Prince of Persia: Warrior Within

Plot synopsis:
Seven years after the events of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, the Prince finds himself constantly hunted by a terrible beast known as the Dahaka. The Prince seeks counsel from an old wise man who explains that whoever releases The Sands of Time must die. Because the Prince escaped his fate, it is the Dahaka's mission as guardian of the Timeline to ensure that he dies as he was meant to. The old man also tells of the Island of Time, where the Empress of Time first created the Sands. The Prince sets sail for the Island in an attempt to prevent the Sands from ever being created, an act he believes will appease the Dahaka. After a battle at sea with an enemy force led by a mysterious woman in black capsizes the Prince's ship, the Prince washes ashore unconsciously onto the Island of Time.
He later awakens and chases the woman in black through the Empress of Time's fortress into a portal that transports the two into the past. The Prince saves a woman named Kaileena from being killed by the woman in black, whose name is Shahdee. Unable to grant the Prince an audience with the Empress of Time, who is busy preparing to create the Sands, Kaileena instead tells him how to unlock the door to the throne room in which the Empress resides. The Prince makes his way through the fortress, using the sand portals to travel back and forth between the past and present, and narrowly escapes several encounters with the Dahaka, who he discovers cannot pass through water. The Prince activates the mechanisms in the two towers of the fortress - the Garden Tower and the Mechanical Tower - that serve as locks to the door. He returns to the throne room only to discover that Kaileena is actually the Empress of Time herself, who has foreseen in the Timeline that the Prince will kill her and who has decided to attempt to defy her fate, just as the Prince is doing. A battle ensues and the Prince proves victorious; he kills Kaileena and returns to the present.
He believes that he has changed his fate, but another encounter with the Dahaka forces him to realize that in killing Kaileena, he was, in essence, the one who created the Sands of Time, as the Sands were created from her remains and they flow into the hourglass. The Prince falls into despair, but then finds a glimmer of hope upon learning of a magical artifact called the Mask of the Wraith, which is said to transport the wearer into the past, allowing the wearer to alter his own Timeline. The Prince wastes no time in seeking out and donning the mask, which transforms him into the Sand Wraith, a monster that constantly ebbs away life, and sends him back to the time when he first arrived on the Island of Time. He formulates a plan to force Kaileena through a sand portal with him, transporting them both into the present, believing that if he kills her then, the Sands of Time will be created seven years after the events of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, meaning it will be impossible for the Prince to release them in Azad. While still in the past, the Prince (as the Sand Wraith) ensures that the Dahaka takes and destroys his other self, who has just finished unlocking the door to the throne room, leaving the Sand Wraith the only Prince in that Timeline. This act loosens the Mask of the Wraith from the Prince's face and allows him to remove it and return to his normal form. The Prince goes to the throne room and, despite his pleas to Kaileena, his battle with her begins as before. He forces her into the present with him, and it is at this point that the game has two alternate endings. Which ending is played depends on whether all life upgrades and Water Sword were collected or not.
First ending, without the Water Sword
The Prince fights and kills Kaileena in the present, and the Dahaka arrives to claim her body as well as Farah's amulet from the Prince, so that the Sands of Time and all relics pertaining to it are removed from the Timeline. The Prince sails home to Babylon, alone, only to discover that the city is being ravaged by war. The old wise man's voice is heard, once again stating: "Your journey will not end well. You cannot change your fate. No man can."
Second ending, with the Water Sword
In the present, before the battle between The Prince and Kaileena begins, the Dahaka appears trying to remove Kaileena from the timeline. The Prince tries to save her and realizes that the Water Sword can damage the seemingly-invincible Dahaka. After fighting and defeating the beast, the Prince and Kaileena sail to the Prince's home of Babylon with each other. During the journey, he apparently ends up making love to Kaileena where a dream enters in the mind of the Prince, appearing to be a burning Babylon, with a gold crown rolling to the feet of a mysterious, shadowy figure that ominously claims: "All that is yours, is rightfully mine...and mine it will be." As in the first ending, the old wise man's voice is heard stating: "Your journey will not end well. You cannot change your fate. No man can." This ending is a canonical ending and continues into Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones.

Tags: violence, dark

Review:
I had very little idea about the game, a couple of years before I watched the Two Thrones announce but still it didn't appeal to me.When I got to play this since it worked very well on my computer I got instantly dragged into the world of Prince of Persia again (I used to play the first installment of this series a long time before).
