Prince of Persia: Warrior Within is a video game and sequel to Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

Warrior Within was developed and published by Ubisoft, and r eleased on December 2, 2004 for the Xbox, PlayStation 2, GameCube, and Microsoft Windows.[1] It picks up where The Sands of Time left off, adding new features, specifically, options in combat. The Prince now has the ability to wield two wea pons at a time as well as the ability to steal his enemies' weapons and throw th em. The Prince's repertoire of combat moves has been expanded into varying strin gs that allow players to attack enemies with more complexity than was possible i n the previous game. Warrior Within has a darker tone than its predecessor addin g in the ability for the Prince to dispatch his enemies with various finishing m oves. In addition to the rewind, slow-down, and speed-up powers from The Sands o f Time, the Prince also has a new sand power: a circular "wave" of sand that kno cks down all surrounding enemies as well as damaging them. The dark tone, a vast ly increased level of blood and violence as well as sexualized female NPCs earne d the game an M ESRB rating. Following Warrior Within, a second sequel and a prequel were made, expanding the Sands of Time story. Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones was released on November 30, 2005 and Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands was released on May 18, 2010 .[citation needed] A port of Warrior Within was done by Pipeworks, renamed as Pr ince of Persia: Revelations, and it was released on December 6, 2005 for Sony's PlayStation Portable.[citation needed] The port includes additional content incl uding four new areas not available in the original release.[citation needed] On the 3rd of June 2010, a port of Warrior Within was released for the iOS.[citatio n needed] A remastered, High-Definition, version of Warrior Within was released on the PlayStation Network for the PlayStation 3 on December 14, 2010.[2] Contents [hide] 1 Plot 2 Main characters 3 Gameplay 4 Development 5 Reception 6 References 7 External links Plot[edit] Set seven years after the events of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, the Pri nce finds himself constantly hunted by a terrible beast known as the Dahaka. The Prince seeks counsel from an old wise man who explains that whoever releases Th e Sands of Time must die. Because the Prince escaped his fate, it is the Dahaka' s mission as guardian of the Timeline to ensure that he dies as he was meant to. The old man also tells of the Island of Time, where the Empress of Time first c reated the Sands. The Prince sets sail for the Island in an attempt to prevent t he Sands from ever being created, an act he believes will appease the Dahaka. Af ter a battle at sea with an enemy force led by a mysterious woman in black capsi zes the Prince's ship, the Prince washes ashore unconsciously onto the Island of Time. He later awakens and chases the woman in black through the Empress of Time's for tress into a portal that transports the two into the past. The Prince saves a wo man named Kaileena from being killed by the woman in black, whose name is Shahde e. Unable to grant the Prince an audience with the Empress of Time, who is busy preparing to create the Sands, Kaileena instead tells him how to unlock the door to the throne room in which the Empress resides. The Prince makes his way throu gh the fortress, utilizing the sand portals to travel back and forth between the past and present, and narrowly escapes several encounters with the Dahaka, who he discovers cannot pass through water. The Prince activates the mechanisms in t he two towers of the fortress - the Garden Tower and the Mechanical Tower - that serve as locks to the door. He returns to the throne room only to discover that Kaileena is actually the Empress of Time herself, who has foreseen in the Timel ine that the Prince will kill her and who has decided to attempt to defy her fat e, just as the Prince is doing. A battle ensues and the Prince proves victorious

