"Its okay. . ."

Koei's latest foray into Chinese history suffers from extreme averageness. The game is limiting, and some aspects of it are just plain irritating. Don't get me wrong, I love Koei games (Kessen 1&2, ROTK, and Dynasty Warrior 2&3) but this game simply does not match the caliber of its brothers. The game has an unfinished feel to it, and its linearity mars its entertainment.

Graphics: 8/10
The CGs are excellent, but the battles are only of average quality. The game has a map of the land which is kind of difficult on the eyes, and the battles have stationary representations of all units. The landscapes are nice to look at, but become bland after a while. Decent but not fantastic graphics.

Sound: 9/10
The game takes advantage of Dolby 5.1 for all of the cutscenes and has voiceovers as well. The in-battle music is good but a little limited. Koei would do well to improve their voice acting quality. Overall the music adds to the game without becoming irritating.

Controls: 9/10
The controls are fine. No glaring errors, the menus are easy enough to navigate.

Gameplay: 5/10
This is where the game falls down. You are limited to three sides, not a major problem, but the game is very linear. Although you are given the chance to conquer various cities in ancient China, there is really no point to it. The battles start interesting, but they take so long, and the tactics are so limited that the battles quickly become tedious. Unfortunately the game does not maintain its fun value. The game rapidly becomes boring as time goes on (this coming from a ROTK veteran) and lacks any novel values.

Replayability: 7/10
Although the game allows you to play 3 separate sides, the only real difference is the cutscenes. This provides a moderate incentive for replay, but probably won't make you come back more than once.

Rent or Buy?
-Definitely rent, you should be able to finish the game in 5 days. Even if you want to complete all the characters it should not take you too long.

Tilt: 7/10

Overall Dynasty Tactics is lackluster, but has some fun value. You should rent it once, but the game doesn't have a huge replay value.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/16/02, Updated 09/16/02