You are able to perform incredible acrobatics in order to avoid the classic traps from the original game (Blades, those sharp thing that come out of the floor, etc.) You have tons of deadly combos to use in the different minions, but above that all is the use of time.
with incredible results.Even if the adventure takes place in a castle (and a bit in your ship), it's still a really big castle where you can get lost(I don't like games that show you every step to win them, therefore you never get lost and always know what to do without doing some exploring, like God of War, which was the only title that I liked despite the characteristic mentioned above).
So you can be sure there's a lot of adventure in Prince of Persia.Many people don't like this new aggressive, darker prince, but I think it works better this way.
The prince is a bit soft for my taste in "The Sands of Time" and in "The Two Thrones", and I said a bit because he is a terrific main character.
It is for me the best game in the sands trilogy.
I have been looking forward to this game since I first completed Sands of Time, and for me, unlike many others, it failed to disappoint.
It is definitely better than the Sands of Time, which was a very straightforward game, too easy, and completed within the day.Yes, the Prince has grown up, and he is no longer a boy looking for his father's acceptance.
People who say otherwise either have a completely different opinion, or are too obsessed with the fact that the game isn't "Persian" enough to focus on the actual story.The prince is darker, angrier, and with a definite edge to his personality.
His chest though...putting it lightly, it looks like he has breasts from certain camera angles.The music is amazing, still retaining much of the Arabian style, although others may have missed this due to the strength of the Heavy Metal in the background.
Really, this is a game made for the X-Box, since it's that that has a lot of the cool features...although I've only played on the PC and PS2 versions of the game.Fighting, as Ubisoft promised, is breathtaking.
I suggest you go out and buy/rent this game, and see just how much better it is than the Sands of Time, which was undoubtedly good in its own right..
Prince of persia : the warrior within is an excellent game that reveals its greatness as you progress.
It starts off a bit run of mill with our moody hero slicing up bad guys, but things take a turn for the best when you get to the island .
The character of the prince feels nice to control as he runs across walls , swings on poles and does tons of cool acrobatic tricks.Prince of persia : warrior within is a challenging and fun game that requires brawns ,brains and an appreciation of wicked looking back flips and stuff..
when i bought the game i felt like it had been a stupid thing to do, i had read that the game wasn't as good as sands of time.
i finished the game in 4 days or something like that, and at least half of that time i was stuck with the empress of time, thats the only problem with all prince of Persia games, the bosses (if i can say it like that)are to hard.
but it is still the best game i have ever played, because the thing of playing in the same rooms and in the same maps, but in different times, thats excellent.
and the whole chapter with the sand-wraith was excellent, and when i found out the story behind the sand-wraith, and why he was following me, i liked the game even more!
The sequel of an epic story that made a revolution in the gaming industry, earned millions of fans all around the world and became a cult for decades.
The classics will forever remain classics no matter what people say about it, and the original trilogy "Prince of Persia" will forever remain a masterpiece and a legend."Whosoever shall open the Sands must die"As the prince continues his journey and his adventures with the sands of time, we get to see him in new dark tones of Gothic illumination.
Brand new: gory and arrogant, Prince astonishes with his decisive nature and willingness to do what it takes to avoid death and change his fate.
And though lots of fans loved the prequel for its "Arabic Nights" tales' visual style, the new chapter becomes like a breath of a fresh air to the Prince of Persia series."I began to wonder, if you could change your fate, perhaps I could change mine!"The gameplay.
Since the Sands of Time could not offer such combo's and tricks, the sequel is more than just great when it comes to this.
The FFFS (free-form fighting system) is an absolute breakthrough in the games' world which allows you to do to your enemies whatever you may want.
The metal chords interlace with the dark plot and barbaric gameplay perfectly, not to mention the Godsmacks' "I stand Alone" and "Straight out of Line" songs that unleash the full color palette of the game at full strength.
Monica Beluccis' sweet voice brings Kaileena an astonishing charm and a dominating tone intrinsic to the empress, and Robin Atkin Downes makes Prince sound like an adult and brutal man with no fear but rage and "balls" to follow his path."You can not change your fate No man can."The game is gorgeous, flawless and unique.
