Prince of Persia: Warrior Within is a 2004 action-adventure game developed and published by Ubisoft for GameCube, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, and Xbox. It is the fifth main installment in the Prince of Persia series, and the sequel to 2003's Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. A port for the PlayStation Portable developed by Pipeworks Software, titled Prince of Persia: Revelations, was released in 2005. Two mobile versions of Warrior Within were published by Gameloft for J2ME and iOS in 2004 and 2010, respectively. Due to issues with the in-game menu, the iOS version was temporarily pulled from the App Store for two weeks.

Set seven years after its predecessor, the story follows the Prince as he searches for a way to stop an entity called the Dahaka that is relentlessly pursuing him as punishment for his meddling with the Sands of Time. He travels to the mysterious Island of Time, where he attempts to prevent the Empress of Time from creating the Sands in the first place, hoping this act will appease the Dahaka.

Gameplay in Warrior Within builds upon that of The Sands of Time, adding new features, specifically, options in combat. The Prince has the ability to wield two weapons at a time and to steal his enemies' weapons and throw them. The Prince's repertoire of combat moves has been expanded into varying strings that allow players to attack enemies with more complexity than was possible in the previous game. Warrior Within has a darker tone than its predecessor, adding in the ability for the Prince to dispatch his enemies with various gory finishing moves. In addition to the rewind, slow-down, and speed-up powers from Sands of Time, the Prince also has a new sand power: a circular "wave" of sand that knocks down all surrounding enemies as well as damaging them.

Upon release, the game received generally positive reviews from critics, who singled out the improved combat, level design, story, and soundtrack. However, the radical shift in tone from its more light-hearted predecessor and the Prince's characterization garnered mixed reactions. Following Warrior Within, two more games set in The Sands of Time continuity were released: Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones in 2005, which is a direct sequel to Warrior Within; and Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands in 2010, set between The Sands of Time and Warrior Within.

Gameplay

thumb|left|The Prince fighting one of the many monsters found throughout the game

Much as its predecessor, Warrior Within is a 3D platformer centered on exploration and melee combat. The level design revolves around navigating treacherous environments with parkour and freerunning-styled moves. Unlike Sands of Time, the game world is highly nonlinear; the player would often return to already visited locations several times from various directions, often traversing time portals to visit the same places in the present and the past in order to find ways around obstacles which would be impassable in either time alone. Secret areas can be found and explored to gain additional health points and unique weapons, which culminates in discovering a weapon capable of inflicting damage on the Dahaka, unlocking the game's canonical ending. In addition to normal platforming, the game also features episodes where the Prince is chased by the Dahaka and must quickly navigate trap-ridden hallways to reach safety. The game's atmosphere has a distinctive darker and grittier theme, in contrast to the colorful palette of the previous game.

The game's combat system preserves aspects of the prior game's dual wield melee combat, while introducing new ones. While Sands of Time designates a sword as the Prince's primary weapon and the Dagger of Time as his secondary weapon, Warrior Within makes the sword his mandatory primary weapon, while requiring him to obtain and find a secondary weapon from fallen enemies or weapon racks in order to use one. With this added feature, this new combat system emphasizes a free-flow fighting style. The idea is to use the environment, fifty eight secondary weapons and the Prince's own acrobatic abilities to dispatch enemies with ease and aggression, complete with graphic violence effects that can be toggled in the in-game options menu. Two-hand fighting introduces numerous additional acrobatic combos to dispatch enemies with greater efficiency and brutality. Off-hand weapons have varying bonuses and penalties applied to the player's damage and hit points; they can be thrown at enemies to allow a limited form of ranged combat. Most also have limited durability and break after a number of hits, or after they are thrown as projectiles. Aside from bosses, the enemies are sand creatures of varying sizes. Unlike the Sands of Time, where rounds of heavy combat are interspersed with rounds of exploration, enemies can be encountered anywhere along the way, alone and in packs; some common enemies would respawn as the player revisits locations.

As in Sands of Time, the Prince possesses limited control of time with his Medallion of Time; the Sands can be used for more efficient combat as well as to slow down and even rewind time, allowing the Prince to retry ill-timed jumps or escape Dahaka's clutches; later on, he can unlock more devastating Sand Powers that can inflict area of effect damage. All sand powers now draw from a simplified and unified pool of sand tanks (unlike how Sands of Time used a separate, special sand tank supply for its three offensive sand powers) with the more powerful abilities costing multiple full tanks to use.

The Xbox version of the game supports the ability to download extra maps via Xbox Live, as well as support for online leaderboards. In line with other online enabled games on Xbox, support ended on April 15, 2010. Prince of Persia: Warrior Within is now supported on Insignia, a revival server restoring online functionality for original Xbox games.

Plot

Seven years after the events of The Sands of Time, following the reversal of his devastating release of the Sands in the palace of Azad, the Prince is hunted by a being called the Dahaka as the Prince was destined to die after releasing the Sands. Seeking advice from a wise man, the Prince learns the Sands were created on a distant island by the Empress of Time. Despite the wise man's warnings about changing fate, the Prince resolves to travel to the island and prevent the Sands' creation. The Prince's ship is attacked by Shahdee, servant of the Empress, but he survives and washes up on the island. He chases Shahdee into the ruins and follows her through a time portal into the past, killing her in combat after finding her attacking another woman Kaileena. Despite believing the Prince's efforts are futile, Kaileena helps him gain access to the Empress's throne room. During his efforts he is stalked by a being called the Sand Wraith, which is captured and killed by the Dahaka. Before confronting the Empress, the Prince offers to take Kaileena to Babylon, but she reluctantly refuses.

