Dynasty Warriors 2

"A very intense war game. A good pick!"

It's hard to find such a game where you're in a war with your allies commanding your troops/soldiers while invading the enemies. Dynasty Warrior 2 will surely extract the warfreak inside you. You basically have to hack and slash all your opponents to conquer their turf. Here are my criteria for judging this game.

Gameplay/Controls (8): This game is pure fun. You just have to wander around and hack and slash the enemies. The good thing in this game is every battle is in real time. You actually see your allies and your opponents duke it out (in real 3D) while you do your own battle. The main goal in the missions is to defeat the leader of the opposing forces. There are 2 basic strategies that can be applied in the game. First, go along with your allies in order to stay alive or move forward and attack the incoming forces by yourself. It's really full of fun but basically, hacking is all you have to do. There are a couple of moves that you can use too, as well as custom combos. Not to mention, you can plan your attack in the beginning since the map of the battlefield will be shown to you as well as the details of the battle.

For the controls, it's so easy to move around and attack since the game does not use all of the buttons and they are well mapped in the Dual Shock controller.

Storyline (7): The game incorporated a Chinese-based storyline where you'll be conquering other lands. There isn't much of a story because the game is pure combat, but in some parts during the battle, you'll see a short skit on some of the prominent characters in the battle.

Graphics/Sounds (10): This game takes advantage of the power of the Sony Playstation 2 console. The graphics are jaw-dropping. The characters move smoothly and the background and the environment is full of detail. Also, remember that all the other people who are fighting are all rendered in 3-D and that adds to the real-time element of the game. As for the sounds, it definitely is pleasing and will engage you more into the battle.

Re-play Value (9): The re-play value of this game is quite good since you can try out the different abilities of the different character which are available for you. You can also enjoy re-playing the same missions since you can take different paths and implement different strategies for it (i.e. new waypoint). You won't get bored easily with this game.

As a conclusion, if you want fun and you need/want a game that will keep you busy, this game is one good pick. It's full of action and the graphics and sound elements are excellent. You won't regret buying this game.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/20/01, Updated 07/20/01