Customer Reviews

Prince of Persia 2 Warrior Within

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Prince of Persia, the Sands of Time was a unique and revolutionary game that relied on intuitive and slow paced gameplay with increased emphasis on thoughts and visuals as opposed to button twitching action. This game, the sequel, moves the game more towards the ordinary action, cliched video game, with increased annoyances from large fights, backtracking, and bosses. Original games shouldn't move back towards the standard, formulaic game, but unfortunately, this does.

The first thing everyone is probably wondering is how different is this from the Sands of Time? Well, the puzzles, the intuitive and graceful controls and the fun movements are all there. Many of the same elements of gameplay still exist. Just getting from point A to point B in a large room with pillars, ledges, running on walls, swing on ropes, sliding down drapes, it's all there. Still the same reliance on thinking, visuals. In fact, there is actual improvement. The last game had jumps that were questionable and jumps were made blindly. This game has eliminated much of that. Other improvements include the fact that you traverse the same palace within two different time periods, meaning that the same rooms will have different traps or different lighting. A very interesting and unique concept.

The other changes are more dramatic. The videos and styles are a little darker, they've added chase scenes, and most drastic of all, they changed the fighting system and added a lot more fighting.

First off, the videos, audio, and visuals of the enemies are of a slightly darker nature, which is pretty much the only reason why it's a mature rating. It's worth noting that they fixed the sound problems from SOT and added subtitles. They changed some of the music. While still ambient, fighting scenes switch to guitar riffs from Godsmack (I think). While I like Godsmack and I own a few albums of theirs, the guitar music is annoying and does not fit well in this game. The story is decent, and CGI is pretty good though. Unfortunately, I have no idea why they made it rated mature. Just removing a few lines, and removing the blood, and making small changes would make this rated T or E. It's pretty pathetic when a video game feels it needs to add sexual connotations and needless blood just to increase sales. All it does is embarrass anyone who sees the game (polygon half-naked woman are just lame) and alienates a large group of players.

Secondly, they added more time-based schemes, most notably, chase scenes. Basically, a monster comes in and chases you and you have a limited amount of time to move from one room to another. Now, unfortunately, this does not work. The main reason is that the camera angles switch so often that orienting yourself takes a second, a second you cannot spare. What's worse is that sometimes the cutscenes themselves ruin the momentum and cause you to lose you life. The chase scenes are basically just a sequence of run to room, get caught, start the scene over, run to the next room, get caught, repeat. Just boring, iterative, and badly designed. What's worse is that some controls, noticeably swinging on ropes are poles, are not intuitive when timing is concerned.

Thirdly, there are also other cliched things that just annoyed me. Backtracking is slightly annoying, but the lack of balance is huge. The backtracking means that you'll actually go through many of the same rooms a few times. One time I got really lost and had to refer to a walkthrough in order to get my bearings straight. It didn't help that the map is absolutely useless, and it's one big picture with two markers. Not too fun, and a large step backwards in gaming in my opinion. When I say lack of balance, I talk about the distribution of save points and life regeneration points. To reach one point will be dirt easy, then next would require tons of enemies, tons of timed jumps, and a chase scene, which would sometimes takes forever. Also of note is the fact that life upgrades are harder to find. If you want the "good" ending, you've got to get all the life upgrades. This either requires you to get lucky (good luck with that), follow a walkthrough, which isn't fun, or backtrack a lot and do a lot of random searching. Either way, it's boring and I didn't even bother.

Fourthly, and most obvious is the "free form fighting system". This is another name for superfluous and unneeded combos. While the first game had enemies that were easy to kill with a few moves, this game is a bit more complicated. It'll take some time to figure out the way to kill an enemy, but once you do, it's pretty much the same repetitive motions over and over again, just more buttons. Unlike the first game, the enemies are not a minor annoyance, but a huge annoyance. There are so many that just to traverse between save points requires you to kill tons of the same enemies for no reason. Many times you can pass by them, but a flaw in the system means that the prince will be in combat mode when an enemy is close by. This means that many of the Prince's moves are not available until you kill the enemies, even though there is no need to kill them in order to move on. Sometimes, especially near the end, enemies just keep coming up. They are relatively easy to kill, but you might mess up once in a while. This is fine, except when there are about twenty enemies to kill, and all it takes is a few snafus ups to die, meaning that killing the enemies is very meticulous, but very, very monotonous. It's just the height of tedium and time wasting. The bosses are also an unneeded cliché. For example, the last enemy takes almost a half an hour to kill. I encountered a bug when I was about twenty minutes into the last boss, which required me to restart the fight. Talk about boring.

Finally, there are some huge glitches. One caused me to lose about twenty minutes or work, and another would have forced me to restart if I didn't keep multiple save games on my memory cards. Two huge bugs discovered in my first try. Talk about a rushed game.

