Prince Of Persia: The Warrior Within

[Dasquian Belargic]

I really enjoy Sands of Time, and from the looks of things the sequel is going to be just as much fun :D

http://ps2.ign.com/articles/523/523341p1.html

If there were one thing gamers unanimously took issue with while playing Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, it was the combat system. For the sequel, Ubisoft is prioritizing the action, so much so that this is now an action game. While the title will still incorporate the adventure elements that came hand-in-hand with the original's brilliantly told, intricate storyline and marvelously done locales, it will also more prominently and completely focus on the combat, or rather on a new style of combat.

Prince is not the lighthearted, glory seeking noble he once was. Much in the same way time ravaged the palace and adjacent yards of the original, it has ravaged him. This beaten, battered, darker, and more ruthless insomniac of a man is on a quest not to save the world or the ones he loves, but to save himself from a preordained death. Fate was upset with his escape from the palace and the cruel end of the Sands of Time, so it has summoned an unstoppable warrior to dismantle our hero limb-from-limb. Unfortunately for Fate, the Prince does not fall easy. For us, this means taking the greatest fighter of the land into a sea of evil and hacking down legions of merciless scum with a variety of weapons. More importantly, this new action game is not a simple hack and slash.

With the new action and sometimes adventure philosophy in mind, Ubi set out to perfect the toe-to-toe whacking, lopping, chopping, and slicing of the original by completely redoing it. The new game still features the very smooth animation and transitions that were found in the first, but has now instituted one of the most promising and fluid combat systems yet found in gaming. What Ubi proposes is a title where actions of any type can be strung together in an almost Tony Hawk-like fashion, creating chains of flowing death. What we've seen thus far looks terrific, but we still know very little.

Because of our lack of understanding, we threw 30 questions at Ubisoft to learn more about the game, the new direction, and the new combat system...

Some screenshots:
http://media.ps2.ign.com/media/654/654709/imgs_1.html

[Sarr Koon]

Yes, Sands of Time was indeed a spectacular game. I am in the process of beating it for a second time just because it's that much fun. I've read some stuff on the sequal, and I am going to reserve myself a copy as soon as I can. Hard to see where they can go wrong with a sequal, so I'm expecting to be just as good, if not better, then Sands of Time. Still wondering though how they are gonna do the whole time reversal thing if he doesn't use the dagger of time anymore. Just gotta wait and see.

Game Informer had an article that said in the sequal, the prince was gonna be able to cut things apart. I can't wait!!!

[Drake Shadowstalker]

Woot, go PoP!!!

[Dasquian Belargic]

Game Informer had an article that said in the sequal, the prince was gonna be able to cut things apart. I can't wait!!!

Reading that IGN article, it sounds like the combat system is going to be a lot of fun - especially with the new combo/attack-string feature.

[Rhea Kaylen]

Originally posted by Sarr Koon
Yes, Sands of Time was indeed a spectacular game. I am in the process of beating it for a second time just because it's that much fun. I've read some stuff on the sequal, and I am going to reserve myself a copy as soon as I can. Hard to see where they can go wrong with a sequal, so I'm expecting to be just as good, if not better, then Sands of Time. Still wondering though how they are gonna do the whole time reversal thing if he doesn't use the dagger of time anymore. Just gotta wait and see.

Being as I am on a Sands of Time high at present, I'm a little more than a third of the way through it for the third time round this week alone. As yet, there are no signs of the game getting old. Like Ico, it grows on one. And I am starting to get manic as I realize just how much time there still remains until Prince 2. Gah!!

Only one question: in the Extra Features option on the main menu, is the selection Prince of Persia 1 something unlockable? If so, how do you unlock it? The official site was no help.


Game Informer had an article that said in the sequal, the prince was gonna be able to cut things apart. I can't wait!!!

From the July issue of OPM:


But this isn't just a visual makeover; the Prince's skills have improved as well. Now he can take on more enemies at once through a new "free-form" battle engine. Picture a system similar to the different stances in Soul Caliber II, in which each new move allows access to a handful of other moves. For example, let's say you're fighting two enemies at once. You opt to get behind one and grab him by the neck. Now you can use him as a shield against the other guy, break his neck, cut his throat, or chop him clean in half at the waist. The idea is to make combat as open-ended and varied as the rest of the game, which is no small feat.

That chopping-in-half part is another big change from the last game: You'll see decapitations and eviscerations--you'll even be able to chop an enemy clean in half from the top down, watching as the two pieces slowly separate with a slightly disturbing sucking sound.

