Dynasty Warriors 3

"Everything you want in a game!"

First of all, I'd like to say that Dynasty Warriors 3 is possibly one of the greatest games I've ever played. However, if you are picky about games, then you might not want to buy this. This game is (in my mind) considered a action/strategy game. People who like fighting games will probably like this game.

STATS

41 characters, 30+ of which are unlockable
4 different types of weapons for each character
Musou Mode (Story Mode) for 25+ characters
25 different items (all unlockable) which can be maxed out

HISTORY

DW3 is based on actual Chinese history, around 200 A.D. There are characters in the game that were actually in history. You can play through ''Musou Mode'' or Story Mode if you're not familiar with the DW series, with a certain character. You will play stages that the character participated in history. The story line is pretty much 3 different kingdoms, each with around 12-15 playable characters, who face off against each other in different battles for control of Chinese lands. There's also a ''Others'' catagory in the game. These characters are the ones who weren't in one of the three kingdoms, but rather served under many different leaders, or were all for themselves.

CONTROLS

DW3's controls are pretty much pressing one or two buttons, and the other buttons once per minute or so. The square button controls your attacks, in which you have 6 of. The triangle button can be used after a few taps of square, and each combination will be different. For example (S = Square & T = Triangle) SST will make an opponent dizzy, while a SSSSST will clear most of the area, and the enemies in it. The circle button is your ''Musou'' which is your most powerful attack. The Musou attack is only available, when your Musou Bar is filled. It's located under your health bar, in the lower left of the screen. It is a yellowish color, and will fill up faster if you hit more enemies, but slower if you only focus on one enemy. You can also hold circle to fill your Musou Bar without hitting anyone. The X button is simply jump. You can press X then Square, and you will do a jumping attack, useful for knocking off enemies on horses and elephants. The R1 button are your arrows. Hold R1 to bring up an aiming device, then press Square for an arrow, Triangle for a charged arrow, and Circle for a steady stream of arrows (only available, if your Musou bar is full) R2 is your map, and can be either close or far. This is useful for seeing where you need to go, and also, seeing where enemies are in relation to you. L1 is guard and strife, and those pretty much explain themselves. L2 is toggle on health bars over peoples head. Press it to see how much health other characters have left.

GAMEPLAY

Most of the game, you will be running around an area, killing (actually K.O.ing) enemies, mostly soldiers. There are two different kinds of characters. Soldiers, who are serving under a officer. They run at you, and are pretty easy to kill, but they'll give you everything they've got. Then there a officers, who are much harder to kill than soldiers. These officers will use their own personalized Musou more often, and are much more aggressive, powerful, and harder to beat than normal soldiers.
Each level will have a different mission you need to fulfill in order to advance. You may need to kill one officer, or three officers. There will also be many other officers protecting the main officer, and also just plain fighting. There's also Gate Captains, who will send out endless troops at you. You need to kill them in order to stop the troops. Each level will have about 3-4 Gate Captains, and are usually located deep in the enemy base.
The levels are given a specified time limit, either 30, 60, or 90 minutes. Most missions will be completed in 20-45 minutes, depending on what difficulty it's set on (Easy, Normal or Hard).

AUDIO/VIDEO

The graphics in DW3 are simply great. The colors are bright and noticeable, but the best thing is the surroundings. There's trees, streams, castles, houses, mountains, and everything else you'd want in a game. You could play this game for months and find something more beautiful each and every day.
Sometimes enemies in front of you might disappear, then reappear in a few seconds, which gets annoying after a while, but you usually can get by that and play normally. DW3 only lets a certain number of people on screen, so you won't see 50 warriors in front of you, and there's bound to be some slowdown down the line of your DW3 days.

REPLAY VALUE

This game has so much replay value, it could last you at least a year. There's so many thing to max out and make better, you won't know where to start.
You can beat the game with 30+ characters, each of which have 7 or so missions.
25 items, about 15 items which can be built up.
4 weapons for each character, 3 are unlockable for each character
Each character's stats can be built up, which will take a while.
The bottom line is that you will spend months trying to complete this game, and each day will be more exciting than the last.

BUY OR RENT?

This game is absolutely a game to buy. Renting it will just get you hooked on it. Buying it will be the best decision of your gaming life! As I said before, completing this game will take a matter of months, so I'd suggest buying this game.

WHY WOULDN'T I LIKE IT?

Well, pressing Square constantly might not be as exciting to some of you, as it is to most DW3 addicts.
The pop ups are pretty bad when you play 2P mode, and can get on your nerves after a while.
Each time you meet an officer, there's a cut scene, and personally that screwed up my concentration.

WHAT COULD BE INCLUDED FOR DW4

More playable characters
Different elements in 4th weapons
Fully destroyable terrain
Mounted Arching
More difficult to get hit off horses
Less archers

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

As I said before, this game is based on actual history, and there is a book that goes to this game. It's called ''Romance of the Three Kingdoms'' and it's also refereed to RoTK. It's a 1500 page, 600 year old book, which you will certainly be interested in, if you like this game.
Other than that, visit the DW3 Message Board and ask some questions!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/30/02, Updated 03/30/02