince is no longer using the Dagger of Time but rather another mystical time-warping bauble that is canonically not as powerful, but this is just a thematic excuse.
In the previous game, there were two different reservoirs of sand for different sets of powers, which was convenient. In Warrior Within, the various time-bending powers have to compete with each other for the same reserves of sand.
Of course, one can argue that combat is a lot more challenging in Warrior Within than in Sands of Time, but this is not necessarily an overall good change. The player has to focus more on pulling off efficient combos of moves than using time-bending powers to overcome enemies, which does little to differentiate the game from so many other action platforming games.
Another difference that Warrior Within has compared to its predecessor is that enemies no longer need to be dealt the coup de grace to have them defeated for good. Mystical enemies that yield magical sand upon defeat will do so as soon as their health has been depleted; there is no need to stab them with the Dagger of Time – not that it is in the game anyway. Enemies that are slain crumple to the ground as bloody corpses, while releasing sand that the Prince automatically collects.
There appears to be fewer sand tanks that are available for use than in the previous game. This gives less room for mistakes during platforming segments of the game. It also forces the player to engage in battles with enemies to regain sand, which can be an inconvenience; there are few other sources of sand that are not from enemies. (However, these other sources generally refill the Prince's sand reserves to full, which is convenient.)
Speaking of sources of sand, the previous game had mystical whirls of sand that act as save-points that replenish sand tanks as well as health, which was convenient as they often occur before tough battles and protracted platforming sequences. However, in the sequel, water basins, which were mere health replenishing stations in Sands of Time, are now save-points instead. They replenish health, but not sand. In addition, where the save-points in the previous game gave clues on what the player has to do to progress, the save-points in the sequel do not.
This is to the detriment of the game, because there are no other forms of reminders in addition to brief statements of the player's objectives in the menu that the player can bring up during play. There are the cutscenes that play when the player character enters a new area for the first time that gives the player a view of the layout of the current area, but otherwise there is nothing else to inform the player of what needed to be done to progress.
Enemies respawn if the player reloads a game or leaves one area and re-enters it, which is handy if the player wants to regain sand. However, that the player has to engage in battle regularly to regain sand would eventually cause the appeal of combat to diminish; there will be more elaboration on this later.
That the game does not apparently have many kinds of enemies to fight seemingly compounds this flaw. However, the more discerning players will notice that this is fortunately not exactly the case. Although enemies start out reasonably manageable, the same kinds of enemies, or more precisely, enemies with the same models, will become noticeably more difficult as the game progresses. They block and dodge more often, requiring the player to introduce some variety into his/her combos to catch them off guard, especially by making use of the environment (such as bounding off walls) and parrying more often.
(In fact, there is a lot to suggest that the enemies that the Prince fights may be the same ones that he fought earlier. For example, there is one particular enemy that recurs in the game and whose taunts suggest that it is the same one that the Prince has seemingly vanquished earlier. On the other hand, a player can see this as a narrative hole in the plot.)
The same tactics won't work against every enemy; when the player realizes this and has the Prince suffering nasty counters as a result, this is a cue for the player to rewind time and learn from the setback. This is certainly a practical improvement over the previous game, which can be won by vaulting over enemies incessantly and attacking them while they are staggered. Enemies also happen to attack in groups simultaneously, so the player has to time attacks more wisely than he/she would have to in Sands of Time, which had more hesitant enemies.
There are also some large enemies with specific weak points that have to be hit to weaken them. These are not uniquely new enemies, of course, but they are somewhat new to the Prince of Persia franchise; more variety is generally good in this case.
The bosses in the game are a lot more skilled than the usual enemies, such that many moves do not work against them. The player has to figure out which moves can still be used and at which moments, which means that there has to be some trial-and-error (and time-rewinding) to figure out the best tactics, if one is not inclined to simply resort to guides. Such boss battles are not poorly designed of course; they are indeed challenging enough to be considered competent. However, having to listen to the angry taunts and retorts being thrown back-and-forth can be grating as the player chisels away at the boss's life meter.
The Prince's weapons are split into two categories: primary and secondary. Primary weapons are usually of some importance to the story. Throughout his quest, the Prince will encounter special swords that he will appropriate; his previous sword is unceremoniously ditched (which may not please fans of the previous game who appreciated the once-milder Prince). These newer swords are more powerful than previous ones, as the player would realize after noticing that the newer sword is more effective on enemies that have already debuted.
The secondary weapons are more mundane, but more common as they can be obtained from slain enemies. Like primary weapons, there are newer and more powerful ones that will be introduced as the game progresses, but unlike primary weapons, they can degrade from repeated use and eventually break; the Prince unceremoniously chucks these away too, when they are no longer usable. Alternatively, the player can choose to discard a secondary weapon early by throwing it at enemies, which is certainly a much more entertaining option.