The developers paid much attention to every aspect of the game so in the end it would be like a "candy", a candy with bitter taste of doom, crimson color of blood and a sweet scent of death..
With this comes one of the new things to this: The Free Form Fighting System.
After thoroughly enjoying the previous game, The Sands of Time, I was excited to find that Ubisoft were creating a sequel to it.
At first, Warrior Within may look like your typical goth-brawling epic, but look behind the daunting colours and you've got an action adventure/platform romp that will challenge you in many hours of incredible game play.In this game, you play as the Prince as he attempts to change his fate to die before the guardian of time, the Dahaka kills him.
You can still do all the acrobatic moves and stunts that were available in the first game and more (including the ability to slide down curtains using your sword as a brake), but the thing that has improved the most is the combat.
It's good, because The Sands of Time's battles were rather linear with few combat moves.
Thanks to a magical Medallion, the Prince can use the Sand Powers that made Sands of Time's game play so unique - rewind time, slow down time and learn some new sand moves (including a cool move called Ravages of Time which lets you hack away at enemies at breakneck speed).
Unlike the previous game though, you can only obtain up to six sand slots - in Sands of Time you could have MUCH MUCH more.
This is a particularly bad feature of the game because it feels like it's been downgraded a bit.
The sequel to the sands of time and probably the best out of the 3 with some really cool changes to the gameplay were now you can pick up the enemies weapon or grab them and do combinations.the story here is so different than the first game and the prince is not as charming as before because the death is literally behind him so his goal is to change his fate and scape the guardian of time which is the dahaka.the graphics are top notch as well from the clean and colorful past to the dark and dirty present with the nature taking over it's just gorgeous.the warrior within is an amazing game and it's unbelievable to know that some people hated it because of it's dark tone and adult themes because to me that actually makes it the superior game over the first one and one of the best sequels ever made..
But. Great gameplay, great graphics and a great story, the fighting is really cool and it shows some special last moves in slow motion.
The will also be parts in the game where you think that the game is other, in a cut scene the prince might say something that will hint that its over but its not, I actually find this quite a good thing to..
The story is okay as the prince is being pursued by a super monster who most certainly does not care for the way the prince changed time around in the previous installment.
The prince hears that the sorceress of time on some island is the key to stopping this unstoppable beast.
His ship crashes and he begins his quest to stop the sands of time from being created thus putting right in some strange way what he did wrong in releasing the sands in the first place.
So in the end a step backward from the previous game for me, the whole making the game more bloody and stuff was unnecessary as was the heavy metal soundtrack as opposed to the great soundtracks of one and three.
Still, it was good enough to be an okay game...just needed more work in a couple of areas and it quite frankly needed more areas..
I don't know how many times I've played Warrior Within in the past decade.
When this game came out, it was my Netflix series before Netflix series were a thing: I had to binge play so that I could see what was going to happen next.
The game play is dynamic and it doesn't get old quickly like Sands of Time did.
The graphics were excellent for its day, and it wasn't so hard you constantly got stuck, but not so easy that you could necessarily breeze through it and be done in just a single afternoon (plus, unlike some video gamers, I like to go outside and get exercise, so that extended the time in which I was involved with this game!).
It followed the first game very well in terms of continuity all things considered, and character development was very good.
The Prince is much darker and brooding than he was in the first game, but he's not yet an anti-hero, or a villainous protagonist like Kratos from the God of War series.
Throughout the game, it's left unclear whether your job is to save or kill her, and different choices made by the Prince will ultimately decide which one you'll do (kill or save).
The Dahaka chases were always intense, especially when they dragged on for long periods of time; one little mistake like a missed jump or a hesitation and you're dead.
It's not a constant problem, and I've gotten through a good number of games without a freeze or a glitch, but it's happened enough times that it's noticeable.The other problem is in the dialog and the female characters.
I also groaned loudly when the Prince declared "At first the Dahaka filled me with fear, but now, it fills me with RAGE!!" Even Monica Bellucci and Robin Atkin Downes, accomplished actors, couldn't really make the script not sound amateurish.Now, for the women in the game: It's possible to have a female character be beautiful and sexy without having them be obnoxiously sexualized.
They could have animated the women to be sexy without being exploitative...but they didn't.The final problem: The end of the game in the 2nd ending (if you get the Water Sword) was confusing, and Ubisoft didn't really clear it up in the next game.Okay, so I gave a few complaints about this game, but it's because I've had a lot of time with it.
