Prince of Persia, Warrior Within screenshots   The Final Say! Gameplay 8.9 Graphics 9.2 Sound 8.8 Value 8.7 Prince of Persia, Warrior Within  Review Date: December 2005 Review Score: 8.9/10  Distributed By: Ubisoft

The Prince of Persia saga continues with the latest instalment of the extremely popular and exciting series entitled... Prince of Persia, Warrior Within! Once again gamers are reunited as the prince  with the storyline following closely to the events of the previous game. When the prince released the Sands of Time, he also unwittingly released a mystical creature of time called Dahaka who destroys everything in its path and no timeline is safe from this nefarious menance.  Unfortunately for our hero, the only way of stopping this creature is to travel back in time and eliminated the Empress of Time in order to ensure that the Sands of Time were never created. Although the story is slightly clichéd, it is a great continuation of the previous storyline, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. Fortunately for gamers around the world, the developers of Warrior Within have also increased the ante of the series by allowing gamers to explore various timelines. This makes for some interesting gaming dynamics because sometimes you visit the same areas but in different time periods. For instance, you may be visiting a beautiful Arabic garden in the past but when you visit it in the present, the garden is overridden by weeds because its inhabitants are long gone. Although this idea is not new (See Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time), it does make some interesting gaming. Once again, the prince's ability to rewind time has also made a welcomed return that does increase the enjoyment of the title, especially when you mess up a tricky section of the game. As per usual, the diabolical traps and puzzles have also returned that ensures that the professional gamer will complete this title in around 20 hours with novices taking around 30 hours to successfully complete. The most noticeable difference to the title is the inclusion of a new combat engine that now allows the prince to perform a plethora of different combat manoeuvres. For example, players can now slice through an enemy and even grab their necks to finish them off by choking them. However, my favourite melee style is using two swords at once that allowed me to successfully fight my way through a plethora of enemies. Not only did this slice through my opponents like an Iron Chef but it also looked damn cool in the process too. In order to keep things fair, the developers have ensured that your weapons slowly become damaged which allows for a more balanced game. Graphically, Prince of Persia: Warrior Within is a beautiful piece of art on the XBox and features some lush state of the art graphics with a variety of special effects such as lighting, dynamic particle effects and of course the Matrix style time effects. All the characters in the game (whether the prince or an evil henchmen's lackey) have been professionally designed and even the prince himself looks a lot darker and meaner since we last saw him.

The musical score of Warrior Within is fantastic and uses the heavy metal composition quite well with the storyline and in-game action. The voice acting of the title has also been professionally done and as mentioned before, the prince does sound like a foe to be weary of.

In conclusion, the Prince of Persia, Warrior Within is worthy sequel of the series that has improved graphics and a more interesting gaming engine that is sure to keep players around the world richly enthralled with the mythos of Prince of Persia. With that said, the game also supports an interesting online mode that allows players to race against other players through a variety of deadly Prince of Persia obstacles and also a great combat arena mode. If you loved the previous game then you really should add this title to your gaming diet and if you've never played the series before than what better place to start. Check it out!

- Andrew B