; he kills Kaileena and returns to the present. He believes that he has changed his fate, but another encounter with the Dahaka forces him to realize that in killing Kaileena, he was, in essence, the one who created the Sands of Time, as the Sands were created from her remains. The Princ e falls into despair, but then finds a glimmer of hope upon learning of a magica l artifact called the Mask of the Wraith, which is said to transport the wearer into the past, allowing the wearer to alter his own Timeline. The Prince wastes no time in seeking out and donning the mask, which transforms him into the Sand Wraith, a monster that constantly ebbs away life, and sends him back to the time when he first arrived on the Island of Time. He formulates a plan to force Kail eena through a sand portal with him, transporting them both into the present, be lieving that if he kills her then, the Sands of Time will be created seven years after the events of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, meaning it will be imp ossible for the Prince to release them in Azad. While still in the past, the Pri nce (as the Sand Wraith) ensures that the Dahaka takes and destroys his other se lf, who has just finished unlocking the door to the throne room, leaving the San d Wraith the only Prince in that Timeline. This act loosens the Mask of the Wrai th from the Prince's face and allows him to remove it and return to his normal f orm. The Prince goes to the throne room and, despite his pleas to Kaileena, his battle with her begins as before. He forces her into the present with him, and i t is at this point that the game has two alternate endings. Which ending is play ed depends on whether all life upgrades were collected (which lets the player ob tain the Water Sword) or not. The second ending is used as the true ending, i.e. the story is continued in the next game according to that ending.[3] First Ending - Without the Water Sword: The Prince fights and kills Kaileena in the present, and the Dahaka arrives to claim her body as well as Farah's amulet from the Prince, so that the Sands of Time and all relics pertaining to it are r emoved from the Timeline. The Prince sails home to Babylon, alone, only to disco ver that the city is being ravaged by war. The old wise man's voice is heard, on ce again stating: "Your journey will not end well. You cannot change your fate. No man can." Second Ending - With the Water Sword: In the present, before the battle between The Prince and Kaileena begins, the Dahaka appears trying to remove Kaileena fro m the timeline, The Prince tries to save her, and realizes that the Water Sword can damage the seemingly-invincible Dahaka. After fighting and defeating the bea st, the Prince and Kaileena sail to the Prince's home of Babylon with each other . During the journey he apparently ends up having sex with kaileena where a drea m enters in the mind of the Prince, appearing to be a burning Babylon, with a go ld crown rolling to the feet of a mysterious, shadowy figure (later The Dark Pri nce in Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones) that ominously claims: "All that is yo urs, is rightfully mine...and mine it will be." As in the first ending, the old wise man's voice is heard stating: "Your journey will not end well. You cannot c hange your fate. No man can." This ending continues into Prince of Persia: The T wo Thrones (Next Part). Main characters[edit] The Prince His name never explicitly stated, the Prince is the protagonist of the Prince of Persia franchise. Though his personality and appearance have varied over time, he is never without his trademark athletic, acrobatic, and swordsmanship skills. Kaileena Kaileena is a powerful and mysterious woman who rules over the Island of Time as its Empress. Both the Prince and the Vizier seek her for her involvement in the Sands of Time's creation. Shahdee A boss character from Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, Shahdee is a servant of the Empress of Time. She is sent to kill the Prince of Persia. The Dahaka A near invincible instrument of fate summoned whenever the chain of destiny is b roken, the Dahaka pursues the Prince for avoiding his predetermined death in Pri

nce of Persia, now the destiny lies by the prince to escape his death by the dah aka: Warrior Within.[4] Gameplay[edit]

