warrior within

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within casts a blood-soaked shadow over its mostly kid-friendly original. Looking back on the Sands of Time, the theme was pretty dark, but combat was fairly sterile in its presentation. In the PC demo for Warrior Within, a more flexible combat system opens up some new ways in which you can gut, decapitate and otherwise eviscerate your enemies, complete with copious blood sprays and slow-motion for particularly violent kills.

Unfortunately the title screen has some kind of nu-metal band playing the main theme which doesn't even come close to the middle east meets west themes of the original. Stuart Chatwood is back on soundtrack duties, but I wasn't able to determine if vocals had simply been added to the title theme or if this is an entirely separate song. In any event, fans of The Sands of Time's soundtrack will be disappointed in the direction it has taken. I mean if we wanted cock rock, we would be playing Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2. The official site has some other examples of in-game music, complete with unnecessarily overwhelming guitars.

At first I was captivated by the new look for the Prince and the game world - it certainly looks more gritty - but I think they went a bit overboard with the character and monster design. The amount of straps, buckles, thong-wearing bosses and bondage costumes make me think that American McGee was advising the art director. Once you get past these cliches, the game looks incredible. I was impressed with the PC demo for The Sands of Time, but the environments in this game are a lot more detailed, if a bit more..er...brown.

The demo is set up so that you must complete certain attack sequences that open up new areas of the level, and gradually introduce you to wielding two weapons. Every monster's weapon is up for grabs, which is neat, and depending on what you're carrying your fighting style will change. While some felt that combat was the weakest part of Sands of Time, this new focus on fighting doesn't mean there isn't a shortage of wall leaping and puzzle solving. The Sands of Time are also back, and do not require a dagger to collect this time around. Whenever an enemy is killed, a cloud of sand is automatically absorbed into the Prince, fuelling your ability to rewind time as in the last game.

Against my better judgement I played through the whole demo, but not without some serious stomach churning along the way. If the demo can be considered an indicator, the camera will be the death of this game. Playing Sands of Time on the Gamecube was a very different experience from the PC, as one control stick was dedicated to rotating the camera at any point when the viewing angle became unwieldy. Even though you can choose controls to redirect the camera in Warrior Within, none of the positions "stick", and so you're stuck with whatever angle the game feels it should be giving you. Most often this is through a wall, or looking straight across over the action, which was completely useless in battle. Wrestling with the mouse to get a good angle for the jumping and wall running puzzles was an unfortunate excercise in frustration.

Technical problems aside, there are two things that trouble me about this game. The first is the November 30th release date. From what I played, Warrior Within is in no way fit for shipping. I'm not sure if UbiSoft is trying to make something of an anniversary release, but I wouldn't be the least bit upset if it was delayed until 2005 for some final polishing. Based on the demo, the experience just doesn't feel as complete or seamless as the original. The second is this god awful blog that was set up as some kind of forum for the corporate shills team behind the game. I'm going to hold out for the final product, as I'm sure most fans of its predecessor will, and for that reason the game will probably do well. I just don't expect it to garner the same accolades as one of last year's best games.

you can't cross the desert outside