Prince of Persia: Warrior Within is the sequel to the hit Sands of Time. Listening to fans' suggestions, Ubisoft updated the fighting system and brought us a darker Prince who is trying desperately to change his fate. Expect more of the same from the Sands of Time with some updates to the graphics, but not much else.

This game is beautiful and like the previous game the cut scenes are amazing! Ubisoft continually amazes me with the graphics that they achieve in their games. The atmosphere is dark, which works for this new, troubled Prince. The character models are wonderfully detailed and animations are smooth. The environments are amazing and quite expansive with an impressive draw distance. Compare the environments to their art gallery counterparts and you can see how faithfully Ubisoft rendered their artist's creations into 'living' worlds. There are some little flubs with the graphics, but it's nothing too horrible to look at.

As far as voice actors go this game was really well done. The Prince's new voice works out well for his new image. Kaileena's voice, however, would inexplicably get an accent on some of her dialogue which was really weird. The end credits explained that there was a "voice double" for Kaileena. Unlike body doubles in movies this one didn't work too well. Music, well, there's not too much of that. If something 'exciting' is happening a punk rock guitar solo will begin to play, which is most of the time. There are some spots where it works, but it’s overused so that it quickly becomes irritating. I know the Prince is supposed to be darker, but do I really need a rock guitar to show that?

Warrior Within plays much like the Sands of Time. If you've played that you'll be able to get the hang of this game rather quickly. The plot this time around is that the Prince is being chased by the Dahaka, a mystical being that was created after the Prince released the Sands of Time and temporarily changed his fate. The Dahaka will not rest until the Prince's fate is fulfilled with his death. The Prince decides that the only way to save himself is to stop the Sands from ever being created. This leads him to the Island of Time and the beginning of the game.

Plotwise, the game stinks. The Sands of Time was beautifully written and brilliantly told while Warrior Within is kind of slapped together. The intro movie doesn't even begin to describe the plot very well, it's only after the first level that you learn what's going on and why the Prince is running. The twists that are mentioned in the developer's interviews are expected. Once a twist happens you're not surprised that it did and, odds are, you realized it well before the Prince ever does. Time plays a huge role in this game. So much, in fact that it gets to the point of where it is annoying. Everything happens on the Island of Time and the Prince needs to find the Empress of Time. I know it's nit-picky, but I would have liked to see at least one synonym for time.

The game gets repetitive fast as it makes you backtrack through familiar areas many times to reach your goal. It doesn't help that you have to travel through every area at least twice, once in the past and once in the present. Since the past and present areas look almost exactly alike, you get tired with dealing with it and hope for it to end soon so you can move on to the next area and do it all over again. To help break up this monotonous chore are hidden art chests. These chests are generally placed where you can't easily see them. If for no other reason seeing the finished artwork that you've collected on your travels kinda makes up for the work of retracing your steps.

Ubisoft added more boss battles into this game (as in more than the one from Sands of Time), but they aren't too stunning. Shahdee's and the Empress of Time's battles, though quite similiar, feel like the only fights that really fit into the game. The other boss battles seem like they were just tossed in there so there would be more bosses to fight. Equally dull is that the best tactic to use on them is to get behind the boss and hammer away. I like imaginative boss battles, they're always an exciting challenge. In this case these don't really feel that epic or memorable.

The puzzles are every bit as impressive as they were in the Sands of Time. In fact, I actually liked these puzzles more than in the first game. Now that the battles aren't limited to before a puzzle, Warrior Within feels more realistic. In some instances you'll be in the middle of a puzzle when you're attacked by a group of enemies and because there's no battle end scene, like in the Sands of Time, you can't be sure when the room is cleared. It's a nice bit of drama that'll keep you on your toes.

The free form fighting system is as amazing as it sounds. By simply pressing the buttons you can string together your own combos and develop your own fighting style. With so many possible moves to perform it's good that Ubisoft included a move guide in the game and in the manual for easy reference. The addition of a second weapon opens even more moves for the Prince to use. The secondary weapons, though breakable, include swords, axes, maces, and daggers. There are also five unbreakable secondary weapons hidden throughout the game. And they are well hidden, but worth it. Each of the secondary weapons has their own strengths and weaknesses. Some can restore your health with every hit while others can drain it. The entire fighting experience becomes cinematic when the game tosses in a slo-mo to really stress the effect of your battle.

This wouldn't be much of a sequel to the Sands of Time if you couldn't use the Sands to your advantage. Thanks to Farah's medallion the Prince can still control the Sands of Time. In Warrior Within he gets all of his old powers: slow down, speed up, and rewind, but they now sport new names. In addition to those he gains one new power: the Wind of Fate. This new sand power creates a shockwave that knocks back enemies. This attack has three power levels, but it takes so long to use that unleashing it when you're surrounded is pointless.

Warrior Within feels like it could have benefited from some more work. There are numerous little glitches that mess you up or just look weird. Jumping over some enemies doesn't always work so there's a special animation for when they throw you away. Sometimes, however, the Prince flies too far from the enemy for the animation to look right and as a result the enemy will continue with the sequence and stab where the Prince should have been. Using the Sands also gets a little tricky and if your finger slips just a little bit at the wrong time you could mess up your Rewind. It's not a bad game, it just needs a little more polishing to be perfect.