Prince of Persia: Warrior Within

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 Microsoft Windows.

The game picks up where The Sands of Time left off, adding new features, specifically, options in combat. The Prince 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.

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. A port of Warrior Within was done by Pipeworks, renamed as Prince of Persia: Revelations, and it 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.

Synopsis

Seven years after the events of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, the Prince finds himself hunted by the Dahaka, the guardian of the timeline. Because the Prince escaped his fate, the Dahaka tries to ensure that the Prince dies as he was meant to. Seeking counsel from an old wise man, the Prince learns of the existence of the Island of Time, where the Sands of Time were created, which is ruled by the Empress of Time. The Prince sets sail for the Island of Time to attempt to prevent the Sands of Time from being created, by traveling backwards through time. He believes that if there are no Sands of Time, the Dahaka will cease to exist as well.

Plot

Exploring the island, the Prince saves a woman named Kaileena, from a woman named Shahdee, in the process traveling back through time using a portal. Unable to grant the Prince an audience with the Empress of Time, Kaileena reveals that activating two towers will unlock the throne room where the Empress hides. The Prince ultimately activates both towers, and returns to the throne room, only to learn that Kaileena is actually the Empress of Time. The Prince kills Kaileena, and returns to the present, believing that he had cheated fate, but soon discovers that when he killed Kaileena, the Sands of Time were created from her remains, so in essence, he created them. The Prince begins to lose hope, but soon discovers the Mask of the Wraith, which is said to have the power to make its wearer coexist in the same timeline with his former self. The Prince finds and dons the mask, transforming into the Sand Wraith. Realizing that he was, in fact, the same creature that he had encountered several times during his adventure and who he thought wanted him dead and that he dies at the hands of the Dahakah while trying to stop his other self. The Prince makes his way back to the throne room, encountering his other self. Remembering how he died as the Sand Wraith, he decides standing idly by and moving out of the way so his other self gets killed by the Dahaka, allowing him to remove the Mask of the Wraith. The Prince had decided on killing Kaileena in the present, rather than the past, which would cause the Sands to be created, but they will not be found by the Maharajah, and thus, he will never have released them in Azad. However various events that he witnessed as the Sand Wraith, as well as the death of his other self, made him empathetic of the Empress and he changed his mind. The Prince forces Kaileena into the present, and tries to convince her that they do not have to fight and thus she has no need to die at his hands. During the conversation the Dahaka appears and the Prince becomes exasperated believing the Dahaka was still after him. The Prince and Kaileena eventually defeat the Dahaka, who was now attempting to kill Kaileena, since she was now in the present. They both then set sail for Babylon together, but as they embrace each other aboard the ship, the city is in flames...

Development

Jordan Mechner, creator of the Prince of Persia character, had worked on The Sands of Time, though not on Warrior Within. He made a statement about the game appearing in Wired Magazine, December 2005: "I'm not a fan of the artistic direction, or the violence that earned it an M rating. The story, character, dialog, voice acting, and visual style were not to my taste."

Notable stylistic changes include:

• The change of voice actors for the Prince. In this game he is voiced by Robin Atkin Downes, in the previous game he was voiced by Yuri Lowenthal. Kaileena is voiced by Italian actress Monica Bellucci.
• The Sands of Time featured a soundtrack by Stuart Chatwood, consisting of various Persian influences mixed with hard rock guitars. While Chatwood remained the composer for Warrior Within, the soundtrack became almost purely guitar-oriented, at one point featuring Godsmack's "I Stand Alone" and "Straight Out of Line".^[1][2]

Reception

Critical reviews of Warrior Within were generally positive, though not as positive as Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time^[3][4][5]:

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, although some reviewers found them boring.^[5] Warrior Within also contained more raw content than The Sands of Time, taking anywhere from 15-20 hours to complete.^[3] The biggest gripe, however, was that Warrior Within was a radical stylistic departure from The Sands of Time - reviewers complained that the game lost a lot of its charm by turning the witty, likeable Prince character into a more aggressive character. The main reason behind this change was cited by Ubisoft as an attempt to garner a wider audience for the title. While 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.

The game also received criticism for uneven difficulty progression and numerous glitches and bugs