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Dynasty Warriors 5 Review
Jon Wilcox
07/10/2005
Armed with sword and steed, TVG rides into the feudal Far East for the fifth instalment of Dynasty Warriors from Koei...
Though it's unlikely that we'll ever see a series of videogames based on Beowulf, or the Iliad, Koei's Dynasty Warriors franchise (based on the epic story 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms' written by 14th Century writer Luo Guanzhong - in case you wanted to know) has continued to flourish through a raft of titles including a spin-off series, Dynasty Tactics. Released on PlayStation 2 months ago, what does this Xbox release of Dynasty Warriors 5 offer those patient enough to wait for its release on the Microsoft machine?
Though the game includes several mini-games, the bulk of Dynasty Warriors 5's gameplay comes in the Musou Mode, which act as a campaign for players. The starting battle is dependent on the character they choose to play, and with forty-eight characters from the three kingdoms of Wei, Wu, and Shu, (most of which are based on historical figures of the time) gamers are certainly spoilt for choice. From there players are given a brief monologue by their chosen character and their unit commander respectively before being allowed the option to select a bodyguard who'll watch your back during the course of battle and certainly comes across as perhaps the most developed AI in the whole game. As a 'bonus' for patient Xbox owning fans Koei have included the option to have the original language play instead of the English voiceovers (the pronunciation of certain character names have been the cause of laughter in the Oriental-speaking world including Commander Cao Cao pronounced as 'Cow Cow'.)
All battles in Dynasty Warriors 5 seem to come down to one specific objective: kill the enemy commander before your commander is himself killed. As can be imagined from such a simplistic motive the gameplay can come across as simplistic, and indeed it is, but for some limited time it does hold a player's attention. Running around the battlefields can take some sometime, and the horses that can be commandeered don't seem to really move that much faster, which perhaps answers the question as to why the battles have hour long time-limits. Boiling down to a series of epic battles where (quite literally) several hundred NPC enemies can slain in the course of a scenario that in itself can last up to hour, Dynasty Warriors 5 may come as a disappoint to veterans of the Master Edition of Dynasty Warriors 4 with one or two key features from that title omitted here; and with a special edition of DW5 itself is due in the near future that will leave many sure to be asking the question is this release needed at all?
Though characters can switch to a first-person perspective for ranged attacks, the majority of the game is played in the third-person and soon to be worn down action button. Special moves can be developed and executed with another button on the gamepad, however most of the action is achieved through a single button that again seems to lead to a simplistic gaming experience that quickly tires. Like the gameplay, the combat control system just seems to be far too simplistic and is found lacking; yes it's fun to run around slaughtering the enemy hordes for the first few hundred slashing with a sword/spear/axe, but since that will only take a matter of tens of minutes, that's not exactly saying much.
Whilst running around ancient battlegrounds is fun for a limited amount of time, the low level enemy AI, which in fact seems to be non-existent, does reduce the opposing armies to little more than shooting ducks. Though some amongst the enemy ranks will launch a sneaky attack whilst the player-controlled character is busily slashing away, for a lot of the time the various units just seem to either be standing around waiting to be killed or just make half-hearted attempts at getting close enough to strike. Perhaps with the large number of opponents on the battlefield, gamers shouldn't expect advanced levels of AI, but at the very least it would be nice to see a bit of a fight, otherwise the gameplay becomes stale quite quickly - something that becomes apparent after just a couple of missions in Dynasty Warriors 5.
Besides the Musou mode, gamers can also play through a small selection of mini-games, which amount to little more than subtle variations of the main game, that is to destroy as many enemies as possible within a certain restriction such as a time limit. Whilst they might seem to offer a respite from the central core of action, the fact is that it just feels like the main game but on a far smaller scale, and doesn't offer an alternative to the Musou mode. Two players can also battle it out in the game, which may throw a little variety in to the game, though the extensive encyclopedia that gives players a comprehensive history of the events may be going a little bit too far â“ however history fanatics may enjoy this feature.
Visually Dynasty Warriors is quite lack-lustre all the more that it never seems to escape from the fact that it's a port from a PS2 title. Whilst the battles are ferocious, the character animations don't seem to flow into each other as perhaps they should, and quite frankly both the quality of the background environments and the draw distances of said environments are poor. The gameworld just isn't believable at all, it never seems that such epic battles are taking place in Ancient China, in fact it feels too much like low-budget movie.
