Dynasty Warriors 5 Empires (PS2)

Reviewed by Kit and Yuuki

If you have heard of the Dynasty Warrior games, then you might have an idea of what they are. Large armies that are essentially felled by one super general (who you control). There are more Dynasty Warrior games out there than one would think possible. If you include the first (which was a fighting game) and the spin off series (Samurai Warriors) then you have more Warriors games than Pokemon games. The best definition Dynasty Warriors is hack and slash. You have obscene weapons and slaughter many many people around you. And if you didn't know, Dynasty Warriors is based off Chinese history that has been mythified over time. The story is known as The Three Kingdoms and takes describes events of the Han Dynasty. Well, if we went into the full story you would never get to the review, so here it goes.

Audio: The voice acting of the sries has gone down hill from previous game incarnations, but that's not that important. The background music is appropriate, and now it is possible to pick any background music from previous games for the battles. 2/5

Graphics: Nothing spectacular, but the graphics are pretty decent. Costumes are well detailed and the peopel look like people. Key officers have their own appearance which makes them distinguishable. There is a problem with disappearing troops when you get into a particularly crowded area. 3/5

Gameplay: Unlike most Dynasty Warriors, this is more of a strategy game than simple hack and slash. You begin the game running one of 25 regions in China, and the ultimate goal is to run them all. Each turn you have a number of decisions you can make to replenish troops or produce new items. You number of decisions are based on how many territories you own, so is how many generals/lieutenants you have. Though your controlled officer is much stronger than almost any other person on the field, you do need troops to secure bases and slow down the enemy. You earn money by controlling lands, apparently the peasants fund your wars. Besides being able to restore troops and create new items, you can also buy tactics, such as razing, which sets enemy troops on fire. In battles you run around attacking enemies and attempt to take over enemy bases. In order to win the battle you must take the enemy base or defeat the enemy general. Neither is possible if you cannot take the bases surrounding the main base. Fighting is simple. You use square button for basic attacks, triangle buttons for charged attacks, and the circle button for uber attacks known as musou. The square and triangle attacks link up for combos. Also there is the option to create generals. These can be imported from your Dynasty Warriors 5 or 5 XL games. They are highly customizable from their costume to their weapon to their voice and appearance. Like all the important generals, they can do serious damage in the hands of the player. 4/5

Story: There is actually a complex story to the background, but in the interest of saving time, we won't go into it all. Instead, let's talk about the basics. There are three main kingdoms that emerge during this time: Shu, Wei, and Wu. They are run by three men: Lei Bei, Cao Cao, and Sun Jiang. Of course there are other peopel who want power, and in this game you can see some of the other main people attempting to take power, but they story doesn't really care about most of them. 4/5

Replay: The games are really addictive. Empires is a longer game than the other Dynasty Warriors, mostly because it takes time to control China. You will want to play through mulitple times to unlock mulitple endings as well as art in the gallery. 4/5

Overall: The game is fun, and good for getting out aggression. There is nothing like killing hundreds of people to relieve anger. The gameplay is easy to use, and if the strategy part seems complicated at first, it does get easier with time. Slower than Dynasty Warriors 4 Empires, it is still fun. There are multi-player options as well, allowing two peopel to participate in battles at the same time. This becomes especially useful when the enemies over power you, as AI is not the best. 3/5