Regardless, it is in the player's interest to carry a secondary weapon into battle as frequently as possible, as attacks made using two weapons have a lot more damage output than attacks made using only the primary weapon. Different weapons also offer different ways of getting the upper hand on enemies, such as blunt weapons that offer the opportunity to knock down foes and swords that offer combos that allow the player to blow through enemy defences. On the other hand, dual-wielding animations are slightly longer than those for attacks made using a single weapon.
Yet, the player that chooses not to use a secondary weapon would not be missing out. The Prince's free hand can be used to grab enemies to heave them around, or to shove them into other enemies or nearby hazards, like inexplicable spikes on walls, which can lead to rather nasty deaths for enemies.
Speaking of nasty deaths, combat is a lot bloodier in the sequel. Whereas the previous game had next to no bloodletting, largely because the enemies in Sands of Time are entirely undead, the ones in Warrior Within are still somewhat mortal; they certainly bleed and spill gore when the Prince takes them apart. Another example of the more violent combat is that the player can opt to have an enemy that is being grabbed strangled, if he/she/it happens to be all alone and is not of superhuman strength.
Although the nastier visuals would entertain players who like having enemies suffer agonizing deaths, players who preferred the milder and more reserved Prince in Sands of Time would not like the more brutal Prince in Warrior Within.
The platforming segment of Warrior Within is not practically different from that in Sands of Time. The Prince has not lost any of his alacrity, and can still wall-run, swing, vault and jump with gusto. There does not appear to be any new kinds of acrobatics to be had, but there is a lot of attention given to designing puzzles that require timely use of time-slowing powers (pun not intended). Sequences that require these powers would have been fun if the player always has enough sand for them, but as mentioned earlier, the player has to gather sand, usually by defeating enemies. Only a few sequences have the convenience of chests or jars that are full of sand nearby for the player to replenish sand reserves with.
There is a minor addition to the platforming gameplay; certain sequences have the Prince going against an agile enemy that can perform the same acrobatic moves that he can, often when he has to move across precarious places. These are very quick encounters that require perfect timing; failing simply has the Prince plummeting to his doom, unless the player expends some sand to rewind time. Initially, they can be exhilarating as they are a strong reminder that the Prince is not the only one that is agile, though they can become a nuisance if the player wants to get to somewhere quickly.
There are also more aesthetically pleasing visual indications that the Prince has gotten somewhere such that he can no longer backtrack. In the previous game, these are usually platforms that curiously fall away just after the Prince has stepped off them or doors that close behind him; although these are still in the sequel too, there are newer indicators like the Prince carving up tapestries to slow his descent down walls.
The main difference that the platforming segment in the sequel has compared to that in Sands of Time is thematic in nature. The story has the protagonist journeying back and forth different eras to overcome obstacles through chronological logic and the law of cause and effect. This is nothing new in video games of course, but it is still something that adds to the franchise. However, the player should not be expecting intrigue from this theme such as that seen in the Soul Reaver games; most of the utilization of this theme is for purposes of puzzle-solving and visual designs.
However, as mentioned earlier, the lack of reminders of the path that the Prince needs to take can be a cause for frustration, especially if the player does not wish to watch the cutscenes (likely because he/she is not enamoured with the unpleasant Prince and the general harshness of the characters in this game). That the player has to go through respawning enemies when backtracking or wandering about adds to the problem; eventually, the wiser of players would just run past enemies when it is expedient to do so, or just toss them off into hazards to get rid of them quickly if the player has to fight them.
It should also be noted here that said enemies are not scripted to be smart enough to pursue the player character up ledges and platforms; not even the dexterous ones would. However, many enemies happen to have ranged attacks that they will certainly use if the Prince is within range while he is climbing up something. Getting hit means that the Prince loses his footing/balance, slips/fumbles and falls. Therefore, the player must get rid of them before he/she can have the Prince negotiating any nearby platforming segment.
Fortunately, the game does not resort to contrivances like magical barriers that trap the Prince into one area until he clears a bunch of enemies.
There is a map that shows the general layout of the Island of Time and where the Prince is and the general location of his destination, but which doorways and corridors to take is not shown clearly on the map. This would not have been a problem if the Island of Time is just a flat plane with no verticality (which would have been a bore), but it is not; there are tall towers that the Prince has to scale to get to a bridge that he needs to run across, staircases with a few exits to different locations in between their ends and other architecture that the map does not show well.
On the other hand, this does encourage observation on the part of the player, which would make the art direction of the game easier to appreciate. More observation on the part of the player also helps in spotting the secrets in the game, which are the upgrades for the player character's life meter.
