Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (pc: 2004): Reviews

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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed games.

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within


7.9

based on 29 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 37 votes
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GAMES:

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

The Prince has to embark upon a path of both carnage and mystery to defy his preordained death. His journey leads to the infernal core of a cursed island stronghold harboring mankind's greatest fears. Only through grim resolve, bitter defiance and the mastery of deadly new combat arts can the Prince rise to a new level of warriorship - and emerge from this ultimate trial with his life. In order to accomplish his mission, the Prince benefits from a brand new free-form fighting system that allows gamers to channel his anger as they wage battle without boundaries. Each game fan will find his or her own unique fighting style as they manipulate their environment and control the Ravages of Time. You can dig into an arsenal of weapons that, when used in combination, create advanced arm attacks that verge on fatal artistry! Prince of Persia: Warrior Within promises that game fans will fight harder, and play longer, emerging from the experience as deadly-capable skilled masters of their own unique combat art form. [Ubisoft]

PUBLISHER:	Ubisoft
DEVELOPER:	Ubisoft Montreal
GENRE(S):	Third-Person Action, Adventure
PLAYERS:	1
ESRB RATING:	M (Mature)
RELEASE DATE:	November 30, 2004

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Four Fat Chicks

Warrior Within is not a perfect game. In many ways, it stands as a badly written testament to exactly what is wrong with video games: sexism, teenage hormones, amateurish writing, clumsy franchise handling. But it's entertaining. It's incredibly entertaining.

BonusStage

One of the best damn games ever, period. This is definitely at the top of my list for Game of the Year, due to addicting gameplay, fantastic presentation, some of the coolest looking blood ever in a game, and a combat system that is relatively second-to-none.

GameZone

Really slick gameplay here folks. Strong controls with a nifty new fighting system.

games(TM)

You get the impression that "The Sands of Time" was just a warm-up for the main event, a game that’s familiar at first but soon reveals a level of imagination beyond that of the original, and displays as little room for error as one of the Prince’s most daring acrobatic leaps. [Christmas 2004, p.100]

GMR Magazine

The acrobatics alone make Warrior Within a must-buy. Rounded out with superb character design and vast Myst-like landscapes, this Prince is another winner.

1UP

A consequence of this darker approach is that that game loses part of what made The Sands of Time unique. Instead of a charming and almost silly character like we saw previously, the Prince here is more one-dimensional.

Yahoo! Games

Largely an upgrade on the original, Prince of Persia: Warrior Within is still one of the most polished and imaginative escapades we've played. Like a blockbuster movie, the tale delivers on almost every count from dazzling pyrotechnics to deft storytelling.

ActionTrip

I like this game for taking the darker tone and being full of blood that spurts as your enemies' heads and bodies fly around, and when they fall to the ground, you give them the last, violent blow, piercing their powerless bodies with your mighty sword.

IGN

Ubisoft took a gamble by taking the Prince to a dark place. I don't think it paid off as the sense of magic, seen even in the old 2D PC days, is barely present here. It wasn't the wrong decision to make for a darker story, but Ubisoft took it too far.

GameSpot

While Warrior Within's combat and satisfyingly long campaign improve on last year's game, the now darker tone falls somewhat flat compared to the storybook atmosphere in "The Sands of Time."

WHAM! Gaming

The game’s tone may have changed drastically from "Sands of Time" but we personally still love everything it has to offer.

PC Gameworld

Not as pure as its prequel, but Warrior Within is still a gritty masterpiece.

Jolt Online Gaming UK

Overall Warrior Within seems to be in something of a messy transition period, caught between the light-hearted fun of the original and some noirish violent action game that was probably more the result of mis-focused market testing than any kind of genuine developer decision.

PC Gamer UK

The combat is a bit rubbish. [June 2006, p.96]

Computer Games Online RO

Unfortunately, the audio of the game simply sucks.

Game Over Online

While the game does address previous game issues and is a worthy successor to the previous title in its own way, it does make you wonder what the game could’ve been if it’d straddled the line between light and dark.

Gamer.tv

The demanding learning curve is absolutely perfect...An essential purchase for patient gamers everywhere.

Sydney Morning Herald

Exploring the labyrinthine citadel is rewarding, although backtracking and frequent deaths can be frustrating.

Total Video Games

Bizarrely it’s not any aspect of the game that lets the experience down but that over style – we simply don’t like the mature nature of the game compared to the delights of its predecessor. The end result comes across as desperately trying to be edgy and blatantly falls short of the mark.

