20 years of Prince of Persia: Warrior Within. Remembering one of the best parts of the series

On November 30, 2004, Prince of Persia: Warrior Within was released on PC and all current consoles. The game competently developed the ideas of The Sands of Time, but at the same time looked fresh due to the new dark visual style and brutal cruelty. In this article, we will recall why slasher fans liked this project so much and whether it is worth playing today.

The original Prince of Persia was released in 1989 on Apple 2 computers, and was later ported to other platforms. The development was handled by Jordan Mechner, who would later release the amazing interactive film The Last Express. The first «Prince» is a platformer with a good combat system and puzzles. Unlike other games of that time, you can die as many times as you want during the game, because there is no limit on the number of lives. However, each death will throw you back to the beginning of the level. It is important to keep within the timer (60 or 120 minutes, depending on the platform). In the final, you need to defeat the villain Jaffar and save the princess.

By modern standards, Prince of Persia looks simple, but for the late 80s it was a real breakthrough. Four years later, a direct sequel was released with the subtitle The Shadow and the Flame. In it, we saw a more detailed picture, various traps, and a new plot. The problem is that by 1993, this concept was no longer impressive. However, the game retained a certain level of quality.

But the same cannot be said about Prince of Persia 3D, which was released six years later. The game was called a Tomb Raider clone with an inconvenient camera, unresponsive controls, and bad graphics. The project had advantages in the form of an oriental fairy tale setting, smooth animation, and a pleasant soundtrack. However, they did not save the third «Prince» from failure. It is worth noting that the transition to 3D was not easy for many series. Some of them were unable to recoup their investments and were frozen for many years. But Prince of Persia got a second chance.

If Ubisoft is now in a deep crisis, then in the early 2000s the company was actively experimenting with concepts and producing one hit after another. That was when the first parts of Splinter Cell and Far Cry were released, as well as Beyond Good & Evil. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was the fourth game in the series, but it was perceived as something completely new.

First of all, I would like to note the genre. This is not a platformer, but a third-person action game with nuances. Almost all battles here are simple, with the exception of the battle on the elevator towards the end of the game. But the main focus is on acrobatics. The prince has learned to run on vertical surfaces, jump from one column to another, and much more. Moreover, over time, the parkour episodes only become more difficult. The player must remember all the main character's abilities and use them in time.

You can fix the error using the time rewind mechanics. Thanks to the sands of time, you can go back a few seconds and try again. You can go the other way and slow down time to perform the desired sequence of actions without rushing. All these skills can be used during battles.

The plot in The Sands of Time is simple — during the invasion of India, the Persians open a reservoir with magical sands, as a result of which an ancient evil is released. Only the prince himself, the Indian Farah and the traitorous vizier, who acts as the main villain, are saved. He also acts as the final boss. But the story keeps you glued to the screen due to its unusual presentation. In fact, we have before us the story of the prince during a conversation with Farah. What is happening is accompanied by comments from the main character, and if he dies, he says something like «everything was wrong.»

However, in the case of The Sands of Time, it is not the script that is important, but the dense atmosphere of an Arabian fairy tale in the spirit of «A Thousand and One Nights». This feeling is created by the scenery, costumes and pleasant music, which combines rock and oriental motifs. All this goes well with the complex gameplay and plot, thanks to which we got a unique work.

Right now, a remake of The Sands of Time is being developed. The release date is scheduled for 2026.

It's not for nothing that we paid so much attention to The Sands of Time. Although Warrior Within came out a year later, it turned out to be a very non-trivial sequel. On the one hand, the basic mechanics remained unchanged. We still run along vertical walls and fight monsters with two swords. New acrobatic tricks appeared, and the fights themselves became more difficult. This is especially noticeable during fights with bosses, where you need to remember the sequence of their actions and counterattack in time. Today, fights with them would be compared to the Dark Souls series. However, all these innovations are expected.

But hardly any of the fans of The Sands of Time expected to see a radical change in the visual style of the game. Warrior Within is no longer a cute fairy tale, but a dark fantasy. Gloomy scenery and creepy-looking opponents are combined with serious themes of inevitable death and desperate attempts to change your fate. And brutal battles are accompanied by blood and severed heads. Moreover, they take place to the accompaniment of heavy metal.

