I changed my fate and decided to revisit the series starting with 2nd installment. The changes in the atmosphere compared to Sands of Time are always on people's tongues. And I can understand, I really liked Sands of Time at that time and Warrior Within never hooked me enough to beat it.
...Till now.
And now I really praise the style, prison-looking environment with sounds from horror movies. I quickly checked videos about Sands of Time, and after Warrior Within it is really hard to go back there into the cartoonish world of fairies.
I had a strong taste of metal in my mouth during the walkthrough and I like the trap design and battle system. The acrobatic part of the game is insane even by today. I remember now how I was disappointed by games after Uncharted-era when every developer started to use yellow color to mark the path you have to follow. Prince of Persia never did that, you always have to find the way by yourself, and this exploration feeling is absolutely forgotten in modern games.
For some time I was pretty sure the game is solid 4 out 5, it is not a masterpiece but a game I will not forget.
Then backtracking happened. Sometimes the game doesn't give the player clear directions so it is easy to go back too much and lost 30 or 50 minutes of your valuable lifetime. But then by the story game returns the player to the same location 2nd time, then 3rd time, 4th, and then again. And nothing changes. You have to go through the same traps in the same order, and beat the same monsters. The castle burned into my brain, I hate the place and never want to return there.
I rated the game as 2.5/5 but to be honest I am so angry, I want to put it even lower.