Prince of Persia: Warrior Within

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Prince of Persia: Warrior Within

Developer(s)	Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher(s)	Ubisoft
Designer(s)	Kevin Guillemette
Engine	JADE engine
Release date(s)	Playstation 2 and Xbox December 2 2004 December 3 2004 Gamecube and PC December 2 2004 December 3 2004 Mobile phone December 21 2004 PlayStation Portable December 6 2005 December 16 2005
Genre(s)	Action-adventure
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	ESRB: Mature (M) PEGI: 16+
Platform(s)	Xbox, GameCube, PS2, Windows, PSP, Mobile phone
Media	DVD

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within is a video game and sequel to Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, a critically acclaimed game released in 2003. Warrior Within was developed and published by Ubisoft, and released on December 2, 2004 for the Xbox, PlayStation 2, GameCube, and Windows.

The game picks up where The Sands of Time left off, adding plenty of new features, specifically, options in combat. The Prince (who remains unnamed) now has the ability to wield two weapons at a time as well as the ability to steal his enemies' weapons and throw them.

Warrior Within has a much darker tone than its predecessor adding in the ability for the Prince to dispatch his enemies with violent finishing moves. The violence and more adult oriented content landed the game a "Mature" rating from the ESRB.

A port of the game done by Pipeworks, renamed as Prince of Persia: Revelations, was released on December 6, 2005 for Sony's PlayStation Portable. The port includes additional content including three new areas not available in the original release.

With the continued success of Prince of Persia, a sequel was made following the same story arc as The Sands of Time and Warrior Within. Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones was released on November 30, 2005.

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Seven years after the Prince used the Sands of Time to turn back time and rewrite history, he finds himself hunted by the Dahaka, the Guardian of the Timeline. Because the Prince escaped his fate, the Dahaka is sent to ensure that the Prince dies and thus restore order to the Timeline.

Seeking counsel from an old wise man, the Prince learns of the existence of the Island of Time - birthplace of the Sands of Time, governed by the Empress of Time. Thinking only of himself and his survival, the Prince sets sail for the Island to prevent the Sands of Time from ever being created. His belief is that if the Sands are not created then the Dahaka will have no reason to hunt him.

Many obstacles attempt to prevent the Prince from reaching the Island and his goal. First, his ship is attacked by an army led by a mysterious woman in black named Shahdee. The Prince faces her and during the ensuing combat she manages to throw him overboard; his ship sinks and his entire crew perishes; however, the Prince manages to survive and drifts ashore on the Island.

Wandering further into the island, he re-encounters Shahdee, whom he pursues deep into the fortress of the Island. By doing so, he accidentally steps into one of the many Portals of the fortress, which connects the present with the past. Continuing his pursuit into the Past, he finds her trying to murder an unknown woman in red named Kaileena. The Prince engages Shahdee once more in battle, kills her, and saves Kaileena.

Denied an audience with the Empress of Time to state his case, the Prince is then faced with the task of activating two towers, which in time will open the doors to the Empress' Throne Room. Kaileena aids the Prince by presenting to him the Serpent Sword, which will activate the bridges to reach both towers, and eventually the Lion Sword, an even more powerful weapon than the Serpent Sword. As the Prince explores the island, he occasionally encounters a mysterious, dark-looking creature. Shortly before reaching the throne room, the Prince is attacked by the Dahaka and almost killed, but the dark creature rushes in and is killed in his place. The Dahaka then leaves without attacking the Prince. The Prince eventually succeeds in reaching the Throne Room only to discover that Kaileena is the Empress of Time. She had sent Shahdee to kill the Prince, sent him on the perilous journey to the towers, and even cursed the Lion Sword - yet the Prince did not die.

Kaileena is also trying to defy her fate. She has seen hers in the Timeline, which is to die at the hands of the Prince. Therefore, her only concern is to get rid of him at any cost. Shahdee, feeling that her mission to help save Kaileena was foolish, illogical, and futile, had turned against her only to be killed by the Prince.

The Prince reluctantly fights and kills Kaileena. He returns to the present, hoping that he has escaped his fate, but soon discovers that when he killed Kaileena, the Sands of Time were spawned from her body. Realising that he has caused the event he intended to prevent, the Prince begins to lose hope, but soon discovers the Mask of the Wraith, which is said to have the power to defy fate. When he puts on the mask, he transforms into the Sand Wraith, the dark creature he saw earlier. The time portals have a greater effect on him in this state, causing him to relive the events of the past as the Wraith (and see his encounters with the Wraith from the opposite perspective). When he reaches the point at which the Wraith saved the Prince from the Dahaka, he instead lets the Dahaka kill the "other" Prince, causing the mask to fall off and him to return to the position he was in just before he entered the Throne Room.

The Prince decides that he may not be able to avoid killing Kaileena, but if he kills her in the present rather than the past, the Sands will not be created until after he had used them, thereby escaping his fate. The Prince confronts Kaileena again and forces her through a time portal into the present. At this point the ending forks, depending on whether or not the Prince has found all of the health upgrades and acquired his ultimate weapon, the Water Sword.

Without the Water Sword (alternate ending): The Prince and Kaileena fight again. After the fight, the Dahaka appears, but ignores the Prince and kills Kaileena (since she is now the one who is out of place in the timeline). The Dahaka then heads for the Prince, but only to take his Time Medallion. Having escaped his fate, the Prince sets sail for Babylon.

