Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires
Posted April 12, 2006
In its first rendition on the Xbox 360, Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires attempts to attract the attention of next-gen console gamers with an update to the series. Sadly, the budget title doesn't take advantage of the power under the hood of the 360 nor does it provide a worthwhile improvement to the gameplay. Instead the developer, Omega Force, seems content to offer up the same button mashing fighting system and a general lack of game modes. The lackadaisical nature of this offering in the series is nothing but a token effort at best.
Gameplay:
For those unaware, the series is built around land management in ancient China. Managing your conquered lands requires a bit of strategy and a willingness to defend them if necessary. Lands are managed through territory maps and a card system. The card system allows for purchase of a certain number of abilities or upgrades per turn. For instance, you can choose to raise the defense of a particular territory, increase the total number of troops per general, and cause a revolt in an opposing territory all in one turn. As the end of a turn, you have the choice of attacking a new area. This falls upon a combat system which uses a group of leaders to take an allotment of troops into battle. During a battle, you control the top general and fight your way through supply lines to the main enemy encampment. Basically, this process repeats itself over and over until you control the entire area.
Do you like pushing the blue X button on the 360 controller? That's what you will be doing the majority of the time during a battle. The control for the combat system is nothing more than a button mash-fest. Occasionally, you will have to jump over to the red B button to perform a special move when fighting a lieutenant, but it's really just performing the same tired combo incessantly. Also, control when riding horses or elephants isn't particularly responsive. The animals are difficult to turn and almost useless in battle.
How did the developer get away with such an uncreative combat setup? Well, the enemy A.I. in an experiment in artificial stupidity. Generally, enemies won't be aware of your presence when traversing the battlefield. They will recognize you when encroaching upon a supply base. But instead of actually swinging their weapons, they are complacent to run to your position and stand motionless while you obliterate their forces. Occasionally, a guard caption will swing wildly, but it can always be counteracted by hitting the special move if hit. They only true threats are the enemy leaders and ranged attacks. Enemy leaders will actually attack without hesitation and block your counter-attacks. Ranged attacks such as magic or fire arrows are not devastating to your health, but they are a bit of a nuisance. Overall, the enemy AI is not competent in the slightest.
There is no multiplayer over Xbox Live or any online leaderboards, but there is a local co-op mode. This mode is perhaps Dynasty Warriors greatest strength. As you battle with a friend, dispatching several guard captions or a small group of lieutenants becomes incredibly easy and exceptionally entertaining. The pace of the game increases dramatically and a round of empire mode flies by. Also, there is no obvious slowdown while playing co-op. It's a superb extra that gives Dynasty Warriors a bit of credence when showing off the 360 to a friend.
The achievements are broken up over 36 tasks and comprise the typical 1000 gamerscore points. Half of the points are awarded for hiring all 250 of the possible officers available for combat. The other 500 points are split between competing in famous battles and clearing empire stages in the main game mode. The achievements are not difficult to acquire, but they do require a large chunk of time to collect. Omega Force was fairly creative in assigning gamerscore points and deserves credit for creating some worthwhile achievements. That being said, there is nothing to brag about to your Xbox Live buds in this bunch.
Graphics:
If Omega Force upgraded Dynasty Warriors visually at all, I would be shocked. The game looks like nothing more than a direct port of the Xbox version. The only difference is a lack of slowdown that plagued Dynasty Warriors 4. The character models and the fighting animations are moderately sharp in high definition, but the environments looks horrific. The battlefields are appropriate to ancient Chinese culture, but they appear almost lifeless due to stagnant textures. Also, the draw distance is painfully restrained. This doesn't make a lick of sense since the game isn't pushing any graphical limits with the new hardware. More so, it's due to lazy programmers who didn't want to get out of bed before noon.
Audio:
The voiceovers in Dynasty Warriors 5 make me long for Donald Trump's horrific narration of the Apprentice. Listening to the line delivery of the warrior speeches during the sporadic cut scenes makes my ears bleed. Whoever hired the voice "talent" for Dynasty Warriors 5 should be forced to repeatedly listen to the dreadful voiceovers in Amped 3 for a couple weeks; mostly for punishment, but partly for training on hiring barely competent actors.
Unfortunately, the soundtrack is not much better than the quality of the voiceovers. The midi-influenced rock rhythms border on annoying and should be replaced by custom soundtracks as soon as possible. The fighting sound effects are actually the best part about the audio, but that isn't saying much. The sound effects don't stand out as exceptional, but they do perform their job adequately.
Conclusion:
Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires is nothing more than a giant lack of innovation or even developer motivation. The ancient graphics engine, the brutal audio, and the tired gameplay destroy any good quality, like the Co-op mode, Dynasty Warriors had going for it. Omega Force seemed more interested in taking advantage of new Xbox 360 owners as one of the few battle strategy games on the market. Hopefully, their efforts will be futile due to pitiful sales of this terrible game. I wouldn't even recommend this game to people looking for achievement points as they take far too long to garner. Stay far away from this travesty of a game.