The Prince fighting one of the many monsters found throughout the game Much as its predecessor, Warrior Within is a 3D platformer centered on explorati on and melee combat. As in the prequel, the level design revolves around navigat ing treacherous environments with parkour and freerunning-styled moves. Unlike t he prequel, the game world is highly nonlinear; the player would often return to already visited locations several times from various directions, often traversi ng time portals to visit the same places in the present and the past in order to find ways around obstacles which would be impassable in either time alone. Secr et areas can be found and explored to gain additional hit points and unique weap ons, which culminates in discovering a weapon capable of inflicting damage on th e Dahaka, unlocking the game's canonical ending. In addition to normal platformi ng, the game also features episodes where the Prince is chased by the Dahaka and must quickly navigate trap-ridden hallways to reach safety. The combat system has undergone a revision and allows the player to wield off-ha nd weapons in addition to the primary weapon. Two-hand fighting introduces numer ous additional acrobatic combos to dispatch enemies with greater efficiency and brutality. Off-hand weapons have varying bonuses and penalties applied to the pl ayer's damage and hit points; they can be thrown at enemies to allow a limited f orm of ranged combat. Aside from bosses, the enemies are sand creatures of varyi ng sizes. Unlike the Sands of Time, where rounds of heavy combat are intersperse d with rounds of exploration, enemies can be encountered anywhere along the way, alone and in packs; some common enemies would respawn as the player revisits lo cations. As in the prequel, the Prince possesses a limited control of time; the Sands can be used for more efficient combat as well as to slow down and even rewind time, allowing the Prince to retry ill-timed jumps or escape Dahaka's clutches. Development[edit] As opposed to the shorter hair and exquisite robes from the first game, the Prin ce's hair is long and he wears armor and bandages. The game had a change of voic e actors; the Prince is voiced by Robin Atkin Downes, in the previous (and follo wing) game he was voiced by Yuri Lowenthal. Kaileena is voiced by Italian actres s Monica Bellucci and a sound-alike actress. The Sands of Time featured a soundt rack by Stuart Chatwood, consisting of a fusion of Arabic- and Indian-influenced melodies with heavy metal. Chatwood remained the composer for Warrior Within, t hough the music became more guitar-oriented; it featured Godsmack's "I Stand Alo ne" without vocals as the Dahaka's chase theme and "Straight Out of Line" over t he game's credits.[5][6] Reception[edit] [hide]Reception Review scores Publication Score PC Xbox 1UP.com B+.[11] Eurogamer 7/10.[13] GameSpot 8.6/10.[10] GameSpy 3.5/5 stars.[12] IGN 8.6/10.[9] Aggregate scores GameRankings 80.88% (28 reviews)[8] Metacritic 83/100 (29 reviews)[7] Critical reviews of Warrior Within were generally mixed according to Metacritic

and GameRankings.[7][8] It was commonly agreed amongst reviewers that the platfo rming and adventure elements of the game were equal to, or exceeded, those of it s predecessor.[citation needed] The revamped combat system and better integratio n of combat sequences into the gameplay were also praised,[citation needed] alth ough a review of the GameCube version by GameSpy found it "still uninteresting". [14] Warrior Within also contained more content than The Sands of Time, taking a nywhere from 15 20 hours to complete.[10] Jordan Mechner, who was the creator of the original Prince of Persia and worked on The Sands of Time but not Warrior Within, however, commented in Wired Magazin e that "I'm not a fan of the artistic direction, or the violence that earned it an M rating. The story, character, dialog, voice acting, and visual style were n ot to my taste."[15] Eurogamer complained that the game lost much of its charm by making the game's v isuals grimier, the story less involving and mature compared to Sands of Time, a nd the addition of blood and scantily-clad female characters was in poor taste.[ 13] Penny Arcade parodied the Prince in comic form, claiming the once witty, lik eable Prince character, turned into a more aggressive Gothic character, making h im a "cookie cutter brooding tough guy with zero personality."[16][17] GameSpot also criticized the game for having uneven difficulty progression and numerous g litches and bugs.[10] Although the prior comments seem to paint the game as visually crude and dull, T yler Minarik of PlayStation Lifestyle has a differing opinion stating in his rev iew "Despite Sands of Time having some of the best narrative and plot points in the series, the next entry, Prince of Persia: Warrior Within makes large improve ments in just about every other facet of the game. Warrior Within introduces us to a desperate, angry Prince, who has spent the seven years after the conclusion of Sands of Time being chased by an unstoppable monster, known as the Dahaka."[ 18] Video game enthusiast Devin Storey also states that " yes this Prince is dar ker, in contrast to the happy go lucky prince of the Sands of Time, but he has m atured in darkness;and as a plant that is uncared for begins to show wear and te ar so too does he." References[edit] Jump up ^ http://www.ubi.com/US/Games/Info.aspx?pId=1098 Jump up ^ http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=280603 Jump up ^ http://guides.ign.com/guides/654709/ Jump up ^ "Prince of Persia: Warrior Within Characters". boxofficeindia. Jump up ^ http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Artic le&newsitemID=28931 Jump up ^ Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (2004) (VG) - Full cast and crew ^ Jump up to: a b "Prince of Persia:Warrior Within (PC)". www.metacritic.com. CB S Interactive. Retrieved 2010-08-16. ^ Jump up to: a b "Prince of Persia:Warrior Within for PC". www.gamerankings.com . CBS Interactive. Retrieved 2010-08-16. Jump up ^ "Prince of Persia: Warrior Within PC". IGN. IGN Interactive. Retrieved