Dynasty Warriors is back with a whole new arsenal of game play and content, making this the strongest title in the series, but fails to make those new features compelling enough, making it harder to stand out.
Dynasty Warriors 7
Developer: Omega Force
Platforms: PlayStation 3 (reviewed), Xbox 360
Price: $59.99
Omega Force has taken their long running series,and shifted away from their traditional Musou Mode, and Free mode, which allowed players to focus on controlling one character in a large battle. Dynasty Warriors 7 only features two modes to play the game, Story Mode, and Conquest Mode, as well as introduce a new faction to the series, the Jin Dynasty.
Story Mode forces players to play through the story of the Three Kingdoms, through different perspectives from each character from Dynasty Warriors. Players have a choice to play through any of the four dynasties, but recommends that players play as Shu, Wei, and Wu before experiencing the story of Jin, which went on to rule China after the collapse of the Three Kingdoms, and the Han Dynasty. The Jin Dynasty introduces new characters to the series, and offer a little more variety to the recurring cast of characters. As I said before, Story Mode will force players to play as different characters from each faction, which I found entertaining , because I never played as all the characters in previous entries in the series. I feel it is a good way to give fans a different perspective on a story that has been told many times before. Not all of the battles are fought in their entirety as in previous titles. Some battles only require players to do a few missions, while others require players to fight out the whole battle. Whereas in previous games where the only objective was to fight an entire battle, and had the same mission through out the game. Dynasty Warriors 7 definitely improved upon the series story telling, with cinematic shots that have seamless transitions into player controlled fights, and a few dramatic scenes that I really enjoyed.
Conquest Mode is also an interesting departure from the previous games. Players move around China, completing battles that either unlock new weapons, accompanying warriors, animals that aid in battle, and new provinces. New provinces build cities, where players can walk around and participate in different activities like buy and upgrade weapons, visit a merchant to buy new items, take a quiz with the local scholar, or talk to different townsfolk and warriors that come to visit. Conquest can either be played in single player, or with a friend on split screen or online co-op. Conquest mode has an interesting concept for the Dynasty Warriors series, but was not quite executed well enough to be compelling. I felt the Story Mode was more engaging, and I feel Omega Force can revisit Conquest Mode in the future, to give it that hook for players to come back for more.
For those of you familiar with the Dynasty Warriors franchise, game play has never really changed, and for those of you not familiar with Dynasty Warriors, this game is like all of the previous titles,( except for the first game). This game is “hack-n-slash” to its core, with little to break up its consistency. However Omega Force introduced a new mechanic in this game, which I believe should stay in the series. Players now have the opportunity to carry two weapons with them, and have the ability to switch between the weapons with the click of a button. What I liked the most about carrying two weapons, was being able to switch the weapons during attacks, allowing players to continue a long string of combos. Switching weapons allows little down time when trying to fight through the vast amount of soldiers this game has to offer.
The levels are unfortunately mundane in this game. In fact many of them seem to be recycled levels, with little work done to try and differentiate themselves from the other maps. There are also a few maps that are from the previous Dynasty Warriors game. Now I am not sure exactly how i felt about this. On one hand I liked seeing older maps redone for the next installment in the series, but on the other hand, it was just another recycled map. I do not have a problem with recycling maps or even recycling game play mechanics in games, but I do believe variety should always go into consideration, and unfortunately, Dynasty Warriors 7 does little to satisfy that.
The Final Word
After 10 years of Dynasty Warriors, Omega Force has finally taken a step forward with the series. From better story telling, to new game play mechanics that allow for better thought out combos, this is definitely the right step forward. However, lack of variety in level design, and introducing a promising new game mode that is not quite well executed, keeps this from being a good release.
– MonsterVine Rating: 3.5 – Fair