Gameplay:
For those unaware, the series is built around land management in ancient China. Managing your conquered lands requires a bit of strategy and a willingness to defend them if necessary. Lands are managed through territory maps and a card system. The card system allows for purchase of a certain number of abilities or upgrades per turn. For instance, you can choose to raise the defense of a particular territory, increase the total number of troops per general, and cause a revolt in an opposing territory all in one turn. As the end of a turn, you have the choice of attacking a new area. This falls upon a combat system which uses a group of leaders to take an allotment of troops into battle. During a battle, you control the top general and fight your way through supply lines to the main enemy encampment. Basically, this process repeats itself over and over until you control the entire area.
Do you like pushing the blue X button on the 360 controller? That's what you will be doing the majority of the time during a battle. The control for the combat system is nothing more than a button mash-fest. Occasionally, you will have to jump over to the red B button to perform a special move when fighting a lieutenant, but it's really just performing the same tired combo incessantly. Also, control when riding horses or elephants isn't particularly responsive. The animals are difficult to turn and almost useless in battle.
How did the developer get away with such an uncreative combat setup? Well, the enemy A.I. in an experiment in artificial stupidity. Generally, enemies won't be aware of your presence when traversing the battlefield. They will recognize you when encroaching upon a supply base. But instead of actually swinging their weapons, they are complacent to run to your position and stand motionless while you obliterate their forces. Occasionally, a guard caption will swing wildly, but it can always be counteracted by hitting the special move if hit. They only true threats are the enemy leaders and ranged attacks. Enemy leaders will actually attack without hesitation and block your counter-attacks. Ranged attacks such as magic or fire arrows are not devastating to your health, but they are a bit of a nuisance. Overall, the enemy AI is not competent in the slightest.
There is no multiplayer over Xbox Live or any online leaderboards, but there is a local co-op mode. This mode is perhaps Dynasty Warriors greatest strength. As you battle with a friend, dispatching several guard captions or a small group of lieutenants becomes incredibly easy and exceptionally entertaining. The pace of the game increases dramatically and a round of empire mode flies by. Also, there is no obvious slowdown while playing co-op. It's a superb extra that gives Dynasty Warriors a bit of credence when showing off the 360 to a friend.
The achievements are broken up over 36 tasks and comprise the typical 1000 gamerscore points. Half of the points are awarded for hiring all 250 of the possible officers available for combat. The other 500 points are split between competing in famous battles and clearing empire stages in the main game mode. The achievements are not difficult to acquire, but they do require a large chunk of time to collect. Omega Force was fairly creative in assigning gamerscore points and deserves credit for creating some worthwhile achievements. That being said, there is nothing to brag about to your Xbox Live buds in this bunch.
Graphics:
If Omega Force upgraded Dynasty Warriors visually at all, I would be shocked. The game looks like nothing more than a direct port of the Xbox version. The only difference is a lack of slowdown that plagued Dynasty Warriors 4. The character models and the fighting animations are moderately sharp in high definition, but the environments looks horrific. The battlefields are appropriate to ancient Chinese culture, but they appear almost lifeless due to stagnant textures. Also, the draw distance is painfully restrained. This doesn't make a lick of sense since the game isn't pushing any graphical limits with the new hardware. More so, it's due to lazy programmers who didn't want to get out of bed before noon.
Audio:
The voiceovers in Dynasty Warriors 5 make me long for Donald Trump's horrific narration of the Apprentice. Listening to the line delivery of the warrior speeches during the sporadic cut scenes makes my ears bleed. Whoever hired the voice "talent" for Dynasty Warriors 5 should be forced to repeatedly listen to the dreadful voiceovers in Amped 3 for a couple weeks; mostly for punishment, but partly for training on hiring barely competent actors.
Unfortunately, the soundtrack is not much better than the quality of the voiceovers. The midi-influenced rock rhythms border on annoying and should be replaced by custom soundtracks as soon as possible. The fighting sound effects are actually the best part about the audio, but that isn't saying much. The sound effects don't stand out as exceptional, but they do perform their job adequately.
Conclusion:
Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires is nothing more than a giant lack of innovation or even developer motivation. The ancient graphics engine, the brutal audio, and the tired gameplay destroy any good quality, like the Co-op mode, Dynasty Warriors had going for it. Omega Force seemed more interested in taking advantage of new Xbox 360 owners as one of the few battle strategy games on the market. Hopefully, their efforts will be futile due to pitiful sales of this terrible game. I wouldn't even recommend this game to people looking for achievement points as they take far too long to garner. Stay far away from this travesty of a game.