They say you can't go home again...
It's a widely accepted belief among gamers that replaying the titles you liked in your youth is never a good idea, because they won't live up to the fond memories you have of them. Be it due to either the years having not been so kind or the awareness brought about by your now advanced age causing you to pick out the flaws you previously weren't able to notice, your favorites from the past are incapable of bringing you the same level of enjoyment they once did. While I personally have not been the type to make much time for revisiting stuff I've already played (something I'm going to be working on moving forward), for whatever reason in the rare instances where I have that's a phenomenon I've yet to experience for myself. I can recall the games clearly enough so that if they were good-to-amazing to me back then, they remain just as good-to-amazing for me now. This marks the first case however, where one has proven to be better than I remember. Turns out getting older has allowed me to more fully realize what a fantastic job this sequel does of expanding upon its predecessor.
Warrior Within was among the earliest M-rated releases I played when I was far too young that my parents didn't really know about. A birthday gift from my older sister that came with the second-hand Xbox she gave me (which I still have to this day, thanks Meg!), I can still recollect the panic and fear that my mom would walk in and take my cool new game away when Shahdee's massive naked, pale goth girl butt-cheeks appeared on the living room TV screen in all their magnificent glory. I hadn’t ever seen nudity in a video game before and the fact that I continue to consider myself more of a breast man after that is nothing short of a mystery. I know, you could argue that the character's thong is simply impossibly smaller in the cinematic cutscenes compared to her in-engine model, but I've studied every fine detail of that scene (strictly for research purposes, I assure you) and can say with little doubt that pre-rendered Shahdee is straight up strutting around full bare booty in the wind. This also served as my introduction to the band Godsmack, which helped start me down the path to becoming the metalhead I am today.
It's aspects like that, alongside the inclusion of gore in the combat and a soundtrack full of heavy guitar riffs that would earn an affirmative nod of approval from Mick Gordon himself, that make it clear the more "adult" direction they were going for with this entry. It's certainly a rather jarring tonal shift. The Prince is now a dark, brooding type prone to occasional outbursts of profanity as he's trying to escape, quite literally, his demons following the events of Sands of Time. It certainly proved to be a controversial change, often leading to it being dismissed as the franchise's "edgy" (a silly, ridiculous, overused, and quite frankly these days meaningless word) outing. Yet, while it didn't do much for the adventure's reputation, it certainly worked wonders for its world design. The Island of Time is a fantastic playground to traverse that's filled with thrilling and memorable locations, moodier though they may be. Plus, jumping over an enemy's head to slice him in half right down the middle never stops being a delight.
The setting wouldn't be as great as it is due to the grimmer aesthetic alone, however. It's the increased elaborate nature of the platforming traps and puzzles you'll come across paired with the new emphasis on how you progress through the various environments that take things to the next level. Gone is the linear structure. In its place is an open, Metroidvania-esque world-space rife with danger that encourages a more free-form method of exploration. I was consistently blown away by the scale of everything in comparison to the previous chapter in the Sands trilogy, right down to the intricacy of the obstacles or the overall interconnected layout of the fortress and its various towers. Areas are big enough here to contain plenty of hidden goodies to uncover, such as goofy (yet nonetheless very powerful) special weapons and the means for unlocking the secret true ending that reveals the Prince may not exactly know how sex works. It's as if the devs approached things a mindset of "make it grander!" A mentality that applied to the combat as well. Now that you no longer have to absorb fallen foes to keep them from getting back up, the spare hand where that iconic dagger was once held is free to loot any discarded blades and such lying about. Each of which have their own stats and are so numerous in variety they basically act as a type of collectable. There's also a combo system right out of a traditional action game and a host of new time manipulating powers to significantly enlarge your pool of blood-spilling capabilities.
All of which are perfect because battles have undergone quite a jump in challenge. Seriously, how my preteen self managed to beat this even on the easiest difficulty without finding all of the health upgrades I have no clue. The average skirmish isn’t too bad, but when you start mixing in the agile, bloodsucking Bladedancers and the resilient Executioners with their strong defense and brutal lunge attacks your skills will be put to the test at multiple points. Heck, the introductory boss you encounter in the first 5-10 minutes of play will mercilessly stomp starting players into the ground repeatedly as they’re trying to learn the ropes, and that’s well before you reach the ones with regenerating life bars. Luckily being hard isn't really a problem. If you're looking at the flaws it's the backtracking that's the most prominent. With every locale being connected you'll often be required to revisit parts of them to access other places. Approaching a familiar sight from a freshly discovered side-path is novel at first, but the repetition sets in pretty fast. The initially enthralling Mechanical Tower loses its luster about the third or fourth trip back through, for example.
Despite the highly touted proclamations from the internet that the total opposite would occur for me, finishing this again after, no exaggeration, over a decade away only caused my appreciation for it to grow even deeper. I was better able recognize how it's the most mechanically rich and expansive chapter in the entire franchise. Easily the Prince of Persia you can spend the longest amount of time with while you search for every little something in all the nooks and crannies upon acquiring the next pathway-opening tool or ability. Consequently, it's practically criminal that WW typically doesn't get the credit it deserves (something I myself have been guilty of before now) due to its higher difficulty, regular forced retreading of a few key crossroads, and its "EdGiEr" (ugh 🙄) tone, AND that The Two Thrones kind of backpedaled from here, because this is undoubtedly the fullest realization of the property's established 3D formula to date.