Prince of Persia was a game that was by no means rated mature.
This time however, the Prince is much darker,and the game play and story shows this.
The prince is being stalked by the keeper of the time line the Dahaka.
The Dahaka's only goal is to kill the Prince, and restore the time line.
Also stalking the prince are the minions of the Empress of Time.
In this game, the Prince's goal is to stop the Sands of Time from ever being created ,thus, the Dahaka would have no reason to stalk and kill him.
The classic Prince of Persia game play is back with a few new twists.
You still have the ability to control time but there is a new combo fighting system which makes the game play even more enjoyable.
The game developers thought that it would be a good idea to add the blood and gore to the game to make it seem more realistic.
In that they succeeded,and it was the best thing that they could of done to bring out the darkness of the story.
The dynamic environments, the sounds, the brilliant music by Stuart Chatwood, the awesome visual effects, and the rich dramatic story loaded with surprises all integrate to create on of the finest gaming experiences ever.
The creativity of this game shows in the vast variety of the enemies, weapons, not to mention the new brilliant fighting system.
What also makes this game unique is the possibility of finishing it in two different scenarios (To fight the empress or the Dahaka) which I think is new to the gaming world.
The soundtrack is great and showed some variation from that of Sands of Time especially in the integration heavy metal.
I can't wait to the the sequel of this game.Although the combats, enemies, weapons and environment elements are far more dynamic and variable than those in Sands of Time, I kind of prefer the atmosphere of Sands of Time especially the oriental music, which is more prevailing, the details of the Sultan's palace, and the costumes which seem more in line with the Persian style.
Flawed story but the bad-ass Prince kicks ass!!!.
WW (Warrior Within) takes place 7 years after the events of SOT (Sands of Time), it is the 2nd game in the Sands of Time trilogy.
A mythical beast who is the Guardian of the Timeline is trying to kill him because of the events of SOT – in the end, the Prince altered the Timeline making sure that events of SOT never took place at all (he remembers everything though).
The Prince reasons that if he journeys to the mysterious Island of Time and stop the Sands of Time from ever being created, the Dahaka will leave him alone.Similar to SOT, WW takes place in confined environments where you as the titular Prince use acrobatic skills to navigate the environment from A to B.
While this may sound boring, due to the time portals scattered throughout the island, you travel between the past and the present, the familiar areas change and become more challenging and interesting.
The game doesn't shy from violence, all fights are bloody gorgeous.And you of course have the Sands of Time to undo your mistakes should you make too many.
The game has two different endings depending whether you have all the health upgrades and obtained the Water Sword or not.
Both are pretty good but only one of them is canon and continues into the Two Thrones.Technically the game is superb, I liked the soundtrack, heavy metal guitar with Arabian sounds in between.
4. If Shahdee is out of time, why does the Dahaka not try to kill her too?
5. The Prince uses the Mask of the Wraith to become the Sand Wraith and travels back in time to stop his past self from killing Kaileena.
6. In the "bad" ending, the Dahaka kills Kaileena and takes the Medallion of Time from the Prince's breastplate.
But Kaileena's death was supposed to activate the Sands of Time, that would mean that the events of SOT never happened (again).
If the Sands are created because of Kaileena's death, how is the Prince able to use the Sand Powers in the past where Kaileena isn't dead?Anyways to conclude this review, the game gets an 8/10 for superb combat, platforming, graphics, and kick-ass soundtrack.
I like most people enjoyed the first game immensely.
the story, the graphics the game play...
however making prince look like a white guy was just absurd.
at times i didn't know if the problems of the game were my in ability to play, or a bug in the game.Graphics were good, although, both the female protagonist had large boobs and dressed like hookers, which is something that was probably meant to appeal to the lesser gamers who would rather see naked women as opposed to intelligent story lines.And now that all is said and done, and i have finally beaten this game will i play it again?
the only real reason why i beat it was so i could have some satisfaction in knowing that my time in playing wasn't a total waste.i do look forward to the third one, as from what i have read said that it was closer to the first one and had all the good qualities of the this one, minus all the glitches and bugs.Oh, and one more thing...
since when did the alternate endings for games become the main plot lines for the sequel.