All this looked unusual for the series and fresh for the industry as a whole. Let us recall that the first God of War, which is close in spirit, will be released only four months later, in March 2005.

A happy ending awaited us at the end of The Sands of Time — the Prince corrected his own mistakes and stopped the invasion of India. However, in the sequel, it turned out that you can't change the course of history and go unpunished. Now our hero is being pursued by an immortal monster Dahak. To save himself, the Prince goes back in time again, this time to prevent the Sands of Time from appearing. But on the island where they were created, they know about the arrival of an uninvited guest and are already preparing to meet him.

The plot can hardly be called outstanding. Moreover, in the process you will have to rush between the past and the present, as a result of which it is easy to forget how it all began. However, you will remember the ending of the story in any case. Moreover, the game has two endings. In addition to the standard one, there is a secret one, which opens only if you collect all the upgrades of the life force scale. In this case, the final boss will be different, and the Prince himself will not return home alone. It is noteworthy that it is the alternative ending that is recognized as canonical and is the beginning of the next part of the series. This is rare for the industry. For example, in Max Payne 2 it was possible to save Mona Sax, if you complete the story mode at the maximum difficulty level. However, in the third game, we found out that the girl died, as it was in the standard ending.

If in The Sands of Time, Princess Farah was responsible for feminine charm, then in Warrior Within we watched gorgeous villainesses. The game did not hesitate to emphasize Shadi's bare buttocks and show off the cleavage of Kaileena, the Empress of Time. It is worth noting that she was voiced by Monica Bellucci, who was considered one of the most beautiful actresses in the world of cinema in the early 2000s. It is not surprising that both heroines are still popular in fan culture, especially in cosplay.

One of the main gameplay innovations of Warrior Within is related to Dahaka. Until the very end of the game, you will not have the opportunity to kill him, so you will have to run away from him. The peculiarity is that the monster moves quickly, and you need to urgently make decisions about which wall to run along, which beam to grab, and where to jump. At the same time, the image becomes black and white, which makes it worse to see than usual, and the slightest mistake can cost the Prince his life. Such episodes occurred a couple of times during the game, but they were remembered forever.

Although Warrior Within remains a linear game, you will periodically have to go back in time and go through the same levels, but in new conditions. For example, broken mechanisms work again, all the buildings are in place and there are no obvious signs of destruction. At first, this makes an impression, but later it can cause irritation. You have to run through the locations several times, trying to understand what has changed this time. Many players gave up halfway through because they got confused by the time jumps. The other two parts of the sand trilogy did not have such problems.

However, in our opinion, this feature of Warrior Within can be forgiven. At that time, the developers were experimenting with the concept, and with such a bold approach, it is easy to make a mistake.

If you are confused, you can always use guides. And they will be needed by those who want to immediately reach the canonical ending. It is easy to skip a health upgrade, and you will not be able to return for it later.

A year after the release of Warrior Within, a direct sequel with the subtitle The Two Thrones appeared on store shelves. In it, the Prince's story received a logical conclusion. Our hero returned to his native Babylon, killed the Indian vizier again and remained to rule Persia together with Farah.

In 2010, The Forgotten Sands was released, a prequel to «Fight with Destiny». Its action took place after The Sands of Time. Theoretically, the game was supposed to show how the Prince turned from an oriental handsome man into a brutal warrior. However, in practice, we were offered a set of not the most interesting levels, a boring plot and poorly implemented battles with crowds of monsters. The Forgotten Sands was of little interest to anyone at the time of its release, and years later it has no value at all.

A lot has changed over the years. We've seen great combat in God of War, Devil May Cry 3 and Bayonetta, decent parkour in the early Assassin's Creed, and oriental settings were seen, for example, in Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception. However, the sand trilogy still remains a unique mini-series. Therefore, we recommend that you familiarize yourself with three parts at once — The Sands of Time, Warrior Within and The Two Thrones. Although the outdated graphics may be annoying at first, the gameplay is as captivating as it was 20 years ago. Tested from personal experience.

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Have you played Prince of Persia: Warrior Within? Or did you miss this game at the time? Share your opinions in the comments!