In the Call Me Ishtar column we look back at some of the biggest bombs in video games over the years that have earned a special place in the infamy of the medium.
The original Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was about as close to a surprise hit as a major studio can release these days. After a couple of failed attempts to reboot the Persia franchise, The Sands of Time did so with style that few games can match. A year later the follow-up Warrior Within was released and with it Ubisoft showed in a short period the right way to reboot a franchise, and the right way to kill one.
So much negative has been said about Warrior Within that it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that it is a fairly decent game in many ways. A lot of the adventure elements from the first game return, and it certainly packs a larger scope. What’s notable is not that the game wrong, but how it went wrong. Most sequels fail by not being enough different and ultimately feeling like an expansion pack. Warrior Within tried the opposite route.
From the opening title screen you know things are not the same as they used to be. Heavy metal guitar riffs welcome you to the game, and you’re soon introduced to your goth-lite version of the titular character. From there the game crams down your throat the idea that this is going to be a more combat heavy adventure than The Sands of Time. While nary anyone could argue the first game’s combat was perfect, few seemed to desire a shift toward more combat. Indeed, the charm of the first game was that the fights were minor distractions on your way to another death defying acrobatic set piece. This game had excised all the charm of the original. No happy-go-lucky Prince. No fairy tale visuals. No warmth.
In defense of Ubisoft, the developers claimed that work had started on Warrior Within well before the release of The Sands of Time. In other words, they had already made drastic choices in the game’s direction before ever seeing critical feedback to the original. To turn around a sequel within a year this was obviously necessary, but it does point to a fundamental problem in the modern gaming environment. The desire to milk franchises produces lackluster, rushed projects. In the end, many of Warrior Within’s sins were corrected by the follow-up The Two Thrones. Still, the series never quite regained its luster and Ubisoft almost killed the franchise in producing one of the biggest flubs in gaming history.
Critical Reception
GameSpot
With the newest iteration in the series, Warrior Within, developer Ubisoft Montreal appears to have addressed the biggest complaints about its forebear, which specifically involved its repetitive combat and short length. Yet while Warrior Within’s new combat and satisfyingly long campaign improve on last year’s game, the now darker tone falls somewhat flat compared to the storybook atmosphere in The Sands of Time.
IGN
Ubisoft took a gamble by taking the Prince to a dark place. I don’t think it paid off as the sense of magic, seen even in the old 2D PC days, is barely present here. It wasn’t the wrong decision to make for a darker story, but Ubisoft took it too far. I like Warrior Within, just not as much as Sands of Time. Despite the step backwards, this is still one of the best games you could purchase this holiday.
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