Gamespot is my new hero. A while back, I went there and it told me I should get Far Cry, which I was fully prepared to not get, and Far Cry turned out to be the best FPS ever. So, I've made it a habit to look for games they rate well, and go get them. Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, was one such game. My lesson with Battlefield 2 was to go for a single player game, and Prince of Persia is a nice jumping puzzle and fighting game to fit that description.
Early on, I decided to use a walkthrough to play this game. I find that for games like this, walkthroughs help, and prevent the frustrations of getting stuck, but still require all the timing and fighting skills that make the game fun. Since the game takes place in, essentially, a huge castle, full of trap puzzles, it's pretty easy to wander off, and spend hours fighting through traps, only to realize you're not on the right path. A walkthrough keeps you on track.
There's basically two main facets to the game. Jumping puzzles and fighting. Jumping puzzles doesn't entirely do justice to the diversity of moves the Prince can perform, from basic jumps, to running up or along walls, to shimmying along ledges, to swinging from bars... All very acrobatic, and fun to control. Puzzles revolve around picking your way across architecture, avoiding traps, and turning levers to control and navigate your environment. To further enhance this experience, the Prince has “time powers” which allow him to slow down time, even rewind it. This is a nice feature, as it adds another option to gameplay, and also softens the impact of a missed jump, or mistimed flip. You can just rewind to before your mistake, and try again.
Your time powers are limited by the amount of “sand tanks” you have filled by killing enemies, and collecting sand from scatted urns and jars. You only have a few sand tanks full at any given time, and they also power several of your combat powers as well, so they're a big piece of the game. Combat is a ton of fun, again chock full of options. The Prince has numerous combos for attacking with his primary weapon and with secondary weapons he can pick up from slain enemies. He can also throw his secondary weapon, perform a variety of choke holds and throws on enemies, jump off of them, or launch off walls to perform powerful attacks. The first fight of the game was tremendously awkward for me, and very frustrating. It nearly put me off the game, but I'm glad I persisted. Before long, the combat system becomes very familliar, and it's easy to perform all manner of tricky and cinematic attacks to take out your victims.
All in all, Prince of Persia is a rewarding game. I found myself getting a bit frustrated a couple times with particularly difficult sequences and fights, but by and large, it was enjoyable.