All in all, it's a pretty good game, but a little too much like every other game out there. A bad direction for the series, but it still has a bit of the Sands of Time magic to make it very enjoyable.

Pros:
Incredible atmosphere
Controls are still pretty intuitive for the puzzles
Great concept of travelling the same Palace in two different times
Good Videos
No walkthrough or guide needed for most of the game

Cons:
Repetitive, dull, and an unnecessary large amount of fighting
Cameras angles still lacking, especially during timed action
Unbalanced game
Needless backtracking
Needless Mature rating.
Useless Map
Huge glitches
Guitar Riffs don't work well

Time to complete: 20 hours

Difficulty level: Medium/Low (on Easy)

Frustration level: Medium

first of all, this game is definitely one of my all time favorites. I got hooked into the genre by playing SOT, which was a good game, but in my opinion could have had just a little bit more edge, which is what they did with this game. It could be that i'm just a sucker for the new free-form fighting system, in which you can pull off a slew of ridiculously awesome looking combos,or the fact that it's just dark in general. I don't want to steer anyone wrong though, SOT was great, i thought how they played the prince off as an innocent bystander of the vizier's twisted little plan was good, even possibly legendary, but honestly this is a different time period in the prince's life...it's not even realistic to claim that he wouldn't be battle-scarred after all those years. So personally i think the change is good and thats all i have to say about that.

So anyways, moving on...if you haven't played it yet and have also played the first one, what are the changes?? Well quite obviously as previously stated it has much more edge, it has some sexual themes, which honestly i don't even think are really life-changing, a teen could most definitely handle it, and the prince is much darker and battle-scarred in this one, which i think is great. Also, the added some more obstacles like the wall run rope and the curtain sliding thing. There are also some chase scenes and some godsmack to go along with em. The videos are cooler, the obstacles are harder, and i think it takes a little more thought, you really gotta look around sometimes. But without a doubt the biggest change is the free-form fighting system.

So...why complicate a game with numerous combos, when you can just have a couple......i'll answer this just by saying because it gives the game flair, edge, and by god it just looks really cool. You know what, if you dont like em, dont use em. thats what i say. you can stick to the same moves that you used in the previous game if you really wanna, but why? if you hit random buttons you can make something look cool so why not? give it a shot...reach into that inner gamer thats a sucker for sweet looking moves and just try it for gosh sakes!!! personally, i like knowing what combination of buttons is gunna make the move look like, so i just memorize, but you dont have to and thats why its great.

OK, so what is with the chase scenes...why complain? i didnt have a problem getting through any of them, personally i like them because they make you think quick, which may make it harder, but come on!! you should know when you signed up for this that you are going to be thinking just a little...this is POP, not like dynasty warriors, in which you just kill everyone. its gunna take some thought so why not make you think fast, it keeps you on your toes. Plus, i don't know about you but the "i stand alone" chase theme definitely should pump you up, a little metal never hurt anyone.

ok...the one flaw...expanding your life...this wasn't easy. I'm going to be completely honest. I cheated and looked at a walkthrough. When someone tells me the ending is going to be cooler if you get all of these i gotta do it even if that means cheating a little. Even when you get to the rooms that expand your lifes the traps are pretty friggin hard i'm not going to lie..it just takes some time, but, what doesn't these days.

alrite so finally all i have to say is ignore the rumors that they made the POP genre look bad, its not true, if you like cute little prince's running through palace's with a princess stick to SOT i guess, i don't know why people get so overeasy about the M rating but its REALLY NOT THAT BAD. Its better :)
so go and by it at your nearest video game store today, at least before you get the third one ;)

Here is all of the information that I can remember.
The Prince returns for an all-new adventure in which he must stop his preordained death. To do that, the Prince must journey to the infernal core of a cursed island stronghold harboring mankind's greatest fears.
Late last year, Ubisoft released Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, which single-handedly served to revitalize a classic franchise that most thought was dead. Though not a perfect game, its achievements greatly outnumbered its shortcomings, and the critical acclaim was deafening. It's no big surprise, then, that work is already well underway on the sequel. Prince of Persia 2 looks to correct the few flaws of the original and continue to deliver that unique blend of jumping, dodging, and fighting that worked so well before.

Set five to seven years after Sands of Time, the Prince is not the naive, uh, jerk he once was. While the story is still a complete mystery, the years have evidently not been easy. He's seeking atonement for something -- perhaps the events of the prior game? But they didn't really happen, did they? Oh, what a tangled web they weave.