With the Water Sword (true ending): The Dahaka appears and heads for Kaileena (since she is now the one who is out of place in the timeline). However, the Prince discovers that the Dahaka has a weakness to his Water Sword. The Prince and Kaileena fight the Dahaka together and manage to defeat it. Having both escaped their fates, the Prince and Kaileena set sail for Babylon together. (This is the canon ending.)

[edit] Criticism

Critical reviews of Warrior Within were generally positive, though not as positive as Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. It was commonly agreed amongst popular reviewers that the platforming and adventure elements of the game were equal to, or exceeded, those of its predecessor.

The revamped combat system and better integration of combat sequences into the gameplay were also praised. Lastly, Warrior Within contained more raw content than Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time - taking anywhere from 12-16 hours to complete.

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within was a radical stylistic departure from The Sands of Time. Most criticism of the game centered around this departure, as the core platforming gameplay is virtually untouched.

The main reason behind the change was cited by Ubisoft as an attempt to garner a wider audience for the title. While Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time met with critical acclaim, it also met with lackluster sales. Ubisoft revamped the appearance of the series for a broader appeal, which increased sales, but decreased acclaim.

Changes include:

The Prince, who was charming and cheerful yet unsure of himself and his abilities in The Sands of Time, has become a generic tough guy or anti-hero. He has new tattoos and a more aggressive attitude to show this. For example, near the beginning of the game, when sliced across the face by Shahdee, the Prince yells out "you bitch!". He will also yell out thoughts during combat such as "Is that the best you have to offer?"
Increased levels of blood and gore. In The Sands of Time, the player fights creatures which seem dehydrated because of the Sands, making them unable to bleed. In Warrior Within the creatures remain much more true to their original forms, meaning they spew blood when they are struck.
The Persian-influenced music from The Sands of Time is replaced by a heavy-metal oriented soundtrack composed by Inon Zur. The game's main musical leitmotif is Godsmack's I Stand Alone and Straight Out Of Line used for the credits slide. However, the music still contains some tunes from Sands of Time, rendered in a Heavy metal sound, such as "Time only knows".^{[citation needed]} Although the new, dark approach to the game's music is suitable for the in-game fights and puzzles, as well as the new, darker prince, it was generally not appreciated by fans who were disappointed with the change of character. When the prince is not engaged in any fights, or solving a puzzle, the player can hear some well-orchestrated music that reflects the (usually quiet and lonely) environment, especially in the beginning of the game and the garden waterworks area. When the prince engages in a fight with multiple enemies, the music changes to a heavy metal track, which again reflects the environment and the type of enemies faced. Every time a boss, such as the Empress or the Griffin, is fought, the music is more traditional than heavy metal.
Over-sexualization of characters, such as Shahdee. The Sands of Time features quietly erotic scenes between the Prince and Farah, but Warrior Within has more blatant displays of eroticism.
The player can collect items within the game in order to unlock artwork and other extras.
The story reduces the amount of character development and interaction from The Sands of Time.

The game also received criticism for uneven difficulty progression and numerous glitches and bugs. Most players have encountered a glitch dubbed the “Wraith glitch”, wherein the player is turned into the Sand Wraith character too early, usually in the chapter "Fate's Dark Hand". The same glitch will also occasionally happen in reverse, crashing in a similar fashion before reverting the Sand Wraith to the Prince. In both cases, the player must start over, unless they have an earlier save file. A similar glitch sometimes occurs while attempting to gain what is usually accepted as the last life upgrade; it is generally called the "Dahaka Hole" glitch. In "The Empress" there is also a glitch which happens when the Empress of Time breaks the wall and the player is skipped to "The Face of Time". Also, in the Xbox, and Windows version of the game, the sound in cut scenes (voice acting, music and sound effects) will sometimes either not be synchronized with the action, or not be present at all. The reportedly most frustrating glitch that faces players is at the end of the game: in the time portal room before the final combat, the sand portal sometimes fails to activate when the Prince is in it. Even with an earlier save file, the game must be started over.

The GameCube version seems to suffer none of these glitches, as stated by Gamespot: "Some technical flaws in the Xbox and PlayStation 2 versions of the game also mar the experience somewhat. The Xbox version is prone to audio glitches. Certain sound effects get stuck, and, at other times, scenes that should have voice in them are cut off completely. This is a shame, because the sound effects in the game, aside from some ham-handed voice acting from the prince, are excellent and impactful. Meanwhile, the PlayStation 2 version's flaws are graphical. As a result, the game has a slightly choppier frame rate than the other versions. While it's not enough to hinder gameplay or combat, it does detract a bit from an otherwise beautiful-looking game. We didn't notice any sound or frame rate issues with the GameCube version of Warrior Within, however."

Ubisoft has released no patches to address these issues, nor offered any other solution.

While not often cited, it is worth noting that the game appears to draw some inspiration from the 2002 film, The Scorpion King. Parallels can be drawn between the Prince and the Akkadian (Mathayus), both of whom are essentially strangers in their own land, being the last of their kind, fighting for survival. Kaileena and Cassandra are also similar in that they are both prophetic. Also, the game's anthem, I Stand Alone was featured in the film. Whether by influence or coincidence, those who have seen the movie will likely find that the game is at least partially derivative in its themes.