Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

by Ron Burke

Dynasty Warriors has been around for a while.  I got to sit down and put an obscene amount of time into the newest iteration, Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires.  Having played the series intermittently, I knew what I was getting into – historic battles in ancient China using a host of real-life warlords from that era.  What I didn’t know was that this title would inject a healthy dose of strategy into the usual hack-and-slash gameplay that has become a staple of this game. 

Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires represents Omega Force and Koei’s first foray into the Next-Generation platforms.  They have taken the best parts of Dynasty Warriors 4, and Dynasty Tactics 2 and smashed them together into one large package.  Following the battles of many Chinese warriors, Empires takes a big leap onto the Xbox 360, giving Omega Force an incredible amount of processing power to solve some of the long-standing issues with the series.  Could they re-invent the series on this new platform, and is there enough new here to justify the already-low $39.99 pricepoint? 

The first thing you’ll note is that the graphics in Dynasty Warrior 5: Empires are a mish-mash of quality and quantity.  Your main characters and generals are rendered to stunning perfection with an almost-cgi level of detail in their armor and weapons.  Unfortunately, standing next to them is an army of clones that look exactly alike and appears as they jumped up a shelf from my PS2 and onto my Xbox 360.  The backgrounds were similarly mixed – some areas looked like they were almost empty, and others were packed with rising castles and surrounding encampments. 

There was one thing that put a smile on my face in the graphics department – the blurry textures and framerate issues are completely erased by the raw power of the Xbox 360.  Everything is rendered to perfection in 720p or 1080i and in HD.  The increased polygon count to render the main characters to perfection doesn’t even phase the refreshed engine.  In fact, the draw distance has been thrown so far into the distance that you can hardly call it a draw distance.  Unfortunately, it does reveal a bit of pop-in that was a surprise to see given the amount of raw power available.  On the other hand, there seems to be more enemies on screen at a given time than ever before.  If you want to stand victorious with close to 1000 kills at the end of a mission, you can do just that.   Even in split-screen modes there is absolutely no slow-down or graphic degradation.  It is nice to be free of framerate issues. The animations in Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires have also been given a good bit of polish.  Unleashing a Musou to tear through enemies leaves them flailing and thrown back into the dirt.  Again, it is nice to see this without dragging the framerate down as it has in previous games. 

As in previous games, there are cutscenes that punctuate the beginning and end of battles.  They look good, although they almost look green-screened.  The characters stand out with incredible polish, but often the backgrounds look soft and airbrushed.  After spending a few hours with the game, it appears this may have been done purposely as an ‘art-direction’.  It really doesn’t detract, so I can’t complain too much. 

In short, some aspects of Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires look fantastic.  Others just look bland, and most definitely previous-gen.  If you were expecting an incredible revision to the graphics department, you might find yourself disappointed.

If you have played a Dynasty Warriors game in the past, you know exactly what you are getting here.  This is “Kung-Fu Theater”-quality voice acting, and that is bad in the cheesiest way.  It does rise above the caliber of the previous titles, but it still suffers from overacting.  Sorry Liu Bei, no Oscar for you. 

The music on the other hand hasn’t changed – brace yourself for some serious J-Rock.  Heavy guitars and pulsing drum beats fill the vast majority of the soundtrack.  The first or second time you hear it it isn’t bad – the third or fourth time you hear it, you’ll be glad the Xbox 360 supports custom soundtracks.

Rounding out the sound category is the most redeeming aspect of the aural experience – the sound effects.  A great deal of work was put into the sound effects, and it shows.  The clashing of steel and the grunting and screams of your warriors is pervasive during battle and helps with the immersion and suspension of disbelief that there could very well be several hundred people on the field at once.  When you overtake an enemy position your crew roars a unified yell.  The sound effects are top shelf.  Good job Omega!

The controls for the strategic portions of the game are simplicity itself.  Think of it like a game of Risk or Stratego – it is not a high-twitch scenario.  On the other hand, the battles that ensue are a bit more of a twitch affair.  You use the left thumbstick to control your character, and the right to guide the occasionally unruly camera.  Clicking in the right thumbstick unleashes your Musou, a technique you’ll be using often.   The D-Pad allows you to issue orders to your troops such as having them assault, cover you, defend, or fight at will.  The Right trigger zooms the map in and out, and the left toggles the display of your enemies hit points and name.  The left bumper allows you to bring up your guard to issue a counter.  It also allows you to strafe against your enemies.  The right bumper allows you to use the bow.  The A button, Y button, B button, and X button are jump, charge, Musou, or normal attack, respectively.

Overall, the control scheme is one that has been honed through several games.  It didn’t need a great deal of adjustment to the control layout, but the camera could have used a few more lashes to get it moving.  Sometimes it feels like the camera is too close, too far away, or doesn’t move fast enough to keep up with the frenetic pace of the battle. 

Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires is a blend between action and strategy, with a heavier emphasis on the action aspects.  Omega Force, in an attempt to shore up the strategy elements, has introduced an Empires mode that replaces the story modes present in the previous games.  There are 6 scenarios that will offer you the opportunity to conquer and unify the 25 territories of China in a game that neatly resembles Risk or Stratego, except that instead of just kicking off the enemies pieces from the map, you engage in the battles that determine the outcome of the conflict.  Just like Risk or Stratego, you not only have to assault your enemies, but you also have to protect your own lands and assets at the same time.  Do you commit extra troops to guarding a particular border, or do you utilize those extra assets to assault the enemy stronghold in a brash attempt to remove their powerbase?  If you have ever read Sun Tzu’s Art of War, you’ll have a good hold on the concepts presented here. 

You start off picking a general to play, or making your own in the Edit mode, and then picking a starting territory.  Once you have selected your territory, you’ll begin to collect gold through taxes.  You can place up to three Generals and three Lieutenants in every province, but that costs money and stretches you thin.  You can place more troops, but without a good general to lead them, how well will they really fight?  As you take more territories you increase the amount of taxes you can collect, thus enabling you to expand your empire.  By building your warchest, you can obtain special attacks that you can use on the field of battle such as extra guard units for your General, or special attacks.  After every turn, your generals may give you advice on how best to support your cause by asking you to place funds in one particular place or another.  Their advice is usually sound. 

Once you get the hang of managing your army, it is time to engage in some skillful warfare.   You move your troops and associated battle-staff against a rival warlord and a battle begins.  At this time, the game begins to feel very familiar.  Often a cutscene plays out where the other general scoffs in contempt of your decision to initiate war, and you move directly into the typical gameplay that you remember from almost every previous title.  Hacking and slashing your way through enemy encampments, shoring up defenses to keep your troops from running, and keeping your Generals and Lieutenants alive while swinging your weapon wildly and riding horses through a sea of enemies is essentially the gist of the game.  You will plow through hundreds of enemy fodder to face the rival enemy General.  Once the battlefield conditions have been satisfied, you conquer that segment of land, and the overland battle moves into the next phase.  Their armies crushed, you can often ‘convince’ an enemy officer to join your ranks.   Additionally, to ensure that it is not you against the world, you can also initiate alliances with other Generals, who may or may not come to your aid when the need arises.  Once you crush a territory under your boot, you can then institute one of 28 policies to help govern that district.  These help your officers make decisions in response to threats in a way that is closer to your personal preference.  Alliances, policies, and battle are the cornerstones to a successful campaign and provide a truly different experience for the series.  It doesn’t correct the rehashed gameplay issues, but it does present a very welcome and long overdue distraction.  That said, the next game needs to bring something bigger to the table – we’ve been around this block, and we are ready for a reinvention.

There is a great deal of things going for, and against, Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires.  Spotty AI, sometimes-lackluster graphics, camera issues, cringe-worthy audio, and a rehash of the same type of gameplay we’ve seen for several iterations serve as good reasoning for the lower price point.  On the other hand, the integration of strategic elements and the elimination of any framerate issues makes this one of the best, if not the best, Dynasty Warriors title to date.  In addition, the game supports split-screen co-op adds a whole new level of fun as you and your partner cut through the seemingly-endless swath of enemy soldiers.   That said, there is no online component for this title.  You cannot team up with other Gaming Trend readers to conquer the land, and I can’t for the life of me figure out why.  Omega Force needs to get with the program – with titles like GRAW out there offering a comprehensive online and offline component, this feels like an incredible oversight.

The vast majority of the achievements in Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires come from the Empire mode.  When you pass 10 generals, you unlock an achievement.  20, 30, 40, 50, and so on until you hit 250 generals unlocks additional achievement points.  There are 5 special maps that you can play for achievements, as well as clearing all of the scenarios and conquering all 25 lands rounds out the 36 total achievement opportunities. 

Here we are, at the end of another Dynasty Warriors review.  Omega Force is very good at giving us just enough to push the series forward, but it seems like we may have reached the end.  The injection of the Empires aspects of the game are a welcome addition, but they only serve as a mild distraction to the hack-and-slash gameplay that has been present in so many titles before this one.  It is time to move into the Next Generation of hardware with both feet and create a new title from the ground up with new concepts and new gameplay elements.  The reduced pricepoint on this title puts it within reach for fans of the series, and not too much of a risk for non-converts.  Let’s hope that the next time we meet Liu Bei and the gang, they’ve got a whole new game for us to play.

Gaming Trend Score

74

1. Graphics: 70
2. Audio: 72
3. Controls: 85
4. Gameplay: 72
5. Value/Replay: 72
6. OVERALL:74