The initiative to revive the well-known series was a welcomed one. I played Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time hoping I will find something to captivate and stun me. Unfortunately, besides the fairy-tale look, I didn't find the game that interesting. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time lacked certain features that haunted me until the end of the game. The news about a second title being produced didn't interest me too much. I thought they would throw in a few combos, enlarge the levels and that's it. I must admit I was wrong. Unfortunately, the demo for Prince of Persia: Warrior Within is not enough for you to see and experience what this game has to give you and I think this is their biggest mistake. The demo is so poor compared with the whole game that you shouldn't decide if you buy Warrior Within just based on it.

     I won't tell you the story of our prince and how he released the Sands of Time, so go and play the game if you want to find out the details. Basically, he screws up and frees the Sands. Of course, he must deal with it and try to solve the problem. Apparently, everything's OK in the end, but who plays God must die. This is the basic idea that fuels the action in Warrior Within. A demon hunts the prince. His name is Dahaka and his goal is to find him and kill him. The only way out is changing the present by returning to the past and stop the sands from being created. Well, the problem is a lot more complicated than it seems, because during the game you will travel between past and present many times. The genius of the designers resides in using the same levels, but in different periods of time. The deja-vu sensation is present all the way during the game, but there are moments when you're stunned. This is how this room looked like in the past? OMG!
     Let me give you an example. A certain device which should give you access to the next level is not working. You find your way to the past, activate the device and return to the present. What can be easier? The levels are arranged in such a way that usually you're going only forward and when you have more possibilities a short cut-scene will show you the path. The problem is that sometimes you will be able to replay a level you have already completed, due to the free access to certain locations. If you feel this way, stop and load a previous level. I think this was one of my worst fears when playing this game. I don't know if I was lucky or not, but I experienced such a thing just three or four times. A better level design and probably some more visual clues could have helped. In fact, this should be a priority, if the designers are planning the same strategy for their next title of the series.

     Compared with the previous title, the levels are now bigger. It's quite normal, since the hardware possibilities have improved too. When I say big level, I don't mean just large horizontally, but vertically too. There are many times when you're required to go up and you just get the feeling the level's never going to end. This is when you should use the alternate cameras, or else you don't have too many chances to reach the exit. The only problem when playing such a complex level is the direction. It was really hard convincing the prince to walk in an oblique direction. Usually, the direction changes all the time, based on the position and movement of the camera. Imagine yourself trying to walk on a wall for 15-20 minutes. He either fell because he was going left or walked vertically on the wall. Other nasty bug happened when walking on a wall from a moving platform. When it reached the necessary location on the wall I tried to press jump to reach the location I needed to go. The prince would just jump back on the platform. Such cases are pretty rare during the game, but they do exist and tend to make you go nuts. I also tried playing with a gamepad, but controlling the prince during a fight is very hard (or maybe I couldn't get used to it as I don't play any console games). Anyway, a dual analog gamepad is recommended if you're planning playing like this.