Computer Gaming World

Gorgeous and exhilarating, though needlessly gory and combatcentric. [March 2005, p.72]

GamingTrend

All and all, it just dosen't seem as fun, and that takes away from the overall experience.

PC Format

After the beautiful, atmospheric adventuring in the last game, having your new nemesis introduce herself by slowing grinding her barely-clad buttocks in your face is about as welcome as having her suddenly fart into it. Modern? Mature? No. It's gratuitous, tacky and pointless. [Christmas 2004, p.98]

Inside Gamer Online

Too bad that all of the “enhancements” made to the prince's fascinating virtual world are actually liabilities. We are glad Ubisoft toyed with the bits that needed improvement, but we wonder why they “fixed” the things that were never broken.

eToychest

As a member of a series that takes a treasured place in the pantheon of gaming greatness, it is a lackluster effort, more concerned with watering down the game’s strengths to make it more palatable for the masses than in delivering more of what made its predecessor great.

Edge Magazine

Ubisoft has taken a flawed game of boundless promise, destroyed some (but not all) of its appeal, fixed some (but not enough) of its problems, and jeopardised the whole endeavour by making the same mistake twice and rushing it to market before it was steady on its feet. Prince of Persia is strong and supple enough to survive this with many of its immense virtues intact. But it deserved so much better. [Christmas 2004, p.80]

GameSpy

Warrior Within proves that it takes more than just good combat and platforming to make a great game. Bottom line: The Warrior Within simply didn't have enough "Prince of Persia."

Worth Playing

It shows off the dragged-out combat and its new 'rougher, meaner' attitude like a four year old happily waving around what it found in the cat's litter box, and all of the really good parts seem to go right under the radar. You have to actively work to get to the fun parts, in other words.

My Gamer

The dark environmental settings are just not catching my eye and if I wanted this type of dark depressive art I would play an Id Software title. The charm that came with the original through its use of colors and the likable prince are now gone.

PC Gamer

The Prince's royale style-makers may have done their job, but the programmers needed to take another run at it. [March 2005, p.64]

The average user rating for this game is 7.9 (out of 10) based on 37 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Paul L gave it a4:
Warrior Within is entertaining but does not live up to Sands of Time. It is a mediocre game that lacks polish. And it is very, very buggy. Very. Very. Buggy. Story - the premise behind the plot is sound, but the execution is corny and clumsy. Gameplay is identical to Sands of Time, save for a few combat features (throwing, picking up secondary weapons, new "combos", swining around vertical poles). This works well and is mainly why the game was entertaining for me. The additional combat features helped add some variety over Sands of Time combat. Graphics - you'd expect Ubisoft might put a good deal of effort behind making the prince look decent as you'll be spending the entire game staring at the guy. But no. Also, it'd have helped if the prince in the cutscenes and prince in game resembled each other. Environment and enemies are mediocre. Audio quirks (bugs?) in the game will frustrate you as music for what should be a heart-pumping fast-paced portion of the game whispers softly. Think of the problem SoT had with dialogues and apply it to music. Oh, and some dialogue may cut out as they did for me. If you are set on buying this game, I recommend you read up on all the fatal bugs (bugs that prevent you from finishing the game) to avoid doing anything that trigger them in game. The game apparently did not go through much testing. You will find that at some points in the game some surfaces turn white. This is not game-stopping, but it is disconcerting and annoying. Bugs too numerous to count. Yet Ubisoft has not released a patch for Warrior Within. This may be a testmant to how messy the code is. Or how little they think of their customers. I definitely recommend saving your time and money by not purchasing this game. If you must play this game, find a friend who has it.

Analogue B gave it a10:
Though it lacks the charm of Sands of Time, Warrior Within sports some great gameplay and absolutely incredible level / game design. Quite a bit more challenging than the first game in the series, but more rewarding for it. The first boss fight is too difficult for what is essentially a game opener, but I wouldn't have too many other criticisms. An epic game and absolutely a five star title.

Phil gave it a6:
Worst game of the trilogy. They tried to add more combat but it just results into a big failure. Playing with arrows keys is a mess, you never really know where you'll land. Cameras are even worst than in the previous game. We can see this game was made really quickly, like a friday night after a party. And about the music... painful. I'm not a big fan of heavy metal but once in a while its fine but when you have to listen to it almost all the time its annoying, i almost wanted to turn it off and put my own music. And some boss combats are interrupted by some little videos... fine but when you don't expect it, you come back into combat, without having time to protect and die. Of course, graphics are great, you can watch the videos in bonus sections and thats pretty much all the pros. So I'll just recommand stick with Sands of time and the two thrones.