In the throne room, Kaileena reveals herself as the Empress, attacking the Prince in an attempt to change her fate of death at his hands. The Prince fights and kills her and returns to the present, but the Dahaka still pursues him; it was the Empress's death in the past that created the Sands of Time. Briefly losing hope, the Prince finds a carving from the army which first recovered the Sands, detailing an artefact called the Mask of the Wraith that allows the wearer to change their fate. He plans to use a time portal to bring Kaileena into the present, allowing the Sands to be created while negating their discovery and transportation to Azad, freeing him from the Dahaka. The Mask transforms the Prince into the same Sand Wraith which stalked him before, and he sees Kaileena's efforts to change her fate despite Shahdee's pessimism, and that she was fighting with a rebellious Shahdee when the Prince appeared. As the Sand Wraith, the Prince succeeds in getting his other self taken by the Dahaka instead, taking his place in the timeline and freeing him of the Mask. The Prince continues to the throne room and, despite his pleas to Kaileena that they can change fate, she attacks him as before.

The ending changes depending on whether the Prince acquired a special mythical weapon called the Water Sword. Without the Water Sword, the Prince kills Kaileena in the present as planned and the Dahaka absorbs her and all remnants of the Sands of time and absorbs the medallion of time and vanishes, hereby setting the prince free from the bound. In the alternate ending (which is canonical, and continues with the next game) the Prince defends Kaileena from the Dahaka's attack and uses the Water Sword to kill the time beast; the two then build a boat and leave the island, getting intimate with each other during the voyage. In both endings, Babylon is shown in flames and under attack from an invading army of the Vizier and Farah (from Sands of Time) is shown held as a prisoner, with the wise man from earlier in the game narrating "you cannot change your fate; no man can". Additionally, in the canonical ending, a hooded figure is seen crowning himself as the prince, setting up the events for the next game.

Development

Pre-production on Warrior Within began within Ubisoft Montreal during the final stages of production on The Sands of Time in 2003. The plot was eventually chosen to be "not just saving the world or saving a damsel, it's the story of the Prince of Persia and who, really, is this guy." The final narrative and aesthetic tone was described as being closer to survival horror, with the Prince becoming a more mature and potentially relatable character compared to his portrayal in The Sands of Time.

The voice of the Prince was recast from The Sands of Time, with Robin Atkin Downes replacing Yuri Lowenthal. In a later interview, Lowenthal felt that this was a conscious decision by Ubisoft to fit in with the game's overall tonal shift, and thought it was the right decision.

| Edge_PSP = 5/10

| EGM_NGC = 8.5/10

| EGM_PS2 = 8.5/10

| EuroG_XBOX = 7/10

| GI_NGC = 9.25/10

| GI_PS2 = 9.25/10

| GI_XBOX = 9.25/10

| GameRev_NGC = B

| GameRev_PS2 = B

| GSpot_PC = 8.6/10

| GSpot_PS2 = 8.8/10

| GSpot_PSP = 7.4/10

| GSpot_XBOX = 8.7/10

| GSpy_NGC = 3/5

| GSpy_PS2 = 3/5

| GSpy_PSP = 3/5

| GSpy_XBOX = 3/5

| GameZone_PC = 9.1/10

| GameZone_PS2 = 9.4/10

| GameZone_XBOX = 8.7/10

| IGN_NGC = 8.6/10

| IGN_iOS = 6.9/10

| IGN_PC = 8.6/10

| IGN_PS2 = 8.5/10

| IGN_PSP = 6/10

| IGN_XBOX = 8.7/10

| NP_NGC = 4.6/5

| OPM_PS2 = 4/5

| OPM_PSP = 2.5/5

| OXM_XBOX = 9.6/10

| PCGUS_PC = 64%

| rev1 = Detroit Free Press

| rev1_XBOX = 4/4

| rev2 = The Sydney Morning Herald

| rev2_NGC = 4/5

| rev2_PC = 4/5

| MC_iOS = 72/100

| MC_PC = 83/100

| MC_PS2 = 83/100

| MC_PSP = 65/100

| MC_XBOX = 83/100

According to Ubisoft, Prince of Persia: Warrior Within sold 1.9 million units worldwide in its debut month, 1.8 Million in the first two weeks. The game's PlayStation 2 version received a "Gold" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 200,000 copies in the United Kingdom.

Critical reviews of Warrior Within ranged from positive to mixed. The GameCube, PC, PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions received "favorable" reviews, while the iOS and PSP versions received "mixed or average reviews" according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. Reviewers praised the inclusion and familiar platforming elements of the previous game with mixed feelings of the new combat elements. Director Guyot said that by following the suggestion of making the sequel "tonally a little darker", eventually "we overdid, probably, a little bit", which led to many fans of The Sands of Time being disappointed at Warrior Within. GameSpot, who in their year-end awards griped on the tonal shift saying that "the series had to lose a measure of its soul for us to enjoy more of that fantastic gameplay", also criticized the game for having uneven difficulty progression and numerous glitches and bugs. GameSpot gave the same version 9.2 out of 10, calling it "a dominant game on its own merits, but it's identical to the first game in one respect: Anyone who is remotely interested in playing an action game on their handset should download it." In Japan, Famitsu gave the PS2 version a score of one nine, two eights, and one nine for a total of 34 out of 40.

Non-video game publications also gave the game some favorable reviews. Detroit Free Press gave the Xbox version all four stars and stated: "The prince has gone from an "Aladdin"-style teenager to a grim, angry young adult. He's even more beautifully drawn than before, and this year's installment adds a much better combat system."

The editors of Computer Gaming World nominated Warrior Within for their 2004 "Action Game of the Year" award, which ultimately went to The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. During the 8th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences awarded Warrior Within with "Console Platform Action/Adventure Game of the Year", along with receiving nominations for outstanding achievement in "Animation" and "Art Direction".

Notes

de:Prince of Persia#Prince of Persia: Warrior Within