Welcome to the first in a weekly series, Flashback Friday. Here we take an old classic, play it from start to finish and judge whether it holds up by today’s standards.

We start with what was always a personal favourite of mine, Prince of Persia: Warrior Within. The second in the Sands of Time trilogy, the game was met with mixed reviews, mainly due to its shift in tone from Arabian nights to more of a ‘time to cut myself’ sort of thing. Dark colours, screeching enemies and an angrier Prince all feature while heavy guitar riffs do their very best to make your ears bleed. As a 12 year old I couldn’t have wanted much more. 11 years on, how do I like it now? Do I even like it at all?

Master Assassin

If the first in the trilogy established the Prince as a master of the sword, Warrior Within sets him up as a merciless killing machine. There’s something more violent about the combat this time around. Every blow is greeted with a screech and howl from the unsuspecting creature unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end of your button mashing fury.

In short, the gameplay was and still is great. It’s an incredibly deep system, rich with combos, dual-wielding attacks and acrobatic attacks. Add in a plethora of secondary weapons and a handful of main weapons, there’s always experimentation to be had. There’s nothing that you’d necessarily call groundbreaking but it plays fluidly and animates very well; for an 11 year old game there’s not much more you can ask for.

The truly unique element of the game lies in time manipulation. The option to slow down and reverse time often prove to be the difference between failure and success in the game’s tough moments. Rewinding to see how exactly you died is a luxury not found in many games. It provides the best way to learn and subsequently improve.

I find it curious that the games spiritual successor, Assassin’s Creed, has taken such a step back on what was an already great combat system. The Assassin’s Creed games often boil down to waiting to counter at the right time to eliminate your foe as other enemies dance around you, seemingly nonplussed that you’re ripping their compatriot limb from limb. I’m not sure why the mechanics have been watered down so much but Ubisoft would do well to go back and build on the solid foundations that they left with the Prince of Persia series.

Fighting as the Prince feels great, but it’s only half the story. The impossible acrobatic feats of the Prince were a big game changer back in the day. Now significantly surpassed by many games, do they hold up?

Well, in a word, yes.

The climbing mechanics might not be anywhere near as advanced or detailed as in Assassin’s Creed but it never poses itself as an issue. The main reason for this being that you’re trapped within a confined space. This isn’t an open world game and consequently your expectations aren’t that of an Assassin’s Creed. It closely resembles Uncharted if anything; you can pull off incredible moves but ultimately there’s a linear path that you have to take.

The difference between this and something like Uncharted is that the wall-running isn’t a ‘hold the left stick forward to win’ situation. Whoever designed the castle certainly had no intention of bringing guests over. Spikes on the floor, spinning blades in the walls and God know’s what else, the place feels like it was designed by Jigsaw, or at least someone who wanted the journey from the bedroom to the kitchen to be a life threatening experience.

What this poor choice in interior design leads to are movement mechanics that feel fluid. The level design is great across the board and it constantly keeps you moving. More often than not any hesitance in movement is met swiftly with a game over screen.

Sands Of Time

So the gameplay receives a big tick, what about the story? After the events of the first game the Prince finds himself in a cat and mouse game with the Dahaka, the Guardian of Time. Having cheated death, the Dahaka’s role is to ensure that the Prince meets the fate that was set for him. In the meantime, the Prince is searching for Kaileena, the Empress of Time and creator of the sands of time. He hopes that by preventing the sands from ever being created he can escape his death at the hands of the Dahaka.

It’s a fairly interesting story that has a couple of twists and turns along the way but it’s not exactly The Last Of Us. It’s a pretty good story, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not the strongest point of the game and nor is it the reason I play these sorts of games. It does its job well of taking you from A to B and I was invested in it even though I was already aware of the major plot points.

Where it fall short is in its characters, namely the Prince himself. Back in 2004, the badass nature of the Prince was ‘wicked’ and ‘awesome.’ Now he’s just generic character #1000. Another badass dude with a sword. There’s really very little depth or growth to his character over the game’s 10 hour long campaign.

Kaileena also won’t be winning any awards for best written character any time soon. She serves her purpose well enough but there’s nothing to say beyond that.

The only character I do appreciate is the Dahaka. As a villain he’s executed to perfection. Many games fail in making their antagonists imposing. They’re either too weak or simply too generic.

What I like about the Dahaka is that he can’t be stopped. Only via collecting all the life upgrades can you fight him in a secret ending. Any attempt to fight him beforehand is futile.

It means that seeing the Dahaka equates to running in whatever direction that’s available.  His appearances in the game brings about a nice change of pace. After slaying hundreds of enemies, facing the Dahaka is an incredibly disempowering experience that grounds both the Prince and the player.

I remember playing the game on Christmas Day locked up in my room and I’m not ashamed to say that my first encounter with the Dahaka had me running downstairs as fast as I could; ok maybe I’m a little ashamed. I can’t say that I experienced that same kind of fear this time around but it’s undoubtedly a sweaty palm moment. When a gold tint permeates the screen and the opening riff of Godsmack’s ‘I Stand Alone’ begins to play you immediately sit forward, foolishly hoping that that extra 5 inches will somehow improve your chances of survival.

It’s just a shame that his only weakness is something as boring as water.

Graphics

More often than not, revisiting old games is nothing short of an attack on the eyes. Blocky graphics, poor lighting, poor textures; it’s incredible just how far we’ve come. The main requirement when playing old titles is that the graphics aren’t offensive; nobody expects to be blown away like they once were.

Now the original was certainly a good looking game for its time so I thought I’d play the HD remake of the game on PS3 to do it justice. It turns out I made the right choice.

This isn’t Crysis 3 but it looks decent enough. The colours are bright and everything looks sharp in HD. Needless to say it won’t blow you away, but most importantly it won’t hinder your experience.

As aforementioned, the dark and brooding tone of Warrior Within was generally met negatively by critics. It’s all down to preference but at least Ubisoft did well in nailing the atmosphere. It’s a desolate and haunting environment to explore.

If the dark tone proves to be too much then the segments in the game that require the Prince to travel back in time provide a nice change. Seeing the building that just moments earlier looked on the brink of collapse transform into the beautiful structure that it once was makes for some nice moments. The inhabitants of the world remain the same, they just die in prettier conditions.

Time Well Spent

I was worried when I began my playthrough of Warrior Within. I didn’t want my happy childhood memories of a great game replaced with disappointment. Although not everything holds up, I loved my time back with the Prince, certainly more so than I have with any assassin in recent years.

For those looking to revisit this gem then do so without fear. For fans of the genre who missed out on the trilogy a couple of generations ago, this is certainly a good place to start.