Reviewed: January 3, 2005
Reviewed by: Matt Gonzales
Publisher
Ubisoft
Developer
Ubisoft Montreal
Released: December 2, 2004
Genre: Action
Players: 1
ESRB: Mature
9
9
9
7
8.5
Supported Features
Screenshots (Click Image for Gallery)
Let’s face it, Ubisoft has made a name for itself like few other companies in video gaming today. With titles like anything Tom Clancy and Beyond Good & Evil there’s no doubt that an Ubisoft game is worth a look.
But we’re talking about the legendary Prince of Persia series here. A game much beloved by gaming veterans and brought gloriously into the new century by the Sands of Time entry of last year. For a new generation of gamers weaned on PlayStation 2 platformers, the Sands of Time showed them how it’s done old school with a technological facelift. So, the natural question is can Ubisoft do it again?
I don’t think I’m spoiling anything here by telling you that having survived the first game’s perils, our titular prince has managed to escape his fate (i.e. buying the farm). The problem is, he’s royally pissed off the Empress of Time. And now, like an IRS agent going after a delinquent tax return, she – or rather her 800 pound gorilla, the Dahaka - is gunnin’ for our boy in the poofy pants. So what’s a prince to do but visit the Castle of Time on the Island of Time (riiiiiight) and use its powers to go back in time before the Sands of Time were ever made in order to abrogate the Empress of Time’s wrath. Can you guess what the operative word in this series is?
I remember fondly the Sands of Time as a festival of platforming genius. And though it didn’t break any sales records, the game was all but considered a masterpiece by critics far and wide. It all broke down to the fast and furious sword battles, enjoyable puzzles (which says a lot after several iterations of Tomb Raiding) all wrapped up in the game’s dreamy graphics.
Prince of Persia: Warrior Within screams sequel. I mean even the menu says it all. Where the hazy screens of an Arabian paradise greeted players the last go round, now the dark, foreboding hallways of a forgotten keep beckon. And so we’ve got a sequel wherein the usual playbook calls for an edgier protagonist and gorier violence which Warrior Within delivers in spades.
Now that the prince has been around the block when it comes to hand to hand combat, it’s reasonable to assume he’s picked up a few new moves. And man does he have some new moves. A nice addition to the previous entry’s fighting engine is the ability to wield a secondary weapon. In truth, each weapon seems about as the same in terms of power and wieldability despite the enemy that drops them and their skill level, but it’s still a cool addition to the fighting mechanic.
Not only can you pick up the armaments of your fallen foes, but you can even throw them at other enemies from a distance, inflicting varying amounts of damage before you even take them on. This comes in pretty handy when you’re walking high wires and an enemy combatant appears at one end dead set on making you a crash test dummy. In addition to that, acquired items even have a limited lifespan, deteriorating with use.
The fighting is made even more exciting as you’re able to pull off some really amazing looking combos using the environment around you. And while swinging around stone columns to deliver a pair of size 11 slippers to the noggin is satisfying, it’s even more thrilling to watch the different death animations as bad guys get sliced up like a plate of shrimp at a Benihana chef’s table. And I mean sliced up. Heads fly, torsos split and all manner of blood is spilled during the course of our hero’s crusade, and yet it all flows smoothly with the few button presses so familiar to veterans of the previous entry.
The story was never all that original in the first game and didn’t even make much of a difference when it came to exploring the vast desert empire of the Prince. And true to form, the admittedly silly time-traveling backstory here does little to induce tension. The cut scenes are nice as is the voice acting, but without a real impetus to the story, it becomes so much window dressing.
Ubisoft must have thought the time-skipping mechanic that lets you navigate certain areas would be an intriguing twist to gameplay. But having the player visit a room in one time with inaccessible paths that are made accessible in another time has long been exhausted, most notably in the Legacy of Kain series, with more interesting results quite frankly.
One can hardly complain however about Ubisoft keeping the preceding game’s fluid controls – some of the best in recent memory – and quite tolerable load times. Just be careful of the camera in tight places – even Sands of Time had that problem. Despite its flaws, platforming never played so good. And I never got tired of using my sword to slide down a 50 foot tall, hanging flag like a crazed, swarthy pirate. Good times.
The graphics of Warrior Within are basically the same, and while it’s not unreasonable for Ubisoft to forego reinventing the wheel, it would’ve been nice to see some different environments instead of the familiar brown, dusty temples lit by ancient lamps that must be a real pain to light from five stories up. At least they got rid of the need to stab monsters to death to keep them from reforming, and the bothersome animation that accompanied those kills while eager minions hacked at your backside. Anyway, we all know the real visual treat was the panoramic view that harkened back to the original game’s side-scrolling vistas and its here to enjoy.
The cutscenes play out like a Lindsay Lohan movie; heavy on the eye candy and light on the dramatic impact. That’s not to say they aren’t every bit as good as those in Sands of Time, but they’re hardly on the level of anything from Namco or Square, no matter how much the critics fawned. You simply have to make a distinction between the beauty of the game itself and the quality of the cutscenes as thoroughly different properties.
While the characters and action have been given an edgier look (read: darker, uglier and bloodier), the game proper is essentially the same, visually speaking, as The Sands of Time. Ubisoft basically used the same graphics engine obviously trying to keep its success riding high and hey, it works.
As cheesy as it has become in every action movie made in the 90s and the last few years, I like the use of the hard rock soundtrack. Godsmack’s ”I Stand Alone” may still work as a marketing element, but the bass cue that starts up when battles begin is pretty cool and I often ended up smiling in spite of myself. Nicely done. I know game purists are out there groaning, but think about it; you wouldn’t hate the use of the aggro metal if it had been used judiciously up ‘til now, and that’s not Ubisoft’s fault. I blame The Rock.
Convincing sound effects again make this game a delight for escapist anger management types with a thing for swashbuckling. And despite the sometimes goofy one-liners that most games of this type use, it’s mercifully kept to an overall minimum. Moms be sure to cover junior’s ears when the prince calls people names though. Oops.
When it comes to value, you have to weigh the fun that the game provides against the amount of time you get to enjoy that fun. By this measure, the fact that the effectiveness of the added elements in Warrior Within is fleeting, and the game lasts a couple of dozen hours, you might want to consider that you’re essentially playing the first game all over again in "pissed off" mode.
And as annoyingly difficult (by design) as it was to defeat the various mini-bosses of the game (not to mention the Ultimate Bad Guy), there’s not a lot of incentive to go back and play it again, especially since the retro Prince of Persia titles were made available as unlockables in the previous game. Message to game developers: no one cares about unlockable art from the game – that’s what the Internet is for.
In short, Prince of Persia: Warrior Within is the brooding goth brother of The Sands of Time. Which, unlike goths, is not to say it isn’t fun, just not all that different or more exciting. It neatly supports my theory that despite the staunch claims of content developers, people aren’t demanding sequels to be “bigger, bloodier, and grittier”. They just want a game to be true to its source, control well, and look damned good while doing it. Like they say, two outta three ain’t bad.