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Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires Review

Jon Wilcox

07/07/2006

Mere months have passed since we last fought through ancient China, so here comes Koei with another reminder...

A sense of déjà vu isn't exactly rare in videogames with sequels galore always intent on bringing 'more of the same' for players, but none typifies this more than Koei's Dynasty Warriors series. With eighteen titles in just nine years, not including the Samurai Warriors spin-offs, even describing the developers as prolific doesn't come close to describe their efforts.

For those of you who've played any of the titles in the past, it's probably best to skip this next paragraph...

If you're reading this then you're new to the Dynasty Warriors series and the story of the Three Kingdoms, and names like Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Sun Jian are quite alien. Here's a quite 101 on ancient Chinese history: Near the end of the second century, China fell into a period of warring factions after the fall of the Han dynasty. The three kingdoms of Wei, Wu, and Shu fought over the land in a series of battles, including one against the rebellious Yellow Turbans, until they were united under a new dynasty in 280AD. Up to speed? Great, well that's essentially what Dynasty Warriors is (and always has been) all about.

Marking the franchise's debut on the next-gen consoles, Empires replaces the previously announced Dynasty Warriors 5: Special, which was originally intended for launch on Xbox 360. The main 'Empire' mode in the game sees players battling to capture all twenty-five regions of China across four historical campaigns. Gameplay is split more distinctly than previous instalments of the series, with more of an emphasis placed on strategy and tactics than before. That isn't to say that any of the widespread action that typifies the series has been lost; instead it just feels like Koei has paid more attention into creating a more dynamic experience for players to enjoy.

Adding to the 'Risk' like gameplay introduced into the game, players will also control the defence of the outer edges of the player's by assigning Generals to keep the peace. Whilst not forced upon the player, it also means that players will be capable of expanding the number of potential targets in the next round of battles. During these strategic phases players are also able to take advice from key personnel, with two orders given per adviser. The Xbox 360 version features a further 25 orders compared to the PS2 version of Empires (bringing the total up to 75), although not all of them are available from the start. Gathering gold from taxes, putting money into developing new technologies such as stronger spears, or even searching for potential lieutenants of the future, are just some of the 'cards' offered by the council. This is by far the biggest gameplay change in the entire game, and really makes it the most rounded instalment of Dynasty Warriors to date. Prior to Empires, it was all too easy to find the game bogged down in repetition. It has to be said, however, that these changes don't raise the standard of Dynasty Warriors to where we'd expect a next-gen title to be, but it's certainly acting like a solid foundation to base future iterations.

What hasn't changed in the game are the large scale battles on offer, which sees players take their generals out into the field against a mass of enemy soldiers, and their own generals. Though a lot of the conditions for victory and defeat boil down to winning the enemy's main camps or killing the enemy commanders (much like previous instalments), the introduction of stronger tactical gameplay breaks off the threat of severe repetition. Using a squad command system also means that calls for reinforcements from the NPC Generals and the option to defensive Koei has also included two-player co-operative features in Empire, though an omission of online multiplayer is sure to be missed by some.

Beside the small number of attacks open to players, each of the lieutenants and generals in the game have access to high-power abilities that can devastate whole platoons and units of surrounding enemies. Using a mana-like quality called Musou, which is filled by battling opponents, these powers can be executed even when the player is under attack and taking hits - a definite lifesaver. Increasing fallen health levels of the characters does seem to be more difficult in Empire however, with enemies rarely dropping the all important health boosts that all too often made an appearance in some of the earlier instalments.

Outside of the Empires mode, players can also progress through Free Mode, allowing them to attempt the reunification of China as they see fit. However with the freedom offered by the main mode, there's no real attraction to having such an option. Koei has also included a character creation mode in Empires, allowing players to mould their perfect fighting machine, and acts like the Japanese equivalent of EA's now mandatory character creation system. Players can choose from a number of different heads, armours, weapons, and fighting styles, with further unlockables available throughout the course of the game. To be honest though, with forty-eight different playable characters to choose from, surely there's no real need to include the feature in Empires at all?

...and it wouldn't be Dynasty Warriors if it didn't include a virtual encyclopaedia of the historical campaigns, the key characters, and their biographies. So once you've slaughtered thousands on the battlefields on China, you can at least learn more about the real-life general you defeated in a previous round.

Visually it doesn't take much besides a first glance to recognise that Empires is far from being a next-gen title; most areas of the graphics still look like a PC version of the current-gen version (released on PlayStation2). In fact the only change that stands out is the High-Definition 720p resolution - which is a mandatory standard of any Xbox 360 title - and longer drawing distances. For the record Koei, these graphics really make me glad I forked out money on the console...

In fairness, (and this admission is something that perhaps should have a twelve-step program with meetings that begin with "My name is Jon and I'm a...") I've developed a love/hate relationship with the franchise in recent years. Whenever a new iteration is released, there's always the initial "Not another one" attitude, and it's only whilst playing it that I remember that I actually quite enjoy playing through the game. Repetition has always been an issue with the gameplay of any Dynasty Warriors game, but thanks to the improvements made to the tactical areas, Empires manages to avoid slipping on that banana skin.