Years have passed and the Prince is now a stronger, battle-hardened warrior that fights to avoid his fate. In opening the sands of time the to save the Sultan’s palace from destruction, he has also created a problem in the timeline. In doing so the Dahaka, a magical creature created for one purpose, destroying the Prince, has been sent out to hunt him down. In order to avoid his fate, he travels to the birthplace of the Sands of Time to journey to the past and stop the sands from ever being created. A darker Prince, a darker story, a darker fate, Warrior Within aims to be bigger and better than the original.

Everything that made The Sands of Time an instant hit is back bigger and better. More obstacles to get past, bigger rooms to jump around in acrobatic fashion, and of course, some of the most enjoyable and entertaining battle sequences in any action/adventure game.

Ubisoft calls it their Free-Form Fighting system. I call it a trillion and one ways to kick some butt. More than just an expansion from last year, Warrior Within features a system that allows you to block, counter, avoid, link combos, and use the environment to create one of the best fighting structures to date. With the ability to use either one handed or two handed weapon techniques, the Prince has a slew of new moves that’ll make Warrior Within more than just a mindless hack and slash title. When using only one weapon the Prince is able to use his free hand to flip and boost over enemies, choke them, and even steal their weapon in a “finishing move” type of fashion. When equipped with two weapons in hand, he’ll be able to pull off a host of combos either leading with his left or right hand. The combos are easy to pull off as you’re either pressing the X or Y buttons simulating your right or left hand. They range from small two button combos such as X+Y to slightly larger button combinations like Y+Y+X+X+Y+Y. Regardless, pulling off these fascinating moves isn’t hard at all, especially starting out when you first familiarize yourself with the combat. Ubisoft’s main goal in implementing Free-Form Fighting was to give players a character with supreme agility, strength, and a style unmatched by any other game. With over 60 weapons to use, 30 moves to master, and the ability to rewind time just as before, this has been accomplished without a doubt and as said before, truly a unique experience.



Warrior Within is also a lot harder than Sands of Times for a different number of reasons. Enemies attack in larger packs and some defend against specific moves no matter what you do. For instance, you’ll find it impossible to rebound off certain enemies or steal their weapons. I can’t really understand why the AI was made that way except to make the game a tad bit more difficult and force gamers to explore other options when fighting particular foes. Rooms are also a lot bigger and will require more time to complete. As before, expect the rooms to be filled with traps such as spikes, saws, daggers, and of course, huge heights (those with Acrophobia need not apply). With so much being added into Warrior Within it’s tough to complain about what the game really lacks; and that is compelling characters or story. Whereas The Sands of Time included a more personal Prince and even a love interest with Farah, Warrior Within features very little in either category. Though the Prince is a lot darker and more mysterious, he never seems interesting. The story of his unavoidable fate, though appealing in thought, doesn’t get any real attention until the last few hours of gameplay. Direction of the story seems to have taken a backseat this time around and story lovers from The Sands of Time will be a bit disappointed.

Ending on a fine note, everything that made The Sands of Time so gratifying has been beefed up to make Warrior Within a much bigger, longer, and more extensive title.

In order to make the Prince appear darker, the Ubisoft artists have created a world where light pierces through small crevices, shadows are extremely detailed, and fog and dust kick up from the ground. The Prince also has gotten a new make over with leather straps on his forearms, and a stronger demeanor.

Warrior Within also allows gamers to experience two different looks at the same location by going into the past and present. While the present features a more foliage look featuring vines extending all along the land, the past has a pristine golden visage. The difference of past and present come together to give gamers a great backdrop to bounce around and tout their fighting abilities. Textures have been redone and it’s amazing how better this game looks with just one year of production. Though you might not be treated with a multitude of different places, the seamingless transition of moving from room to room is very believable and realistic.



By far the animations and slow motion effects are what make Warrior Within one of the cooler looking games out on the market. As before, backflips, jumps, spin moves, somersaults, strangulations, stealing an enemy’s weapon, decapitations, and my favorite, slow motion finishing moves will make gamers drop their jaws with disbelief. The animations are smooth and very fluid. This is the kind of stuff little kids will be trying to do by jumping off their beds. Though it looks like a lot of fun, leave it to the professionals. Though there are a few mishaps with the animation (enemies going through walls or the Prince pulling off a decapitation a few feet away) and there are a few slow downs with the frame rate, the darker more mystifying Prince is indeed one of my more favorite and rememberable characters in terms of looks.

Led by the “I stand alone” song by the band Godsmack (kind of an appropriate song considering the Prince’s situation), the music of Warrior Within is both adrenaline rushing and mysterious when the time is needed. Just as with The Sands of Time, any fighting sequence is given some hard rock music while the rest of the time you’re listening to subtle and orchestrated Persian themes. Though I’m not a big fan of rock music in a video game (as we’ve all heard how bad it can sound), I’m actually quite pleased with the final product. Matching the Prince’s dark demeanor and strong sense of combat, the music tends to breed more aggression at the perfect moments and is a great catalyst for combat. Likewise, the subtleties heard throughout the game, whether music or the sounds of footsteps or the ripping of banners, are very crisp and clear.

There are a few lackluster points however, which are the repetitive enemy quotes and the Prince himself. During the Sands of Time the narration of the Prince was very engrossing. We were also treated with a lot more dialogue throughout the game’s entirety. It’s a shame the same can’t be said with Warrior Within. Again, it’s not until the end of the game that the Prince puts on some convincing voice acting. What’s more is that he doesn’t have someone to talk to this time around so we don’t really get that same story telling feeling we did before. You’ll get the occasional one-liners from fighting but they start recurring very quickly from both the Prince and his enemies.

Warrior Within uses very little in terms of a GUI. Only when the Prince is engaged in combat will gamers see his Life Bar, Sand Slots, Power Timer, and Weapon frame. All of these icons are stored on the top left hand corner and uses very little of the screen.

There was always a constant camera angle problem in The Sands of Time, especially during tight corners. Though a lot of the camera problems have been addressed there are still times where you want to rip your hair out. Instead of being able to asses the risk of a particular jump or leap, it becomes sort of a guessing game. This is even more noticeable during chase scenes. Since time is limited you more than likely have to guess which way to run across a wall or leap across a platform. This can lead to a few deaths and a repeat and try over and over situation. A few frustrating parts throughout the game, but many more polished camera angles this time around.

Though it might lack some of the “wow” factor that The Sands of Time had, Warrior Within still has some new tricks up its sleeve. The Free-Form Fighting is by far one of the most entertaining features in any game this year. Easy to understand but difficult to master, Free-Form Fighting should change how action games are made.

My one and only true gripe with Warrior Within is the lack of compelling story. The beginning really starts out as if it can be something great; even better than The Sands of Time. But after awhile, it begins to move at a slow and at times, uninteresting pace. Ubisoft has given fans more of what they loved so much in the first title; it seems they forgot about some of the little things. It’s not that the story is bad; but rather that it could have been much more. While there are one or two moments when you really get into the game and start pulling for the Prince to change his fate, there are twice as many moments when you could care less what happens or what’s going on. Perhaps it’s because the rest of the game is as addictive as ever and I myself am to blame for losing interest? Regardless of the reasons, expect a bigger, more challenging Persia this time around filled with huge landscapes, jaw dropping acrobatics, and an original and addictive fighting system.