Dynasty Warriors 2

"War never had so many people, or so little to do in it"

Hello there, your old friend Mr. T - back to serve up another title review. When I got my PS2 the day it came out this was the first game I bought. The first Dynasty warriors was a fighting game wannabe, and was a lukewarm review if not worse. This 2nd installment becomes a new breed of game, going to scrolling action theme. The 3 Kingdoms series from Koei have always carried a special place with me - after all, it's slow paced ruler-sim became something I can actually name most of the people from, not bad considering I don't know a nihao greeting from a ramen noodle in writing. This carries on the tradition of the 3 Kingdoms period of China, and the three rivals who sought to control China for their own. What that means in layman's terms is; China is utter chaos, what better place to have a fight than a country dominated by military and political struggle? You control one of the awesome generals/heroes of the time (representing the main kingdoms Wei, Shu and Wu), and fight to control the greatest prize itself - China.

Praise:

I'll just go over this hill.... and be attacked by 30 guys!
This game has conflicts all over the terrain (think one giant map) and you'll likely be drawn into attacking well over ten at once. The final conflicts of the stages can rage with almost 50 to 60 people scrambling and fighting.

Come get some..
If you got an urge to hurt, you'll rack up kills well into a hundred or more. Wade in and don't walk out until you've beaten down the enemy leader and routed all his generals.

More historical action
Those of you who follow the 3 kingdom line of games (or maybe I'm alone here) this is a different aspect to actually experience the classic battles hands on.

It starts with a few, but ends up an army
The characters you can pick to play are quite a list themselves. A few appear as near clones of others, but not too many.

Rain or shine, night or day, the killing must go on
You'll fight through all sorts of weather and the storm effects are pretty cool themselves.

Gripes:

A hundred kills, all killed the same way
The movelist is painfully low, perhaps 5 for each person. It becomes monotonous to slay scores of enemies with a simple hack/hack/slash move. The enemies themselves usually only have a few attacks themselves.

First it snows, then if I go back a bit it stops?
The weather effects, while an excellent addition, are area timed. If you walk backwards, the elements vanish. Forwards, they appear again. This was quite ironic given the intended realism of the surroundings.

Graphics: 8
The characters have never looked better, the graphics have very little clipping. There are some other first wave games that showcased even greater graphics however.

Gameplay: 6
The controls are responsive, and hit detection is good (ought to be considering the size of the weapon you're swinging around). But the aforementioned movelist and and basic controls (hack/jump/superattack/missile attack) don't leave much room for innovative attacks to liven the tap tap tap action.

Sound: 4
Dynasty warriors offers bad 80's guitar music during fights. The rest is clanging blades and groans of pain.

Story: 6
It is historical, and that timeline is followed. The yellow turban rebels! Guan Yu! Cao Cao! All the big names are here.

Originality: 6
Well it's a fighting game. You attack, you kill, just more often thanks to the 1000's of enemies.

Challenge: 4
Only the enemies ganging up on you makes it difficult (and that's very possible) the foes just end up getting longer life rather than provide real challenge. On the opposite end, your 'allies' don't help you very much, standing there lamely rather than moving in to press the attack. (save for your bodyguards - who will brave everything to catch up with you even if you're on horseback)

Replay: 6
There are well over 24 characters to play, each with a different story to tell, and each kingdom features different battles. And you can replay old wars in free mode, so maybe you can take down that tiger Lu Bu (who will hurt you puny one).

Overall(Mr. T's bottom line): I wish this game had a smattering of it's turn based series strategy. The mindless combat grows tiring after awhile. It would be cool if you could actually lead rather than act one-man army. But for those who want a little more punch with their Chinese strife, this will warm your bloodlusty hands warmly over the next few weeks.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 02/04/01, Updated 02/04/01