What I can tell you about are the new features and optimizations. PoP2 will run on the same engine as the last game, but tighter coding will allow for larger environments and better graphics overall. The Xbox version is aiming for 60 fps, while PS2 will be 30. The trailer I saw took place on a rocking pirate ship, in the midst of a storm. It looked just as cool as you'd hope.
The developers acknowledge that the first game's combat system was not quite as good as they'd hoped it would be, so it's been reworked somewhat for PoP2. The most obvious change is a new grab move. The Prince can now leap over his enemies to grab them from behind, and either slice them in half, decapitate them, use them as a shield, or perform a mighty leap off of their back. He can also run up the backs of larger enemies, which was amply demonstrated when a three-story tall ogre attacked. The idea was to run up its back and slash its head until it managed to throw the Prince off. Better enemy A.I. will also add to the fun, so it'll no longer feel like you're beating up on slow, ugly pre-schoolers.

(...)The game will also feature a brand new free-form fighting system that allows players to channel anger into a tangible combat technique. Players will also appreciate a variety of unique fighting styles as they manipulate the environment and control the Ravages of Time. Players will also have access to an arsenal of weapons that can be used in combination to create advanced arm attacks.

It looks like fans of the last adventure have a lot to look forward to in Prince of Persia 2.

I'm not sure if this game will get an "M" rating but it seems a possible to happen because of some screenshots and trailers i've seen.I cant wait for it to come out.THE AGONY.Bye!!!

I don't write reviews for games very much, well actually I never have. But for this one I couldn't help but write one. This is by far the best adventure game I have ever played, for any system. The sword play is simply breath taking and the storyline is about as good as it gets.

Basically the whole plot is that the Prince has to go back in time to destroy the Sands of Time, but while doing so you're being chased by an unbeatable creature called the Dahaka that is trying to kill you. You are also met with a slew of other twists and puzzles that truly test your skills.

Everything about this game is amazing, the acting, voice-overs, plot, action, and gameplay. The thing that I like most about this is how you can incorporate poles, walls, and even the enemies while fighting. The powers you develop over the course of the game are also an enormous treat that actually help you, and that you will use. The graphics are also a thing to behold, the cutscenes when you kill people, may it be cutting them in half (horizontal and vertical), cutting off their head, or just stabbing them are just awesome. It all has just left me wanting more.

I reccommend everybody at least rent this because it is emense fun, and the terrific plot gets you involved to a point where you just want to keep playing just see what happens next.

This game is more challenging than PoP Sands of Time, longer, and somewhat buggier. I enjoyed the time I spent with it, but very close to the end I was prevented from finishing by a known and widely reported bug. (A time portal fails to operate.) Apparently the solution is to start the game over from scratch, but I lack the time and heart do the whole thing again. The game also got stuck at a couple of other points, but restoring from a saved game got around those glitches.

I like the controls in this game better than previous versions. I didn't find myself struggling to get some ultra-finicky key sequence just right. On the other hand, there are many more sequences to memorize. You don't need to know them all, but you will need more than a handful to make it through the fighting. A couple of good moves just won't cut it. This version of the game is definitely heavier on fighting and lighter on puzzles than previous versions, but it still has plenty of both.

One suggestion for people just starting: keep a map and notes. Later in the game you will be asked to navigate to various places by name. I remembered the places, but had not the foggiest idea of how to get to them. The game map is almost completely useless for this, although it will tell you where you are and where you are trying to get. Without a good memory or a good map, getting back to a particular room could be a tedious exercise at best. I resorted to an online walk-through as a memory refresher a couple of times.

On the whole I liked it, but was somewhat disappointed that I didn't get to finish.

This game is fantastic!I mean, you get to slash enemys in half, use stealth for a sneaky fight,you get to walk on walls, and much much more.I like how you can replenish your health by simply drinking a handful of water. The rewind button is cool, so if you snuff it, you can go a little ways back without restarting the whole level.There are so many sweet characteristics for this game, it's almost impossible to list them all. I wouldn't recommend this game game to young children though, with all the profanity and blood and stuff like that. I would have rated this game this game T for teen, if it didn't have all the stuff listed above.But overall, I think this game deserves five stars.

Either the people below who gave it 1's and 2's didn't even play the game, or there is something seriously wrong with their brain chemistry. When the suprise hit Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time came out i was immediately hooked with its breathtaking visuals, mindboggling gameplay and combat system, and its fluid animations and character designs. When I heard that Prince of Persia 2 was coming later in the year, i was ecstatic. But scared as well. How could you improve on something that was without a doubt THE fighting-adventure game? By completely overhauling it of course.

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within has the greatest combat system EVER. Entitled "Free-Form Fighting," every single thing you do can have a nearly infinite number of outcomes. You can take a human shield Splinter Cell style and then flip them head over heels off a cliff to their doom, steal their weapon and then run then through with it, chop off their heads (did i mention that more blood is spilled in this game than Jack the Ripper could spill in a whore-house?), slice them down the middle, and so many other things. The possibilities are endless.