9/10
It's a widely accepted belief among gamers that replaying the titles you liked in your youth is never a good idea, because they won't live up to the fond memories you have of them. Be it due to either the years having not been so kind or the awareness brought about by your now advanced age causing you to pick out the flaws you previously weren't able to notice, your favorites from the past are incapable of bringing you the same level of enjoyment they once did. While I personally have not been the type to make much time for revisiting stuff I've already played (something I'm going to be working on moving forward), for whatever reason in the rare instances where I have that's a phenomenon I've yet to experience for myself. I can recall the games clearly enough so that if they were good-to-amazing to me back then, they remain just as good-to-amazing for me now. This marks the first case however, where one has proven to be better than I remember. Turns out getting older has allowed me to more fully realize what a fantastic job this sequel does of expanding upon its predecessor.
Warrior Within was among the earliest M-rated releases I played when I was far too young that my parents didn't really know about. A birthday gift from my older sister that came with the second-hand Xbox she gave me (which I still have to this day, thanks Meg!), I can still recollect the panic and fear that my mom would walk in and take my cool new game away when Shahdee's massive naked, pale goth girl butt-cheeks appeared on the living room TV screen in all their magnificent glory. I hadn’t ever seen nudity in a video game before and the fact that I continue to consider myself more of a breast man after that is nothing short of a mystery. I know, you could argue that the character's thong is simply impossibly smaller in the cinematic cutscenes compared to her in-engine model, but I've studied every fine detail of that scene (strictly for research purposes, I assure you) and can say with little doubt that pre-rendered Shahdee is straight up strutting around full bare booty in the wind. This also served as my introduction to the band Godsmack, which helped start me down the path to becoming the metalhead I am today.
It's aspects like that, alongside the inclusion of gore in the combat and a soundtrack full of heavy guitar riffs that would earn an affirmative nod of approval from Mick Gordon himself, that make it clear the more "adult" direction they were going for with this entry. It's certainly a rather jarring tonal shift. The Prince is now a dark, brooding type prone to occasional outbursts of profanity as he's trying to escape, quite literally, his demons following the events of Sands of Time. It certainly proved to be a controversial change, often leading to it being dismissed as the franchise's "edgy" (a silly, ridiculous, overused, and quite frankly these days meaningless word) outing. Yet, while it didn't do much for the adventure's reputation, it certainly worked wonders for its world design. The Island of Time is a fantastic playground to traverse that's filled with thrilling and memorable locations, moodier though they may be. Plus, jumping over an enemy's head to slice him in half right down the middle never stops being a delight.
The setting wouldn't be as great as it is due to the grimmer aesthetic alone, however. It's the increased elaborate nature of the platforming traps and puzzles you'll come across paired with the new emphasis on how you progress through the various environments that take things to the next level. Gone is the linear structure. In its place is an open, Metroidvania-esque world-space rife with danger that encourages a more free-form method of exploration. I was consistently blown away by the scale of everything in comparison to the previous chapter in the Sands trilogy, right down to the intricacy of the obstacles or the overall interconnected layout of the fortress and its various towers. Areas are big enough here to contain plenty of hidden goodies to uncover, such as goofy (yet nonetheless very powerful) special weapons and the means for unlocking the secret true ending that reveals the Prince may not exactly know how sex works. It's as if the devs approached things a mindset of "make it grander!" A mentality that applied to the combat as well. Now that you no longer have to absorb fallen foes to keep them from getting back up, the spare hand where that iconic dagger was once held is free to loot any discarded blades and such lying about. Each of which have their own stats and are so numerous in variety they basically act as a type of collectable. There's also a combo system right out of a traditional action game and a host of new time manipulating powers to significantly enlarge your pool of blood-spilling capabilities.
All of which are perfect because battles have undergone quite a jump in challenge. Seriously, how my preteen self managed to beat this even on the easiest difficulty without finding all of the health upgrades I have no clue. The average skirmish isn’t too bad, but when you start mixing in the agile, bloodsucking Bladedancers and the resilient Executioners with their strong defense and brutal lunge attacks your skills will be put to the test at multiple points. Heck, the introductory boss you encounter in the first 5-10 minutes of play will mercilessly stomp starting players into the ground repeatedly as they’re trying to learn the ropes, and that’s well before you reach the ones with regenerating life bars. Luckily being hard isn't really a problem. If you're looking at the flaws it's the backtracking that's the most prominent. With every locale being connected you'll often be required to revisit parts of them to access other places. Approaching a familiar sight from a freshly discovered side-path is novel at first, but the repetition sets in pretty fast. The initially enthralling Mechanical Tower loses its luster about the third or fourth trip back through, for example.
