Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (2004)

Played on steam on modern PC. Contains minor spoilers:

• Many, many glitches. Some areas are closed off at the end of the game so you cannot get the hidden upgrades without exploiting another glitch or reset to the earlier save, despite the game supposedly being semi-open world. There was a glitch on mummy platform part where the platform did not rise after Dahaka chase, so I needed to reload earlier save and redid all of the chase sequence.
• Very bad game controller's support. Previous game does not support controller, so using steam controller is easy. This game however, support the controller but no option to deactivate and no support for x360 controller. The only way to play it is to use a fan patch file (to support x360) and then setting the controller config manually in the game. Even then, some original config still persisted (LT keeps opening menu instead of whatever button I assigned and when loading the game, the first few seconds the controller does not respond correctly).
• Confusing path and map. Sometimes it's hard to follow where you're supposed to be going.
• Dahaka chase is harder than necessary because of janky and jumping camera angle.
• Enemies are too many, too tough, and not fun. There was an area where I have hit the invisible ninja for 50 times but she hasn't died. Despite playing on normal. Some bosses are unfair and do unblockable hits multiple times.
• The story ends on cliffhanger, some storylines are confusing and makes no sense or handwaved.

The good thing:

• Combo is fun when you learned how to kill enemies with combos.
• Platforming is great and the biggest selling point.

It's way worse than the first game of the trilogy.

For starters, there are no partner sections like in Sands of Time, you're alone at all times. That was a very important part of the first game and made it stand out. Nothing is in place here to fill the void.

The combat is repetitive and boring. Enemies eat so much damage and there's always way too many of them in a single fight.

The story is not told as a flashback with a narrator but rather as a classic linear story, albeit with a few time-travelling quirks. I thought it was underwhelming.

The environments are all drab and samey-looking. Very little colour and too much post-processing to add bloom. The characters look quite bad, worse than in SoT.

It overstays its welcome by a few hours and has way too much backtracking.

Platforming is excellent however, and the castle has a real feel to it, like it's a thought through location. Barring the insane traps and bottomless pits in every hallway.

Sands of Time is certainly a classic, Warrior Within is mostly for the fans.

This PS2 PoP is a darker, more mature follow-up to The Sands of Time, it trades the original’s whimsical tone for a gritty, gothic atmosphere, with a brooding Prince, heavier metal soundtrack, and bloodier combat, which surprised a lot of people at the time since the first entry was a totally different beast in comparison. Particularly I think this was due to the God of War's success at the time, which pushed a lot of games to become way more brutal and violent than all the things we had seen up until that point.

The gameplay builds on its predecessor with deeper combat mechanics (dual wielding, combos), more nonlinear exploration, and time-manipulation abilities. While the shift in tone was divisive, the platforming and puzzles remained strong, some players loved the edgier direction, while others missed the charm of the first game, still, it’s a solid action-adventure experience with a more intense vibe. Particularly I like all PS2 PoP the same, they have their good and bad sides, and if you understand this then you can truly enjoy the experience.

This one for example is heavy on exploration and combat, so much so that it nullifies these aspects in the other two titles. While at the same time, platforming is the weakest aspect of this one, but if I had to choose a must-play through all of them, I would say this is the one. There are also some breath taking chase sequences since this one has the "Nemesis system" where you need to escape an enemy that is constantly chasing you, which no other PoP title has. Though these sequences are scripted, they are not a walk in the park and you will face some challenges when you reach them.

(As I started writing this a realized something: This trilogy is probably the videogame equivalent of Lord of the Rings.

Think about it: An adaptation of a beloved work that improves upon it and refreshes the original title to a younger audience that eats that s**t up! Also widely regarded as astonishing achievements in their respected media. Yeaaaah, this analogy sits way better than the Golden Sun-Kill Bill one. Yeaaah, started from the bottom now we here)

Ok people, so we have revitalized the Prince of Persia IP and now we are sitting on a pile of money made by the Sands of Time. Now we have to come up with something equally good or better to keep the train running, any ideas?

Yeah bitch: The inevitability of fate and f**king Godsmack. Boom!, mic drop.

HOLY. SHIT. I still get goosebumps remembering those sequences with the Dahaka. Man the f**king adrenaline! And "I Stand Alone" blasting in the background! And you get to fight the damn thing at the end!

I cannot, for the life of me, tell you which one I prefered between The Sands of Time and The Warrior Within. I just can tell you that the Dahaka chases and the Empress castle and the double sword stand are part of my personal lore now. I like the more light-hearted, bright-colored tone of the first one, but this gritty, metal-as-fuck sequel? GOAT, just a GOAT game start to finish. It improves on everything the first title did great and takes it all to new levels. New fighting mechanics? got you. Meaningful continuation of the previous story and expanding universe? of course, mate. New environments with innovative puzzles that remind you of the original one? Absolutely, my dude.

A blemish that needs to be pointed out though is the the portrayal of Kaileena. It has a real tonal discrepancy to present such an interesting character, serving as foe and reluctant ally to the prince in his plight, while every one of their interactions is mediated by bikini armor shots. Like, if you want to present a more mature, gritty story then make it mature and gritty mate, but don't put ass shots in the middle man that shit tacky.

Prince of persia warrior within is a 2004 action, adventure, platform and cut-and-shoot game.Ubisoft Montreal, the producer of the game, and Ubisoft, the distributor, have done a great job.The story of the game is as follows.Prince charters a ship to go on a trip and goes to an island.He wants to find the queen who created the sands of time on the island and kill her.The gameplay is as follows.in this game consisting of 23 chapters, you are trying to kill enemies and cross the chapter.The music of the game is beautiful.The graphics of the game are not bad.My rating for the game: 10/10 (y) Good games to everyone 🙂

Been enjoying this a lot so far. Playing it on easy because I hated the combat in the first game. They have improved it a alot, but also decided to have more of it. I just want to run on walls and jump around a lot. There is something very satisfying about slowly and methodically traversing rooms in this game.

Tonally this game is awful. It trades the light banter of SoT for dull brooding, and the music is annoying. I have turned the music off completely, which also turns off all the dialogue in cutscenes. It makes it really eerie. The chase scenes are now mostly silent and geniunely terrifying.

It still looks incredible and I love the level design. There is a lot of backtracking, but it doesn't really bother me yet.