Oh, yeah. That's what I'm talking about. :D

[Garret Treborn]

Heck yeah!!! With the combat getting a complete make-over, the second one is gonna totally own. The ONLY downside about the first was the Prince's limited attacks.

[Rhea Kaylen]

Yep. While freeze was extremely helpful (and mega-freeze totally rocked), doing the same vaulting maneuver or just plain hacking away for what seemed like forever got old. Supposedly the new game will allow you to fight even while running along walls, and the enemy A.I. will be upped. It's going to be awesome, to put it mildly.

[Sarr Koon]

Wow, that sounds awesome. I agree,, the ability that lets you speed up so much that you zoom to t he enemies and hack em apart is by far the sweetest thing I have ever seen in a game.

[Xander Caine]

Prince of Persia is a great game, I just beat it around 2 weeks ago and when I go home I will probably play through it again. It looks great and the game play was alot different then most games. But the 2nd one sounds like it will be even better...I can't wait.

[Zasz Grimm]

I never played the first one, but the second looked interesting, so I rented it tonight. I've played some, and taking a break, will continue soon.

But all in all..

Wow.

[Dasquian Belargic]

I've only played the demo so far, but I found even that pretty challenging (which I blame on playing with a keyboard), but a lot of fun.

[Anuis Ma'artra]

Eh I'm not really looking foreward to this one as much. It seems like they took all the things that rocked about the last one such as mixing up the puzzles and combat so you didn't grow tired of doing the same thing over and over again, and threw it out the window in favor of becoming a button smashing hack'n'slash. Plus the Prince has now become a cookie-cutter video game hero, he went from a boy learning what it really took to be a man, to the Punisher.

I'm not saying the game won't be good, but I think it will prolly be a major let down for those of us who enjoyed the first ones plot and personality.

edit: I'm an idiot I completely forgot to finish my sentence before i started the next one.

[Yog]

Yeah, I have the same reservations as above. Although, it seems to be an overall excellent game, I dont like what they are doing to the character.

[Zasz Grimm]

Originally posted by Ka' el Darcverse
Eh I'm not really looking foreward to this one as much. It seems like they took all the things that rocked about the last one such as mixing up the puzzles and combat so you didn't grow tired of doing the same thing over and over again, and threw it out the window in favor of becoming a button smashing hack'n'slash. Plus the Prince has now become a cookie-cutter video game hero, he went from a boy learning what it really took to be a man, to the Punisher.

I'm not saying the game won't be good, but I think it will prolly be a major let down for those of us who enjoyed the first ones plot and personality.



Punisher? I don't really think so. He's gone into becoming a greedy character who has no desire but to save his own <smallfont color=#FFFFFF>-IshouldreallyreadtheFAQmoreoften-</smallfont>; which is what I've seen so far.

It's fun. And god some of the places are a freaking challenge.

[Sarr Koon]

Sweet game!!!!

[Rhea Kaylen]

Have you played it, Sarr? I haven't gotten the chance yet...and won't for probably a couple more weeks. Maybe I'll get it for Christmas.

However, I did play the demo that came on this month's OPM demo-disc, and, I'm sorry to say, was vaguely disappointed. OPM's reviewer gave it a 4 out of 5 (which, while good, to be sure, pales when you realize SoT got not only 5 of 5 but was also Game of the Month), and, playing it, I felt like I was playing a different character.

Which I suppose I was--after all, the Prince is now hunted by Fate's watchdog and is slated to be Balrog-fodder any day now, so he's got to look out for his own skin, violently, if necessary. But, still, the character shift seems to take away all that was so fun about the first game--the Prince's snarky one-liners and arrogant tete-a-tete with Farah, for starters. And, hearing the Prince swear vehemently and nastily, five minutes into the game? It seemed really out of character for him.

(But, then, I felt a little the same way about Jak in Jak II.)

Besides all this, however, I have other worries--the battle system that seemed pretty cool several months ago now looks to me like it will be impossible to master, because there are literally dozens of moves and combos and special attacks Evil!Prince can now do. Cool-looking? Dang straight. Easy (and, more importantly, fun) to do? Eh. I'll have to get back to you on that.

[Sarr Koon]

I have the game and I'm enjoying it greatly. I like how the prince has changed alot because the same thing would happen to anyone if they were running from a gigantic monster created by the sands. I don't think anyone would remain lighhearted. The combat is superb and overall a vast improvement over the first game.