Review by Fall3n Angelz

The first backwards-compatible PS2 has arrived! Avert your eyes children!

Gameplay
For those whose home is a small rock, the DW formula goes something like this: Choose a general, run around lifeless locales, kill hundreds of carbon copy soldiers by spamming the attack button, run some more, defeat enemy general, repeat. That's pretty much it!

Once an exciting, somewhat unique, and at times even charming beat-em-up series, Dynasty Warriors simply refuses to evolve. It’s the same game you’ve played 10 times already, and if you havent played a KOEI title before, they arent really giving you a reason to start now.

The Empire mode adds a Risk-style map that you have to take over, and items need to be developed, and then produced for one time uses in battle, but it doesn’t make that big of a difference. It’s the same freaking game, only less enthralling and somehow even more simple and repetitive than previous installments.

Graphics
Downright insulting, even by PS2 standards. Koei has seemingly been using the same game engine since Dynasty Warriors 2, and it very much shows. There is extreme pop-up, fog, disappearing enemies, and even a touch of slowdown, all displayed in glorious high resolution.

Aside from a few well-designed character models, even if you could see 10 feet in front of you, it’s nothing special in the first place. Effects like snow are a half-effort at best, and actually detracts from the already lacking visuals. Add to this several translation errors (try launching an attack with no money), and this is hands-down the most offensive, horrid looking 360 game to date, and yes that includes Joust.

Sound
Surprise surprise, the same PS1-era rock tunes and underwhelming sound effects you’ve been tortured by for years. Who decided that cheesy rock was what best represented epic Chinese battles? Imagine watching Gladiator to the ridiculous tunes of 50 Cent. After a while you stop hearing the music and actually begin going back in time when such things were cool. Ah, the 70’s...

On the plus side, every character actually has recorded dialogue, which is nice, except for the fact that they have about 2 quotes a piece, and you will hear them over, and over, and over... sometimes even multiple times within just a few seconds.

Multiplayer
The standard Dynasty Warriors co-op mode, with the standard Dynasty Warriors co-op mode problems. First off, the graphics, as bad as they already are, actually get worse in coop. Is this Silent Hill or the Shang Dynasty (I made that up, learning is for tools...)? On top of that, you have to ‘log’ player 2 in literally every battle. This is an unnecessary frustration, and the fact that Koei has never fixed it just goes to show they're really only a one-trick pony trying to milk that, uh, pony...for everything it’s worth.

In the era of Xbox Live, not at least including some sort of online coop or versus mode in this dreadful excuse for a game is absolutely the last straw. If Koei doesn’t really want your money, then why give it to them?

Achievements
There are 25 achievements for collecting all the Pokemo- I mean named officers in the game. While this includes the 40 or so unique characters you’ve come to know and possibly love, it also includes 200 soulless officers you’ve never heard of and couldn’t tell apart if each one had a special “crazy” hat made just for them. This could take a while, but there is an easy way to get the majority of officers in one Empire sitting. Curiously, the officers you already recruited have the word “GET!” next to their name, which may mislead you to believe that you need to... get them. Next is the extremely imaginative “Play so and so battle” and “Beat so and so campaign (take over all 25 areas on the Risk map)” achievements. As there’s only a handful of campaigns, and even less “special” battles, completing these is simply a grind. All in all, once you learn how to bend the game system to your every whim, you're looking at a mildly frustrating 1000 points in about 6 hours, or up to 10 if you manage to fall asleep, which is likely.

Lasting Appeal
While there are over 40 unique generals, each with their own weapons and fighting styles, as well as a decent variety of custom character options, the limited moveset (all too familiar to anyone who’s even glanced by a DW game before) and redundant battles leave much to be desired. With only Empire and Free mode (both in which you play the exact same battles), a tacked-on splitscreen coop feature, and absolutely no Live support whatsoever, you’ll be looking around the house for something more interesting to do, like read a book, or sleep, before you even finish all the campaigns.

Final Score

• Cool character designs
• Decent create-a-character feature
• It's over reasonably quick

• Inexcusably bad graphics that wouldn’t even impress on the PS2
• No online co-op or versus
• Half-baked "Encyclopedia" and history lessons adds nothing
• Even at 40 dollars, it’s about 50 dollars too much...

Note: A rating scale of 0 - 10 is used, with 10 being the highest a game can score while 0 is the absolute worst. Each category has a point value associated with it and a final score is displayed at the end of the review. The opinions expressed in this review are not necessarily the opinions held by the owners of www.achieve360points.com.