Dynasty Warriors 5

7.4
Good

Gameplay	7.0	"There’s a lot to love about Dynasty Warriors 5, but it could have..."
Graphics	8.0
Sound	6.5
Value	7.0

By Sam Leitch

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The Dynasty Warriors games are an interesting series that have their own niche in the hack and slash genre. These games place you in the midst of a huge battle where you must run around the map taking out hundreds of opponents as you try to accomplish objectives.

If you have played any of the previous games in the series you will know perfectly well what to expect here. The fifth game is more of a tweak than anything else; there are a few extras and the draw distance has been improved. There is also now virtually no slow down and there are more enemies on screen at once. Aside from that though, the game play experience is near identical to earlier games in the series.

The battlefield setting has a lot of appeal and running through a crowd of 30 odd enemies and knocking them all over as if they were nothing at all can be a lot of fun. My main problem though, is that I feel the game misses out on a lot of potential that could have been easily offered. The environments are large and sprawling, but they are also linear and boring. Ideally, I would have liked to have been able to use parts of the battle ground for strategic advantages. Bases should be on the high ground as storming hilltop fortresses would have made for a good objective. Flags should be able to be plucked from the ground and used as a weapon, crates and pots should be able to be picked up and thrown and branches should be able to be snapped off trees for makeshift staffs. It would have also been nice to have been able to knock enemies off mountain ridges. All we get stuck with are bland spaces that all look more or less the same and don't alter game play in the least.

It would also have been nice to pick up a variety of weapons from fallen troops, thus swapping weapons for different situations. However, we just get stuck with the weapon we started the mission with. Your attacks are mainly limited to pushing the same button time and time again, pulling off very simple combos with the occasional power up move once your 'musou metre' fills up. Basically that is it, over and over again - throughout the whole game! I know this is a hack and slash title, but some variety would be nice.

Speaking of variety, the game does offer well over 40 playable characters but in all honesty, I don't see the point. Changing characters does very little, your move set is a little different but that won't change the way you play the game. Personally, I would have preferred to see a small amount of characters that are well developed with radically different playing styles that will alter how you have to approach each mission. Imagine being placed against hundreds of enemies while having a combo system as deep and satisfying as Devil May Cry or Viewtiful Joe. Dynasty Warriors 5 sadly doesn't deliver anything near as rewarding.

The hordes you have to fight in the game are also unbelievably stupid. If you stand in the middle of a group of enemies you usually don't get attacked for a good few seconds, they just stand there until one of them decides to wave his weapon at you. It is really funny when troops from both sides are in the same group, watching the AI trying to hurt each other every now and again but mostly standing around like oafs is a laugh. Then again, if they were too aggressive, it would be hard to slaughter so many so quickly which is half the appeal of the game.

In amongst the bunches of not so intelligent AI are generals and sub generals. These guys will give you a bit more of a fight. Both your team and the enemy have these guys and keeping yours alive and the enemies dead will help your team's moral. You also have a handy bodyguard whom you can give a few simplistic orders. Your body guard does come in handy but I can't help but wish you could give some orders to groups of your troops and the other generals - even if it was just planning their path from the preparation menu. This would have given your character some authority and made you feel much more a part of the battle as well as adding a bit more strategy to the game. There will be people saying that it is a simplistic game and that's how they like it, but the previous games in the series have already done this. It is surely time for some new gameplay elements.

The confusing thing about this game is that whilst it's extremely repetitive, even to people that haven't played a Dynasty Warrior game before, it is actually fun to play. In short bursts. Rampaging around the battlefield, simply mowing through a few hundred troops does satisfy. I just can't help but wish that I had a few more ways to off the enemy. This is a solid game and effort has been put in. The characters control properly and are responsive and there are no major bugs that get in the way of the gameplay. The only thing that bugged me was the camera. It is pretty good and there is a snap button, but why can't we rotate it with the other stick? It would have made things a good deal easier - especially when on horse back.

Presentation in this game is a bit of a mixed bag. The cut-scenes are brilliantly done and look fantastic. There is also a lot of voice acting but it sounds very stiff, as if it was being read aloud for the first time. It is better than in the previous games though. The in-game voice acting is a lot more limited and you will hear you character make the same remarks a good many times in each mission. The music is recycled from other games in the series but it does suit the game well. In game graphics are simplistic and drab but that's to be expected with so many characters on screen and so little slow-down.

Sure this game has its flaws and it can be very repetitive, but despite this, Dynasty Warriors 5 is still playable. It may be simplistic that is the point. Running around the map boosting moral and brushing aside troops like they are nothing to get to the enemy generals can be a lot of fun (in short bursts) but I just wish it could be done with a bit more finesse and variation. Really if you have the last games in the series, there isn't much new here. But if you are new to the series, this is the best game to check out.

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