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Prince
of Persia: Warrior Within (WW) goes where other games have gone before
but with so much grit that you’ll likely feel it between your toes.
While
the action has been pumped up, the story clearly takes its cues from
Back to the Future Part II. The
titular Prince has made the brainiac decision to further mess with Time
after the events in the first game.
The Prince may be an acrobatic badass with a sword and a goatee
but he gets what’s coming to him!
I won’t giveaway the ending – he’s sent back to the Wild
West circa 1885 – but you’re probably not plugging through WW for a
story. You’re playing for
the action.
There’s
action out the wazoo and moves a-plenty.
The real surprising thing is that the choices and options
available don’t become overwhelming.
You can play through the game just pounding on the attack button
but then you miss out of the artistry and wicked animation the
development team threw into WW. Flipping
off walls, hurling weapons, spinning around poles, catapulting off
enemies all come across as realistic if somewhat unbelievable but more
importantly it’s all easy to control and when you’re in the thick of
things you’ll appreciate the tight control (and stellar collision
detection).
WW
takes PoP into gritty, evil country – your female nemesis wears a meal
thong – and the level designs work around this principle.
The world of WW is a dark, scary place.
Some of the same mini-time traveling conventions still apply
here. The Prince gradually
gains access to more powerful weapons and techniques, but the most
useful is still the ability to rewind time to erase bad jumps or enemy
encounters that ended badly.
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