Dynasty Warriors 4: Empires

"Same old thing, but with a new twist"

This game is... Well, it is better than just another Dynasty Warriors game, but the tired old system is still... tired and old. If you yearn for more DW, though, there is enough different about this to make it fun for a while.

Graphics - 10/10

Nice! Everything looks pretty good, and I believe the menus and such look better than the previous DW menus. The starting screen where you choose your mode (options, create a warrior, vs. mode, etc.) that has the movies is awesome as well.

Sound - 5/10

Nothing special... Mostly just things from DW4

Gameplay - 7/10

Of course, this is the most important aspect. The action part of the game is similar to the other four thousand DW expansions. You run up to the enemy general and kill them. But wait! This game forces you to actually help your army out, because if you don't you have to fight the bad guys in their territory, which makes them MUCH tougher. This adds a refreshing twist to the game. The other main gimmick of this game is that it is supposedly an action/strategy hybrid... But it isn't. More on that later. Other changes include the sword/shield/bread/wine powerups have being taken out., and the enemy officers often going into "ha ha, I kill you now" mode, where they juggle you until you die. Fun.

As for the strategy elements... Ugh. Where do I begin? You have control over one of the territories in China. You choose a pair of strategies that your officers present to you, because apparently your ruler is too stupid to think of anything themselves. These strategies range from fairly useless to moderately useful. Basically, you spend money to hire additional troops, which, if you've played any other DW game, you might recall as the guys who wear the same color uniform as you and hide in the background being stupid. Amazingly enough, they are actually useful in this game. You can do other things during your planning session, such as trading items and improving your weapons... But here's the catch - the policies proposed are completely random, and you can only choose one linked pair per turn.

In-battle tactics aren't so hot though. You can... do nothing. That's right, you are the ruler of your empire and you can't issue a single command to your troops. Fortunately, your character is still the second incarnation of the god of destruction, and your guys basically do what they should be doing without any input from you.

Buy/Rent?

Rent

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/17/04, Updated 09/20/04