Speaking of life meter upgrades, the ones in the sequel are more engaging in gameplay terms than the ones in the previous game, but the mysticism of the previous ones are not in the successors. Instead of a surreal landscape that the Prince enters through a strangely positioned portal that looks like a tear in reality, the life meter upgrades in Warrior Within are vault-like objects that are guarded by batteries of traps, which are aesthetically more mundane.
However, there is still a treat to be had if the player can collect all of them, which makes for more incentives to collect them than just for gameplay benefits. This would not be elaborated any further as it would constitute a spoiler.
Being an action platformer, the camera designs are important to Warrior Within. For most of the game, the camera designs competently facilitate the gameplay, but there are segments where it is less than adequate. For example, there are some chase sequences where the player must have the Prince jumping and running his way to safety. Unfortunately, the camera is often positioned such that the player gets a view of the Prince and the threat behind him, but not the Prince and where he needs to run.
Granted, these sequences are linear and the player only has to look out for the next ledge, beam or pole that appears in the foreground, but the game does not forgive fumbles in these sequences as easily as it does mistakes in combat; the player can rewind time to prevent the Prince from falling into hazards, but the threat may not have its progress undone by time-rewinds, i.e. it still continues to gain ground. If the threat catches up, nothing short of a game reload is needed. This defeats the purpose of the time-rewinding feature.
Warrior Within offers more detailed and beautiful visuals than Sands of Time, though the colour palette used is far more demure and darker. On the other hand, the change is somewhat justified by the geographical settings of the game, which is set on an island that was once home to a civilization that has since lost its majesty and yet was not exactly a very enchanting place in its height of power anyway.
That is not to say that Warrior Within is much less vibrant than Sands of Time; there are lush foliage that accentuate the mostly stone plazas and temples in the Island of Time, natural places of beauty like waterfalls and some well-maintained gardens and parks. The theme of travelling back and forth in time also provides interesting contrast between the two sets of visual designs that are applied to each locale. (The different eras of the locales are actually separate levels, of course.)
The levels also feature intricate architecture, which are more exotic than those seen in the previous game. The Island of Time is not based on any real locale, so this allowed Ubisoft Montreal's imagination a lot more freedom in designing levels. Many of the edifices seem otherworldly, yet familiar enough to be comparable to real-world architecture.
The models for characters are also more detailed and more fluidly animated than those in the previous game, but they also happen to look a lot more severe; the Prince is a particular example, what with his much gruffer looks. There are a lot of visual designs that suggest that the Prince of Persia franchise has lost its otherwise earnest and family-friendly themes with Warrior Within, as the gore and blood that ensues when the Prince slays an opponent would suggest.
The sound designs, like the graphics are also a blend of technical advancements and thematic setbacks. The sounds in Warrior Within are more visceral than those in Sands of Time, but again, those who liked Sands of Time would not like how much more aurally severe Warrior Within is.
Firstly, there are the sounds of battle. Clashing metal was not unheard of in the Prince of Persia franchise by then, but the sloshing of gore and splattering of blood are certainly not. Although these do sound appropriate when the Prince is cutting up fools, they are a reminder of the drastic change in the Prince's character.
Then, there is the voice-acting, which is generally angry, harsh and/or unpleasant for almost all characters in the game. Unfortunately, the Prince, who is the protagonist and thus is the character that the player spends the most time with, is the worst offender. He comes across as arrogant, crass and angry, which is in extreme contrast with the milder and earnest Prince in Sands of Time. The other characters do not fare any better, least of which is a certain otherworldly creature that is always raging and uttering unintelligible gibberish.
The music in Warrior Within is also drastically different from that in Sands of Time. The Middle Eastern music in Sands of Time has been replaced by metal, which is not exactly thematically appropriate. Any displeasure that the player may have at this change is further compounded by the metal music's attempt to include some Middle Eastern elements.
At least the ambient and environmental sounds are more pleasing to the ears (specifically of those who were fond of Sands of Time). Flowing water still sounds like flowing water, whirring saws for traps still sound ominous and such other noises from sources that are not actual characters are believable enough and, more importantly, are not a reminder that radical changes have been implemented on the thematic aspect of Prince of Persia.
Warrior Within was made for platforms other than computers. Although the computer version performs the best visually and technically, it lacks a few features that the other versions have, such as leaderboards for certain score-racking game modes. Of course, one can argue that these modes are inconsequential, and their omission in the computer version would not be missed.
In conclusion, Warrior Within is a convincing improvement over Sands of Time, but only in terms of gameplay. It may have more exciting combat and more advanced visuals, but these would not prepare those who have played the previous game for the changes in the themes of Prince of Persia. What was once an enchanting franchise with a fairy-tale charm has been usurped by anger-driven quests and perhaps a loss of innocence.