Despite the highly touted proclamations from the internet that the total opposite would occur for me, finishing this again after, no exaggeration, over a decade away only caused my appreciation for it to grow even deeper. I was better able recognize how it's the most mechanically rich and expansive chapter in the entire franchise. Easily the Prince of Persia you can spend the longest amount of time with while you search for every little something in all the nooks and crannies upon acquiring the next pathway-opening tool or ability. Consequently, it's practically criminal that WW typically doesn't get the credit it deserves (something I myself have been guilty of before now) due to its higher difficulty, regular forced retreading of a few key crossroads, and its "EdGiEr" (ugh 🙄) tone, AND that The Two Thrones kind of backpedaled from here, because this is undoubtedly the fullest realization of the property's established 3D formula to date.
9/10
5 Comments
@molochthagod Remembering that both this and Two Thrones received PSP ports always reminds me how decently powerful that handheld actually was. Often more than I typically give it credit for. It’s amazing to me how many ways there were/are to play this. Gameloft (the freaking wizards) even had the entire game running on iPhone at one point.
The PSP version even has extra areas in the form of restored cut content. Be wary though, based on some things I’ve read on here they may not be great.
I feel your apprehension about the getting lost part. Was my biggest worry going back to this. Luckily only happened to me once. Unfortunately it was on one of the lengthier and more tedious paths that forced me to have to jump back and forth through time to get back to where I needed to go, haha. Other than that singular instance I always felt like I had a pretty good idea of where to go next. More so than when I was younger. So hopefully that might make you feel a little better about it.
The PSP version even has extra areas in the form of restored cut content. Be wary though, based on some things I’ve read on here they may not be great.
I feel your apprehension about the getting lost part. Was my biggest worry going back to this. Luckily only happened to me once. Unfortunately it was on one of the lengthier and more tedious paths that forced me to have to jump back and forth through time to get back to where I needed to go, haha. Other than that singular instance I always felt like I had a pretty good idea of where to go next. More so than when I was younger. So hopefully that might make you feel a little better about it.
@TheQuietGamer wow, I had no idea about the iphone version. I feel like with enough time and budget, almost anything can be ported to anything. It's becoming very evident now that we're seeing stuff like Quake and Tomb Raider for GBA, or back in the day when Resident Evil 2 got a N64 port (in fact GBA almost got one too). I really wish the devs in mid-to-late 2000s ported more games to PSP instead of making unique versions. Although, on the other hand, it's always interesting to explore how different devs tackled the same concepts.
Thanks for sending me that review. Now that I think about it, I've played the game several times, but the last time was the PSP version, and that might be the reason I got lost. I'm gonna try to play a bit of both (PSP and PC) and see how they compare.
I feel like an important approach to games like this is not to let to take long breaks from them, in order to remember you general geographic position. I made that mistake the last time, so when I loaded the game up after like a month of not playing it, I had no clue where I was or where I was supposed to go. This time I'll be wiser.
Thanks for sending me that review. Now that I think about it, I've played the game several times, but the last time was the PSP version, and that might be the reason I got lost. I'm gonna try to play a bit of both (PSP and PC) and see how they compare.
I feel like an important approach to games like this is not to let to take long breaks from them, in order to remember you general geographic position. I made that mistake the last time, so when I loaded the game up after like a month of not playing it, I had no clue where I was or where I was supposed to go. This time I'll be wiser.
The world just wasn't ready for I Stand Alone in their Persian time-'em-up Crash Bandicoot games.
@ProudLittleSeal I guess you could say they found it Straight Out Of Line with series values
@molochthagod Looking forward to hearing your opinions on both versions.
And yeah, I’ve experienced that exact same thing before when trying to pick up from where I let off in more open games after extended time away. It’s almost more enjoyable to start over from the beginning again in some cases.
I had seen Tomb Raider on GBA before, but not Quake. Genuinely impressive and not a bad fit for the handheld when you consider the surprisingly good Doom ports and other boomer-shooter FPSs on it like Duke Nukem Advance.
@molochthagod Looking forward to hearing your opinions on both versions.
And yeah, I’ve experienced that exact same thing before when trying to pick up from where I let off in more open games after extended time away. It’s almost more enjoyable to start over from the beginning again in some cases.
I had seen Tomb Raider on GBA before, but not Quake. Genuinely impressive and not a bad fit for the handheld when you consider the surprisingly good Doom ports and other boomer-shooter FPSs on it like Duke Nukem Advance.
molochthagod
4 months ago
I remember purchasing this game in a thick triple-CD box, which at the time always made you think the game must be epic. Other games that came in such form were Doom 3 and Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War. I was so hyped on my way home, obsessively studying the back of the box while simultaneously trying to watch where I step. And upon first booting it, I was very impressed with the intro sequence and the early outdoor sections of the island.
But I could never finish this game, because either the predominantly-brown aesthetics would become too depressing to revisit, or the metroidvania-esque nature would lead me to getting lost, and trying to backtrack through numerous traps only to find out you were going in the wrong direction would frustrate me to no end. To this day I'm always hesitant about this entry. I never really hated it, but I've always wanted to like it more than I did. In fact, I recently downloaded the iso of the PSP version again to revisit it. Hopefully I'll also find a new appreciation for it.