Prince of Persia: Warrior Within : Games : Web Wombat

There's no place quite like Persia - except maybe Africa, Morocco, Belarus, Trinidad and Tobago and I suppose Tunisia - that really stir your spirit into a spot of adventure, a touch of intrigue and sprinkling of skulduggery.

Not only is it the aeons-old architecture and the baggy get-ups that everyone wore in ye olde Persia, the palm trees and the sand dunes, but it's also the traps that lead to disembowelment and eternal pain around every corner that really make you go "hmmmm, Persia rocks".

And the latest game to make use of the tropica-desert surrounds that pervade Persia is Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, or just PoP2, as my close associates and I refer to it.

For those who don't know, Prince of Persia first appeared on the trusty old PC years ago - or was it centuries? Whatever it was, the old 2D game was a fantastic escape from the bad hairdos and awful clothing of the time, not to mention the dull politics. No weapons of mass destruction, no Texan oil men, and very few despots. What were the newspapers filled with back then?

It was a great way to escape the inanity and contradictions of everyday life, and though things are much more interesting today, with real world death, destruction and ultimate uncertainty around every corner, PoP2 is every bit as good as the original was, and about a zillion times better looking to boot.

The legend behind Prince of Persia has not been diluted in the latest 128-bit incarnation for the consoles: you are the Prince of Persia, a strapping young buck who, according to the official Ubisoft sanctioned literature, must "embark upon a path of both carnage and mystery..."

In a Gladiator-esque twist, your death is preordained from the beginning - you are hunted by the Dahaka, an immortal incarnation of Fate seeking divine retribution - something most of us would probably have a bit of trouble dealing with. But old Princey-boy, he doesn't give a crusty crap, and simply gets on with the ass whupping and skull crushing.

The Prince can do 'stealth' as well as 'psycho'

The first level sees you taking control of the Prince and you are subtly nudged along with tooltips, telling you how to fight and use the environment to your advantage. And the setting is stunning.

You begin the game on a pirate ship during a storm (see topmost screenshot) and about twelve-point-four seconds into the game, I came to the realisation that this was going to be an adventure of epic proportions, and as it turned out, I was bang on the money.

The control system, while context sensitive for the most part (an 'action' button will initiative a number of different moves), can be quite confusing, and if you play the game, leave it for a week, then come back, you'll be up shit creek without a paddle.

But if you put in the hard yards you will be rewarded with one of the most fluid and engaging action adventure games of this era. The combat, for instance, is stupendous. Not only is the Prince a lithe and graceful warrior, he's also one psycho mo'fo, and whether you're wielding double daggers, pole-axes, single swords, or a pair of wicked scythes, you can cut off heads, impale, slash, gash and trash your foes with a few deft button presses.

The Prince is incredibly quick too, and can jump over foes, stabbing them in the back, run up walls, spin around poles and charge into the enemy ranks with wild abandon, safe in the knowledge that his combat skills are without peer.

There are so many combat moves in this game it sometimes boggles the mind, and the efficiency with which you can reel them off is staggering *slash-slash-slash-slash-slash-slash-slash-slash* and together with a large range of different weapons to use it adds a slight RPG flavour to proceedings.

One of the coolest features of this game's predecessor, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, was the ability to mess about with the flow of time, and this is again an integral part of the game.

Not as so much in combat, the manipulation of time is often needed to complete puzzles, or avoid deadly traps, or to simple save yourself from a grisly death, and it's good to see that these traps and brain teasers (one of the traditions founded in the original PC games that came out in the old 80286 days) are faithful to the series.

Ah yes, the old head chop, also known
as decapitation, coz his 'cap' comes off

The idea of imminent danger from booby traps and what not keeps things interesting, and when combined with a good mixture of combat and exploration, it's hard to find fault with the gameplay.

One criticism is that there are so many different moves that one sometimes forgets which one would be most apt in a given situation, but it's a minor gripe that hardened gamers will laugh off with impunity.

Graphically, the game is stunning, and is so smooth it sometimes resembles a stylised cartoon. It's a darker and more violent game than Xbox/PS2 title that preceeded it, but is no less absorbing.

Like I mentioned earlier, the first level involving the pirate ship battle on stormy seas is a great introduction to the vivid world created by Ubisoft Montreal, and is a mere taste of things to come.

Compared to the original game, PoP2 is leaps and bounds ahead, particularly in terms of polygon count. The character models look much more detailed, have higher texture mapping applied to them, and yet still move just as fluidly as they did in the original.

The majesty of the level design sometimes beggars belief, and even the small touches, like the ripples in the water and blood spurts from the wounds of fallen foes, come together to create what is one of the best looking games on the Xbox.

Sonically things are just as peachy - the music is fitting, and gives the game a sense of occasion, perfectly plunging you into a long forgotten era, while ambient sounds, such as dripping water or the echoes of unknown origins help to increase the tension.

Quibbles? Well, I had a few. If you were to jump into the game half way through, after watching your mate somersault across Persia, you'd take one look at the control pad, have a dabble, then pass some serious wind and leave the room with a loud "This game sux". The controls are quite in-depth and the often context sensitive controls can be confusing at times.

Level design, while always stunning to look at, can be perplexing too - even vexatious - as you grapple with the same simple puzzle over and over again (at laest I did... [Coz you're an idiot - Ed]). I suppose searching for a walk-through would solve that one though.

At the end of the day, I have no trouble awarding this game a 9 out of 10. Prince of Persia: Warrior Within is an audio-visual feast, a game that manages to engulf you in the make-believe universe the level designers and art directors created, and few other games do it with so much confidence.

The boss fights, the interactive levels, the traps, the puzzles, the time travelling - it's all gold, pure gold! Which begs the question: with all this sparkling goodness, is there any badness to be experienced when playing?

The short answer - no.

Game: Prince of Persia: Warrior Within
System: Xbox
Players: 1
Online: No
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Distributor: Ubisoft

Rating: 90%

(Ratings Key/Explanation)

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within is on the shelves now.

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