Have you ever played a Dynasty Warriors game (not counting the first one)? Have you ever played any of the spin-offs like Samurai Warriors or Warriors Orochi? How about the Empires spin offs? If so, you will know that these games hardly change at all and come out multiple times a year. This is one series that is worse than Madden in terms of lack of progress and number of releases… So why did I have so much fun playing?
For those that don’t know Koei is a company that made a series of strategy games called Romance of the 3 Kingdoms based on the novel of the same name about the Three Kingdoms era of China. In 1997 they decided to branch out genre-wise and made Dynasty Warriors on the original Playstation. It was a 3D one-on-one fighting game but did not really do much of anything new in a market flooded with fighting games, so for Dynasty Warriors 2 on the Playstation 2 they branched out again and made a 3rd person action “hack and slash” type game. What it boiled down to was mashing buttons to kills literally hundreds of enemies per level and leveling up your guy to be stronger. You eventually would take out generals and other leaders to pass levels. With multiple characters to play as, the gameplay didn’t vary much but you had plenty to do by making every character stronger. As the years went on more and more sequels came out with little improvements and then the expansions and spin-offs came. They would release Xtreme Legends for Dynasty Warrior games that added more characters and levels and would allow you to import saves from the game proper, then there was Samurai Warriors which was the same gameplay but in Japan instead of China. Finally came the Empires spin-offs which attempts to add a bit more strategy influenced by the Romance of the 3 Kingdoms games to mix things up a bit. Instead of just playing level after level killing leaders, there is now a map that you plot movements, diplomacy, alliances, and invasions. Once the fighting starts it’s back to Dynasty Warriors type battles but with taking over bases as a main form of victory.
Now here we are with the newest in the series, Dynasty Warriors 6 Empires. My experience with the series is starting at 3 and then waiting a generation to play Dynasty Warriors 5 Empires on Xbox 360 (and also Samurai Warriors 2). When I finally broke down and decided to play 6, I knew that I wasn’t going to get much of an improvement, and I was right. For this review I was playing the Playstation 3 version, but from what I have gathered online both versions are virtually identical. Once I started playing I got pretty much what I expected, Dynasty Warriors 5 Empires with some slightly prettier graphics and more characters on screen at the same time. What I still got was a game that was not as pretty as it should be, not as many characters on screen as there should be, and the majority of the enemies still looking exactly the same. I still got enemies popping up instantly when I got close enough for the dated game engine to render them, and I still got things like grass and fences that were very spare still, yet would disappear from the game world when getting closer. There was an obvious line when running that before it was detailed and after it was not. It was a technical mess that is blown away by better games that came out a few years ago like Ninety-Nine Nights and Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom. Even after the install and with these lack of feeling like it really took advantage of the hardware, it still had load times that lasted way longer than they should.
With all this negative stuff said, why did I still play and still have fun? Well, as I mentioned in my Samurai Warriors: State of War Review I enjoy a good button masher. I like the “old school” feel of just running around and killing a bunch of enemies with combos, working my way to a boss that I beat and move onto the next level. I enjoy it even more when playing with a friend, which this game also supports (another complaint is that even in 2009 it’s still local co-op only and not online at all). Since I know that these games do not change much, from my history you will see that I do not play every game in the series. I wait a bit in between each game, and I buy them at a discount. When I finish that game, then maybe I will move onto another but there is no rush. The original DW2 was fun to me, so I can still find some fun here. The Empires strategy elements add another layer to break up the monotony a bit, especially since this also has "Cards” you can play that give different status effects and events to work with. I still say that I enjoyed Samurai Warriors 2 on Xbox 360 a bit more though because the combat felt better. In SW2 one can start with light attacks and end a combo with the heavy button to mix things up, but in DW6 you’re either doing a series of light attacks or a series of heavy without the ability to truly mix the two together into a combo.
There are multiple scenarios that you can play, and for the most part they play the same. Sometimes you are a ruler or officer where you make the direct decisions of where to invade, who to train, etc, and sometimes you are a vagrant or mercenary that can wander around the country fighting for yourself and maybe eventually forming an alliance with a particular leader. The variety between the two is minimal but as a ruler you can use the cards and as a vagrant there are mercenary missions that are shorter in play such as kill all the flame tigers or gather supplies that are used to gain more money and level up your character. There are trophies and achievements for beating each scenario, playing (and winning) a battle as specific characters (these are the majority of the the trophies/achievements), and unlocking all the edit items (the game allows you to create your own warriors for use in the game). If you can put up with the monotony of it all and it is your kind of game, it can definitely keep you busy for some time.
3/5 stars – Maybe the best DW game, but I still feel that Samurai Warriors 2 is the better game with more modes and more satisfying gameplay. Just a semi-mindless button masher that is fun for what it is, but could be so much better. Koei, take some time off and make some real improvements and move into the current generation that is now 4 years old. Buy it at a discount, $25 or less.