Vic gave it a1:
Bought this game today. Pros: + nice graphics, Cons: - frustrating gameplay - prepare yourself for constant reloads. I mean it - every 20 seconds or so, right from the beginning. Verdict: Forget it, spend your time on something FUN, not frustrating.

Mydienon Z. gave it a5:
I'll say upfront, I'm not a platform gamer. I got this game free with a new graphics card purchase. I haven't played Sands of Time. So, my opinion is from the virgin perspective. I cannot recommend this game to other platform virgins. The professional reviews are accurate--the moves look cool, and the dark atmosphere is there. [***SPOILERS***] But the game, on "easy", is so frustrating for new players! The "tutorial" tells you which buttons to press, sometimes--and other times leaves you to figure it out. When you make a mistake, you die. (That "recall" power described in the game doesn't come to you until after defeating the first 2 bosses). Making a mistake is easy, because the camera can't be "locked" into one position--it always tries to give you the best view of the action by circling and zooming in/out automatically. You can't predict it, either--sometimes it will circle left, then when you die and restart, the exact same situation comes up and it circles right. Naturally, the camera will try to reposition mid-jump and mid-combat--suddenly, the direction you were moving just changed, and you are now rolling off a cliff. My opinion? Not fun. The first boss you hit is also terrible. You can get through all of the enemies on the Hard setting the first time you play. Then you reach the boss, and get slaughtered because the tutorial gives you zero information. After reloading a few dozen times, you'll get good at killing the enemies (which always appear in the same places) but the boss remains impossible. Why? Because the first boss requires totally different tactics than you had to use before; tactics never covered by the tutorial. When you restart the game on Easy, you slaughter the enemies, reach the boss, and die. This continues until you either have some divine inspiration, or you go online and find a walkthrough. My opinion? Not fun. Using a walkthrough, the boss is easy to beat. What about the second boss? The tutorial tells you what to do, so the boss is easy. Except that you are near cliff-face ledges, and acrobatic combat with seemingly random camera movement makes suicide jumps all too frequent. This boss must be defeated more than once, which isn't a problem except that the tutorial, once again, is unhelpful. You must figure out how to reach the boss using your acrobatic skills...and any mistake means you die, restart, and fight again. My opinion? Not fun. If you turn to an online walkthrough, it is unhelpful, since it requires perfect button-pressed timing to achieve the specific acrobatic sequences required. If you get through this, and continue on, you will probably learn the game better and eventually succeed. But as a first-time platform experience, I strongly suggest avoiding this title. After 30 hours of playing, I have gotten through the first two bosses. And now I'm shelving the game, because it is Not Fun. I don't like needing a walkthrough just to play a game, and I don't like restarting and doing the exact same thing 50+ times (seriously) until my luck holds out through all the button presses at the exactly correct times. And I seriously despise games that kill you for no reason, which is what I call it when you're jumping left, and the camera does a 180 turn while you're in the air, and suddenly you're jumping off a cliff. Expert players learn to deal with this, by watching the camera and learning exactly when and how to change movement mid-jump to land correctly. I'm not an expert. I suck. For all beginners, I strongly suggest not making this your introduction to 3D platform games. You've been warned. For genre experts, and fans of the first game--go for it, and let me watch you play, because when an expert plays this game, it flows almost as smoothly as a Tony Jaa action movie (but with a cornier plot).

Franz F. gave it a0:
Several minutes of unskippable movies lead to game sections in which you can get away with clicking a couple of buttons in frenzy. Then you're forced to sit and spend several more minutes with unskippable and uninteresting videos. At least they look good. Graphics are the only good thing about this game. I've no idea what the critics were thinking back then but this is a piece of shit covered with ice cream. Looks like westerners still buy these makeshift stereotypical fantasies related to an eastern world that never existed.

Mingyu W. gave it a5:
I have to say the fighting is impressive, however, the game is so dark! and its so diffult to move about, the keys r not well coordinated and i'm always unsure of pressing which direction button to jump. And especially when a wrong jump results in death, it can be rather irritating. for example, i got caught while fighting the crows early in the game and had to restart so many times. thankfully the rest of it weren't as bad.