I finished Sands of Time yesterday, and enjoyed it immensely! It was one of the best 3d platforming games I have ever tried. The fights got frustrating sometimes, but since every single enemy has a weakness that can be exploited, it's a question of simple practice and not *too* much frustration.

Though combat in a Prince of Persia game always seems like filler - that's just not what the game is about, never has been, but combat has always been a part of the series for better or worse. The main pillar of strength for Prince of Persia has always been imaginative and daring platforming.

After finishing Sands of Time, I picked up Warrior Within, looking forward to more fun. I know sequels aren't always as good as the original, but WTF happened??!!

I'm spending *half* the game *backtracking*!! Backtracking through the same goddam boring traps that I already ran through twice.

Then there is the stupid music, the unsatisfying combat that serves only as an obstacle with no reward (it's better to avoid it altogether and only fight the bosses), silly weapons, very unclear plot and motivation and generally making everything "dark" and "edgy".

So far, this game is a chore. I'm about halfway through and I'm backtracking for the umpteenth time and got so fricking frustrated I decided to write this to calm my nerves.

Also, in-game cutscene voice volume is controlled by "music", not "voices" in the preferences - one of the *first* things I did was turn off the incredibly inappropriate and boring music in this shit of a game and keeping the "effects" and "voices" at 100% Well funny story, all of a sudden there is no speech in cutscenes. The prince and enemies blabber angsty nonsense all the time, but if the "music" slider is set to 0% there will be no actual speech in the game, just grunts and the usual whine from the prince and the enemies.

I can't recommend this game. It is trash.

Addendum: Also this game is buggy. I loaded a game and the prince had transformed into a wraith and was losing life. The save game was ruined and I had to reload from an older save.

There's plenty of bugs in this game, see: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Prince-of-Persia-Warrior-Within-Bugs-Fixes-and-Hints-45937.shtml

Another bug is respawning bosses when a game is reloaded after the boss was killed, breakable walls that can't be hit (sword just wooshes through them), etc.

While combat happened every once in a while in Sands of Time, this game is the reverse - combat is the majority of the game interspersed with a few platforming puzzles every now and then. The platforming will of course be repeated when you inevitably have to backtrack. The same thing again and again.

It is quite telling that when the game begins the very first thing in the tutorial is *combat*.

Let me emphasize that: In *Prince of Persia* the first thing you learn is *combat*.

That's how much the developer screwed this game up. Wow. Just wow. Avoid like the plague.

Ah, Warrior Within... what a pile. At the very least, with a PC version, there's at least the possibility of getting a patch (that doesn't seem to have happened, from what you are saying), while the version I played was on the the GameCube; that thing was a buggy mess, and knowing that there was no way to fix it made me wonder why in the Hells Ubisoft released a game with such a pedigree in its current state.

Sad, but true. After the sublime Sands of Time, the sequel (Warrior Within) was a horrible wrong-turn. Desperate to make things more "mature" (i.e. incorporate all the expected "dark" and "edgy" cliches) they succeeded only in created something embarassing, charmless, and just plain wrong.

The second sequel (Two Thrones) was slightly better, but not by much. Again, there's far too much focus on combat rather than platforming (God of War wannabes abounded at that time) and now stealth joins the party.

No wonder they rebooted the series (again) in 2008 with "Prince of Persia" - but, if Sands of Time is your benchmark, that game wil dsappoint too with its too-open levels, simplified platforming, and (literal) hand-holding.

Unfortunately, the nearest thing to a real sequel to "Sands of Time" is the only Prince of Persia game that isn't available here on GOG: "Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands" (2010)

That game was an earnest attempt to get "back to basics" and recapture what made Sands of Time so great - and (IMHO) it largely succeeds in that aim. It's certainly the one I enjoyed the most since Sands of Time, and the only one to come anywhere close to recapturing that game's "vibe."

I haven't played too much of Warrior Within, but the game is not too bad, it is not Sands of Time but it is good on its own terms. Call me insane, but I liked the music of the game, then again it is because it kind of reminds me of a slightly meatier version of the music The Tea Party did. Stuart Chatwood, the composer of the music in this game and The Sands of Time, was part of that group I might add.

Interesting... I didn't know that. I don't buy many game soundtrack CDs but the Prince of Persia "Official Trilogy Soundtrack" is one of the select few that I did make a point of tracking down - mostly for the "Time Only Knows" track from Sands of Time, which Chatwood wrote.

Might have to check out The Tea Party... Wikipedia describes them as "a Canadian rock band with blues, progressive rock, Indian and Middle Eastern influences" - sounds good to me! Thanks :)

Here are some songs from The Tea Party to get you started:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q39q0fT3YiE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCye7v79Tz0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA9byUzyAYs

I could never even get it to work right. The controls were all over the place, and even though I've tried with programs such as xpadder to get my controller working, it has all been to no avail.

