Dynasty Warriors 4

"It surprised me as my first Dynasty game."

Well, as this being my first Dynasty Warrior game I can't judge the rating on the other versions. So I think this will be a more fair rating being I wasn't comparing it to earlier of the games. I discovered this game a few weeks ago when my friend stayed the night. He brought it over, we played it for hours. Two days later I go to the local EB and buy this game and Xtreme Legends, which I haven't played yet. Well, without further delay, I'll start reviewing this game.

So, I pop in the game, I am welcomed with the normal developer and publisher intro stuff, and the intro movie. I lost interest with the intro movie really fast, it was really boring. Then comes the menu. There are a few choices which I will explain into more deeply in a minute.

Let me first explain the gameplay, it is a hack and slash style game. You are a officer for one of the armies in the three kingdom era of China. It is your army against the other army. The first side to loose their commander loses. Now that you have the basic idea, let me explain the main mode of the game “Musou Mode”.

Musou Mode

You start off in one of the three kingdoms, and work your way up to the end of story. The path is changed by the order you go threw the levels. The levels are separated into different sections which they call “Acts”. In each act you have a different objective you have to execute. In each level you have a different commander you have to defeat to advance in the act. With over 40 people to play as, this will get very repetitive before you can 100% fully complete the game. You are able to connect a second controller to the system and play this mode two players.

Free Mode

You can play any battle over again to train your people or to just get them ready for the next battle. You can play anyone you have unlocked. It is pretty much the same as Musou Mode minus the story.

Verses Mode

These are the two player mini games. Even though this is the actual two player mode, It's not as good as playing Musou Mode in two players. There are different modes which I will go more in depth. These are pretty fun while it lasts but gets boring.

Challenge

These are the one player mini games you can do. There is a ranking for each one. Like, 100 kills or do it in 30 seconds and crap like that. These are a nice break from regular gameplay when you get bored of the real game.

Edit Mode

This was a great idea but wasn't pulled off as good as it could of been. Not that it's bad, just the lack of real different choices drop the excitement rating in this section. You can edit a set of body guards with names you can choose, and make up to four created characters when you can play threw any of the 3 kingdoms storyline. You have very limited choices when it comes down to how your person will look.

Encyclopedia

Here you can see the items you have gained in Musou and Free Mode. You can also see all the officers in the game by order of their name. Watching movies, the endings you unlocked, and also you can change the difficulty, controls, and all that good stuff.

Now that I got threw the different sections of the game, I will now do the rating of the gameplay, sound, and stuff like that.

Sound

The first thing you notice when you watch the opening video, is the kinda out of place rock style music in it. The in game music is often times annoying. It's not bad, but I don't really listen to the background music all the time. It really doesn't matter much to me. But the sound of the games are well done. The noise of running has different sounds on bridges. You know, the normal game stuff. The clashing the swords with bodies and other swords give a pretty good sound effect. Nothing stood out when I was playing.

Now the voice acting is a whole different story. I know the game doesn't get it's strength with it's voices, but you would expect alittle more after other games do so much more with it. It really needed to be better executed. A person in here sounds like Big The Cat from Sonic Adventure and Sonic Heroes. And if you ever played either of those two games, you realize how bad that is.

Story

These are one of the few games that I can enjoy that doesn't have a strong storyline. It's a history trip back to ancient China during the Three Kingdom Era. I really did not pay attention to the story other then to figure out who I'm fighting. It really was boring, just like a history lesson.

Graphics

The graphics are very well done for this kind of game. Nothing really stood out as crap to me. I am a lot more easy on graphics then most people, so even though other people may dislike these. I find them perfectly suitable for the type of gameplay this game has.

Gameplay

Ah, here we are, the major part of the game. I must say, I am not a major fan of these kind of games, but this one drew me in. It's addicting hack and slashing keeps you glued to the controller to defeat all of the enemy officers. You have the ability to set different items to your character to enhance some of his or her skills. You can set orbs which give a different effect to your charge attacks. You get experience for every person you “KO”. You can set body guards to help you out. You will gain more as they level up.

Score

As my first Dynasty Warriors game, I give this game a 7. I wouldn't buy this game without knowing you are a fan of hack and slash. Otherwise I say rent before you buy. I really enjoyed this game.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/15/04, Updated 06/29/07