Dynasty Warriors - and its many subsidiary series and adaptations has been around for a good ten years or so now, and ever since the overly successful original it has built a solid and loyal fan base to the series. This is very important to remember, as many of the points that are going to be made are going to relate very closely to its audience purpose, but first, what is Dynasty Warriors? To understand the first game – Dynasty Warriors, or Sangokumusō as it is in Japan - developed by Koei you’ll understand the complete foundation and basis of most of the other titles in relation, including Warriors Orochi (The original was a one on one fighting game, similar to titles such as Dead or Alive or Tekken, it has now evolved to become a hack and slash ‘crowd’ fighter, Dynasty Warriors 2, which we’ll make reference as the original in this article). Dynasty Warriors (2 and beyond) is a game of choice and variety, a choice of character, campaign, single player or two player, and a variety of modes and ways of enjoyment. I see a lot of loyal followers of the title enjoying the fast and almost constant action of the entire gameplay, and I see a lot of strategist and war lovers liking the sheer mass of units, taking on entire armies and setting up their method of engagement. If you haven’t already guessed, Dynasty Warriors is an over the top non realistic, fantasy take on the historical conflicts of the ‘three kingdoms’. Warriors Orochi 2 is the latest in the never ending battle saga and offers a different approach by mixing the Chinese portrayals with the Japanese counterpart series, Samurai Warriors. Not only does it offer a twist in story, but a collection of extra modes to take part in also, but does Warriors Orochi 2 do enough to redeem itself of being a worthy sequel?

Gameplay:

One feature that the Warrior series (this will now be the collective noun for all the Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors games) has been known for is its availability of modes and options when playing, fortunately Warriors Orochi 2 hangs on to that claim, and I’ll be surprised if you even complete the many campaigns it has to put forward. As Warriors Orochi 2 mixes the two Warrior series you’ll be playing more than one campaign, so like previously in Dynasty Warriors with the split campaigns for each faction, you’ll also have the campaigns for the Samurai characters. So that’s quite a lot of campaigns, not to overwhelm you too much though as the scenarios are limited to around eight each, taking around thirty minutes each to complete... only. Yes, this is a huge game, and Koei have really been reluctant in a way that implies there still isn’t enough. Not only are there five campaigns to trudge through, but there are four other modes on top of that. Story mode contains the five standard campaigns which you can traverse through, you then have Free mode which allows you to play the scenarios you have already encountered but, with your own choice of characters in any of the campaigns. Below that you can take part in Dream mode, and what this lets you do is play a set collection of pre-made scenarios for you to engage in, all with their own mini sub-plot scenario, these get unlocked as you play through. Then under that there’s the VS mode, and VS mode tends to get you playing against a partner in a set of challenges, and last but not least you have Survival mode, which brings the game back to its Dynasty Warriors roots for a while as it lets you fight one on one in a series of battles against the AI seeing how long you can last. And including all of these modes there’s several options allowing you to customize your characters weapon, change your tag team, add abilities and so forth, and you’d think with all that this would be the most accomplished game of the year in terms of playability. Anyone who has played almost any of the previous Dynasty Warriors games knows that this isn’t the case. The truth is most of this isn’t new or anything we’ve never seen before, and I’m not suggesting for one second that being out of the ordinary means good, however, most of the options provided has already been sustained in the many previous titles, there’s in fact only a few changes. One of the main changes being the tag team option, and all this does is allow you to switch between two other chosen characters. Warriors Orochi 2’s main strengths for the Playstation 2 happens to be the main weakness on the current gen units. Although Koei offers us all these modes and content options this really isn’t the necessary revolutionary change we needed for the standards of current generation gaming, we’re three years into the Xbox 360’s life cycle and we’re still seeing games which remind us of, and play like, last generation consoles. Warriors Orochi 2 is obviously a port from the first released version of the Playstation 2, ports are normally ‘sketchy’ due to lack of optimization when porting up or down through the systems, but we generally expect changes which are worthy of a purchase of a current generation version. Unfortunately, the only difference between the Xbox 360 version and the Playstation 2 version of the game is the support for leaderboards, I haven’t seen the Playstation 2 version, but if the game controlled and looked any worse than this I’d be questioning why it was even on the sixth generation console. Some of the notable features - as there’s a lot of them - which need updating are the interface menu system, this is a maze of many different options and could really be streamlined for quicker and effortless use, this game unfortunately had me skipping many of the relatively interesting options just because I wanted to jump into the battle, it takes a tad too long. The overly static AI, understandably if the AI attacked you anymore than it did this game would be impossible, but a great deal of work could have been focused on giving the illusion the general soldier wasn’t cannon fodder. Just as it was in Dynasty Warriors 2 they all tend to gather around your character waiting hopelessly to be cut down by your oversized weapon, it would be a little more satisfying if they’d act more realistically and took on behaviour of some sorts. What Koei are missing here is a convincing reason why you would buy this game over any of the other previous titles in the Warrior’s series, there have been a dozen or so adaptations before this game and when comparing to a game like Dynasty Warriors 3 it’s hard to pick out any significant difference. When playing the game, the controls are loose, and have a lack of stability, you’ll move left slightly and do a ninety degree turn, you’ll get on a horse and you’ll feel like you’re on a snowboard. I understand this isn’t meant to be the most realistic and immersive game in existence, but this is just awkward. The only slight possible chance anyone would want to buy this on the Xbox 360 is if that someone was a long time fan of the previous titles and really wants the latest version as they don’t have a Playstation 2, that is all. A lack of attempt to reach out to outer audiences is starting to wear thin on the series, and it’s a shame as the idea has proven its worth and it’s definitely come along way, regrettably I don’t have any sympathy for a title which seems to be completely unnecessary except for making that little bit more cash.