At least it sounds like it wasn't really worth the effort anyway, so I suppose that makes me a bit less sad :)

I really like the Warrior Within, and I think it is the best amongst the trilogy. The combat is just perfect as it is. The story is maybe a "low budget" one since there is only an island and a castle, but is perfectly developed. I think this game is more like an open-world treasure hunter game rather than an action game like the Sands of Time. Its world even similar to the X-Blade/OniBlade's settings. Sometime I will get this game, but my old CD works fine.

The metal music doesn't suit prince of Persia but it is at least good music.

I played the ios version of warrior within with awful controls, worse graphics and bad camera angles first and while the music in that was changed to something more authentic, it sounds even worse than any other Prince of Persia game and more like some kind of Persian Dr Seuss game.

I played WW before SOT and TT and it is my favorite Prince of Persia game of all time. The combat is very fun and flexible. Keyboard controls are fine. I admit I had to get used to it a bit at the start but it was very easy later. I simply adore the music. Stuart Chatwood is a genius. I think he did an amazing mix of east and west. Platforming was fun and challenging at times. New enemy types and bosses are cool.

Dahaka is awesome. I remember my heart pounding out of my rib cage when I first played the game during the chase scenes. I also thought story was good. The puzzles, trap rooms and secrets were masterfully crafted. No other PoP game comes close to this day. I loved the new and secret weapons. In SOT and TT you're stuck with the stupid dagger. The game has two endings btw.

I finished the game more than 3 times now without problems, so I can't say it's buggy or glitchy. After WW I played SOT. It felt like discount version of WW. I was very hyped for TT. It also had good things like chariot sections and different boss fights but it didn't have the charm of WW.

Wow, so much negativity towards WW. :)

Let me tell you guys that WW is the shit! :D Sure, the story is cheesy as hell but it's the good kind of cheese that makes you chuckle every once in a while (you can't take it too seriously, that's when it works) and actually it has a really good internal logic to it. I love the art design (even if a part of it is a very clear ripoff of the Scorpion King) because the lifeless present that reflects the mental state and situation of the Prince provides a strong contrast to the warmer, more lush past and really if you think about it there is a very strong symbolism to the whole setting. The game also takes a few notes from PoP 2: Shadow and the Flame because there are a lot of places that successfully imitate the vibe of the second half of that game. The music is excellent: again it reflects on the Prince very strongly while it's just great metal through and through with some great atmospheric tunes thrown in for good measure.

The gameplay is a huge upgrade compared to SoT because you see, WW is actually a hard game while SoT had a very casual friendly approach to it. The platforming has more variety and the combat system is just great with all the combos and the secondary weapons with their unique abilities. Some swords recharge your health if you hit an enemy, others drain it, maces and axes usually knock down enemies with a successful combo, some dagger type weapons instantly decapitate your oppononent if you throw them etc., etc. and you really have to experiment and use these abilities to your advantage if you're playing on hard.

In my opinion the level design is great: it's not metroidvania but it's also not fully linear so you get a good sense of progression while revisiting the same envionments usually add an interesting twist thanks to all the time travelling craziness that is going on in story.

It's good fun, the story is batshit crazy compared to SoT while the pacing is excellent with a nice Doom-like "rip and tear" feel to it. The only downside really is that it's buggy as hell (that's what a one year development cycle and an overly ambitious design gives you). If you don't like unique sequels you'll definitely miss SoT because to put it simply this is not that game AT ALL but I always found it hard to think of it as a worse experience. Personally I think that the 3 SoT games are among the best platformers ever created exactly because every installment is unique and different while they never lose focus of the Prince's character. When it comes to PoP the games always change because the main character's personality changes and having that idea to lead the whole game design is just a stellar concept.

Guess having an open mind helps in getting this stuff so my advice is to try that and just let the game take you where it wants to.

I like the three each way. The first one for it's poesy, music and enigmas.

The second one is more of a hardcore gamer version, with darker story. It had somehow a speedrun spirit before youtube was even online.

The last one is a mix of both with also nice views and movement/combat (less camera though).

I have more and more pleasure coming back to W.W. The game has a pace of it's own. It really feels you run against time and everything in the game is build around this. It is also an interesting story in that regard.

The problem on modern system with x64 savegames can get corrupted so you need to always use new slots for gamefiles. And the audio sound is often buggy as well so it kind of make the game sound like trash.

Loosing time with the savegames and the menu can really ruin the experience for this episode. If you have audio bug on top of that, It can get frustrating at some point.

For me it's on linux with wine that this game runs best.

If you have the game running good, then it has it's own rythm that you can feel all through, and it's a very smooth experience

I always felt surprised fans disliking this episode despite I understand the reasons why.