Heres my review for Dynasty Warriors 6: Empires:
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How many times have you pressed the square button in your entire gaming career? Have a rough estimate? Well, get ready to double that number during your first two hours playing Dynasty Warriors 6: Empires.
Okay, so this is the 12th Dynasty Warriors game so far. And if I'm going to pack the gist of this review in one sentence, if you've played any of those games, you'll know what to expect with this one. Koei's battlefield beat 'em up series is back again, just as you predicted.
First things first. If you're familiar with the franchise you'll know that this particular instalment is intended to be more of an expansion than a brand new title. And if you weren't, you could probably guess from the first few minutes after popping the game in the disc drive. There is only one way to play, and that's through the eponymous Empire mode. The basic aim of the game is to take over China, one territory at a time, either as a ruler, or an officer. Both choices offer a similar experience, but are different enough to warrant an explanation each. As a Ruler (arguably the “default” mode) you are tasked with selecting a starting roster of officers for your employ, and your first territory. From here the game is split into turns (each one lasting a month of in game time) at the start of which you can choose your policies through a card system. Each card has various effects, such as replenishing all troops to your officers, or preventing enemies from invading your land for a certain amount of turns, and is tied to a certain officer. Either way, it doesn't mater what you pick, because you're going to be doing all the work yourself anyway. After choosing your policies you're free to decide which of your neighbouring territories you're going to invade next.
Its now that the game falls right into the same old routine its held for years. The battles are your standard Dynasty Warriors fare. You get a little more control over your officers this time , with a system that lets you give orders to each unit in your army, but the allied A.I is so mind bendingly idiotic, that you might as well not bother. Telling Officer X to capture Base Y is often as pointless as it is unnecessary, because the aforementioned officer will often decide to ignore your commands completely. Opting instead to rush into the enemy front lines and get themselves repeatedly killed. On the rare occasion that your orders are successful, and the officer actually starts to make their way to the chosen target, you are reminded of their stupidity, as its seemingly impossible for the AI to navigate anywhere successfully without being attracted to every group of enemies on the way, like a kitten to a delightfully fluffy ball of thread.
All of that is irrelevant however, because the fun to be had in the battle sections of the game is not found in the strategic elements, rather in the, “killing 200 enemies with one button press” part. The game redeems itself with the addition of even more enemies on screen at once than ever before. Expect to find yourself surrounded by several hundred peons at once on a regular basis. Slashing your way through the hordes of enemies is still fun, and the fact that you can now do more of it can only be good. For extra fulfilment, wander into an enemy base, far ahead of your moronic allies, and just marauder every runt that comes waving his sword at you, (you know what I mean). Otherwise, there are very few changes to the core battle system since Dynasty Warriors 6 worth mentioning.
The officer mode retains some of the aforementioned features, only you are not given any say in your armies strategy until you reach a certain rank, attained by completing targets in battle etc. Instead you are offered to partake in various events such as befriending other officers and even marrying them, overthrowing your leader and effectively switching the game to ruler mode, initiating sneak/fire attacks which give you bonuses for the next battle, and more. Even though it appears the developers added it as a sort of “b-side”, the Officer mode is much more fun. It strips away the unnecessary and, if I'm honest, rather pathetic “strategic” parts of the game, and instead focuses on the character development side of things, which is far more rewarding. Seeing your character grow is a significantly more satisfying venture than it has been ever before.
Both modes of the game are bolstered by a system that allows you to upgrade your weapon however you like, with attributes and elements of your choice (An interesting addition that makes for some fun combinations), purchasable upgrades that modify the length of your life and Musou (special attack) Gauges, and your running/swimming speed among others. It doesn't take long to collect all of these upgrades though, and some of the weapon upgrades are easily abusable, such as “steal”, which makes it far too easy to collect huge amounts of money during battles. There are, however, loads of weapon effects that you can choose from, which allows for good customisation opportunities.
Speaking of customisation, the new Create an Officer mode springs to mind. The Edit mode offers an opportunity to create your own character, although there are no new move sets available to choose from. Your creation can only be an existing character, with a different outfit. Its nothing to get excited about. As games like Soul Calibur and WWE have proved, character creation modes can make a good game great. In Dynasty Warriors: Empires though, it only adds a small amount of fun, and is definitely not enough to factor into the decision of whether to buy the game or not.
Overall the game truly shines during the Officer campaign. Even though the Ruler mode was a nice try to bring more thought into the series, it pales in comparison to even the previous Empires titles.
Other things of note include the graphics, which haven't changed at all since Dynasty Warriors 6, which means they are still inexcusably bland and ugly. The environments are mostly boring in presentation, but feature some interesting terrain layouts. The character models use the same low-res flat looking textures as before, which is disappointing in this generation of hardware. Some of the graphical shortcomings can be understood due to the large amount of models on screen at any one time, though the game could still, realistically, look a lot better. The same problems with slow-down crop up here, although very sparingly. It only happened two or three times in my entire time playing the game. Which isn't bad. Character animations are good. Most of them run smoothly, and some move sets are very cool looking indeed.
A very nice addition is the games soundtrack. Koei thoughtfully included music from all previous DW games, and you can choose the song you want playing in the background throughout the fight during the loading times, a feature that adds a pinch of nostalgia to the usual affairs. Voice acting and scripting, however, is as terrible as ever. Luckily though most of it is drowned out by wailing guitars, fireballs and hundreds of death cries.
If you're new to the Dynasty Warriors series, then this isn't the place to start. Instead, go out and buy Dynasty Warriors 6, the preceding title to this, and make your judgement based on that. Similarly, anyone who has enjoyed previous DW games, will probably find something to enjoy here too.
With all that said, Dynasty Warriors: Empires is a game that, while being very frustrating at times and including relatively little content, still retains that special something that makes killing thousands of enemies single handedly feel very rewarding. A feeling that is only heightened by the new customisation options and slight strategic flair introduced by the events system.
Graphics – 5/10
Game play – 7/10
Sound – 6/10
Content – 6/10
Overall 7/10
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