Now for the story line. I like it. I like it a lot. So far as I know, several years have passed since Sands of Time. The Prince, now grisled and grim, is on the run from a physical incarnation of Fate called the Dahaka. The beast is chasing the Prince because he opened the Sands of Time, and anyone who does that is supposed to die. The Prince didn't die, so the Dahaka is out to finish the job. The Prince's only option is to travel to the Island of Time, the birthplace of the Sands. He must travel back in time to before the Sands were created by the Empress and stop it from happening. But, as everyone tells him, he cannot escape his fate, no matter what, he will die. Now you're probably making a double-take on the "travel back in time" bit. Although you do retain the ability to travel back a few seconds to undo a mistake or two, there are portals that can send you back or forth centuries. Anything you do in the past can have an impact in the future, making it possible to reach some place you couldn't before.

Last but not least (yeah, I know, but I'm almost done.) Prince of Persia is M-rated. Why? Blood, gore, and extremely scantily clad women. Seriously, like thirty seconds in you see a hot lady's bare [...]. And what's more, you get to fight her. What more could you ask for? Overall, Prince of Persia exceeds all expectations. From the visuals to the moveset to the women, you will dig this game all the way to the end (which I have yet to reach.) Ok, bye. I have to go beat the game now. Toodles!

Every holiday, I buy a new game for my husband and we play together -- with his hand at the controls. We enjoy more RPG type games than hacky slashy stuff. I am sad that the music in Warrior Within is more heavy metal than beautiful, that the scenes are less well-lit and not as stunning and that there are half-naked women that scream alot when you are fighting them -- for 30 minutes in a row. If you are a good fighter, you get to call the woman, "[...]," etc.

I know that there are more cool moves, etc. but still. Serious gamers are going to argue that I need to keep playing to get to the one "good" woman character and for all the other fun stuff, but first impressions are important and I am not happy.

I know that I am not really the market that this game is trying to reach, but I am still sad about the blood, violence and t&a action that is a major part of this new POP. It's hard to find stuff that I can enjoy.

I DON'T KNOW ABOUT YOU, BUT I AM SICK OF PEOPLE WRITING A REVIEW FOR A GAME THAT THEY HAVE NEVER EVEN PLAYED! I own and have played this game so take it from me, this is one of the best games of the year. Now about the game, it is mind blowing! The magazines got it right when they gave this a very high rating{PSM 10 out of 10). The graphics are simply amazing and trust me, you will get hooked on this as did I. The enviornments are lush with a much darker tone than the first one, but this is because the prince is embarking on a much more mysterious and dangerous journey which would explain his war-torn look. One of the MOST important things that makes a great game is a great story. This is one of the most memorable and inticing story-lines ever. His fate has been written, he will die! He took the sands of time and since he cheated death in the first game "the dahaka" {an incarnation of fate} is after him,trying to restore balance to the life/death cycle. You cannot tell me that doesn't spark an interest for you. Along with the rewind power returning from the first game, they have also added a "free form fighting system" to the game. It is just what it sounds like, free form fighting. With over 60 combos that the pince can perform, it makes sure the fighting never gets old. Trust me people, this is one that will be talked about for a long time to come, when all other games are forgotten. Don't let this one slip through your fingers!

Firstly, this game is designed to appeal to the mainstream market. You still have the first games acrobatics, but also some great action. You may be disapointed at how the game has lost Sands of Time' charm.

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I have Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and I Like it, but the major faults with it are the camera, fighting and the prince looked like a ponce, becouse of his hair and clothes (the pants made him look like a goat). But POP:SOT was still a good game overall.

I heard about POP:WW coming out and I was really excited becouse I heard it was a much darker sequel.

It is. You start off the game with the prince running away from a vicious beast, showing off brilliant cutscene graphics. You are then on a ship, fighting against unknown demons, with a thong-wearing (human)woman leader.

Ok, now its time for the review to start

GAMEPLAY:
10/10- The acrobatic moves are mind boggelingly cool! They really will amaze you! The fighting is HUGELY IMPROVED! The Combos you can pull off are amazing and get better and better as the game goes on. There are a variety of different weapons on offer, such as axes, daggers and mases. YOU CAN EVEN HOLD TWO WEAPONS!!! If you see an enemy far away, you can throw a weapon at him and you can see his head chopping off!

GRAPHICS:
9/10- The strong point of Sands Of Time, they are even MUCH BETTER in this game! When you use the time powers, the screen blurring is amazing.

LIFESPAN:
8.5/10- It will keep you hooked for over a month becouse of the extra unlockables hidden in-game!

OVERALL:
This game will not disapoint, as long as you stick with it, as some puzzles might be very hard and frustrating at the start, but it becomes second nature later.

THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST ACTION/PLATFORMER GAMES EVER!!!