Graphics:

Warriors Orochi 2 is a port, and like most ports, the graphics don’t always end up looking clean cut on the other side. Here though it’ll be likely if they were even touched during the port process as they look, dare I say it, awful. Before criticizing very aching detail, I’ll give the game one bit of self credit, the character models look more detailed than they did since Dynasty Warriors 2, and that’s about it. I see no major advancements in graphic technology since the very early titles, the engine is outdated for the Playstation 2 never mind the Xbox 360. The surroundings are low res basic texture models, low polygon counts in just about everything, rocks are pointy, there’s a serious lack of anti-aliasing and the whole thing just looks dull and ever so boring to look at. It gains no artistic merit, except being quite variable in level design, so not only are the graphics poor but there’s no eye candy in the surroundings around you. I could go on for a good while about how outdated the game looks, but it’s a lot easier for you and me to summarize that Warriors Orochi 2 isn’t a seventh generation game as it practically hasn’t changed its visuals since its early Dynasty days.

Sound:

It might be relieving to know that the criticism can be laid off a little for this section of the game. For anyone who had played the previous Dynasty or Samurai Warrior titles they will know that the game takes on a much exaggerated, tasteless pop rock theme to everything, quite upbeat and techno in battle, dies down a little in the menu browsing. This may seem bad, but to be honest it matches the style of the series and it’s a tradition that you couldn’t imagine sounding any different, plus it matches the egotistic characteristics of some of the people you’ll encounter. Sound effects are average, and what I’m inclined to point out is that the death utterances are the exact same as the early Dynasty Warriors games, that might come across a bit picky but it was slightly amusing how many times the same death sound has been reused. Other effects, such as weapons and powers are quite ‘arcade like’ but suited, they’re all over the top sounding, but this is a fantasy inspired title. The voice actors are either stereotypically evil sounding or overly eccentric, I suppose it matches the simplistic and cheesy dialogue which we all know the Warrior series to be like, things like this though can understandably stay the same as it is the general theme of the game, it’s just everything else around it which needs updating and revamped.

Longevity:

As mentioned above, if you like the series and have stayed true to it until now then Warriors Orochi 2 will easily suffice until the next in the series is released. The five campaigns, each campaign with four difficulty settings and in amongst this each scenarios has a particular difficulty factor, so not all missions will be at the same level of toughness even if it’s on the same setting. You can unlock characters, extra scenarios and abilities, and you have a number of other random challenges which you can participate in. What is also an expectancy of the series is the offering of splitscreen which hasn’t been left out here either, playing with a mate can make the battles more strategic and enjoyable. On the opposite side is if you didn’t like any of the previous titles then there really isn’t anything new to offer here, and what could be worse is that some fans may even be expecting more at this point seeing as it is on a seventh generation console. Most disappointingly though is the lack of LIVE support, this is of concern as a lot of titles which don’t suit online multiplayer at least have the option of downloadable content, as did Ninja Gaiden 2. I could have also imagined some sort of online co-op being included, but seeing as this was a port it would have very been unlikely anyway.

Overall:

It’s surprising to see after all these titles that not much has been changed to make the series more appealing to outside audiences. I say outside audiences, as I know there are many loyal fans that are still in love with Dynasty Warriors and its many disguises, this could also be the reason why it hasn’t changed too much and why they’re still developing for previous gen consoles, or it could just be because Koei are out of touch with the ‘next gen’ era, which is obviously still ‘next gen’ to them. It was also disappointing that there were no attempts at LIVE support, except the common and expected leaderboards, as there’s next to no reason for buying the Xbox 360 version over the original playsation 2. That being said though, judging the game on its own grounds, Koei have never failed to populate the series with its many options and the tradition continues here, this is something definitely shedding fifteen or so pound for the Playstation 2, but to pay an extra ten or so on top for the Xbox 360 is hardly justifiable.