The warrior within

Prince of Persia - Warrior Within

Prince of Persia - Warrior within
XBox, MA15

The game: Years of strife have passed and the Prince, now a battle-hardened outcast hunted by Fate’s demon forces, must embark on a fatal odyssey to defy his preordained death.

Only by summoning the infinite powers of a devastating new combat art can he awaken the warrior within and emerge with his life.

The play: In order to defy your preordained death, you must develop unique combat styles and combos utilizing more than 60 melee weapons, projectiles, the environment, and your enemies themselves.

You actually decide your own destiny based on your style of fighting and your interaction with the environments through time travel.

Interestingly enough, if you pick up a second weapon your entire list of moves changes - for example, you can’t grab and throw enemies, but you can decapitate or split your enemy clean in two!

The terrain: Detailed scenes allow for quite complex interaction at times and it can become quite technical, especially when you are forced to run for your life (it happens).

These segments play just like the standard platforming scenes, except you have no time to think – you’ve got to run like hell and navigate the levels on instinct and twitch reaction alone.

Annoyingly, the control quirks that are negligible in the normal platform levels can become more of an issue in these do-or-die situations.

The experience: The combat style could be seen as too complicated. Almost the entire array of moves is thrust upon the player at the beginning of the game, with no gradual learning curve.

It’s easy to make spectacular combinations by just hitting buttons randomly.

Many combat segments take place on ledges, which is hilarious when enemies are tossed to their doom, but aggravating when your acrobatics end up with you also flying off the cliff. Certainly worth a look if you’re a fan of intense combat or the Prince of Persia series.

– Sqn-Ldr Nick Hogan

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