Dynasty Warriors 4: Empires

"I like this game"

Games like Dynasty Warriors IV: Empires always seem to have an identity crisis. Sometimes it feels as though the game is just an expansion repackaged as a separate game in a wider marketing ploy to rob innocent gamers of 50 bucks. Other times, the game stands alone as being innovative and interesting enough to warrant having a separate title. Admittedly, I really cannot offer a verdict on this issue, having not played any game in the series since the opening installment for PS1. What I can say, however, is that DW4:Empires, as it stands by itself, is a pretty darn good game.

Basically, the game allows the player to control the officers of a particular empire during the Three Kingdoms Period of Chinese History. In battle, you control a single officer (and, in a very limited sense, his unit of men) and engage in combat with the enemy one soldier or general at a time. As the game progresses and your empire expands, your officers gain levels that increase their abilities, as well as gaining items and more powerful weapons that allow for longer and more powerful combos. For those gaming veterans out there, imagine a 3D Double Dragon style of gameplay, only on a much, much larger scale, with upwards of 50 enemies on the screen at once, and literally thousands on the battlefield.

Gameplay has two major divisions, strategy and combat. The focus, however, is on the combat, which is generally very well done. The battlefields are fairly well varied, and there are always plenty of enemies to fight. There are also a variety of strongholds on each battlefield that must be controlled before the fighting can reach the enemy's main camp. The strongholds add a bit of strategy to combat, since the order in which you conquer them has a big impact on the battle. Cutting off and isolating several of the enemy's strongholds, for example, will allow you to reduce the stranded area's morale and make it possible to capture their officers more easily. Likewise, if the enemy manages to break your stronghold supply chain, you'll quickly find yourself at a disadvantage.

Finding and defeating the enemy commanders is another key to battle. There is a huge variety of commanders in the game that also range in abilities. Of all these officers, however, only about 20 or so have their own unique character model and moveset; the rest are made up of about 4 generic models. Generally, the unique characters are much more dangerous on the battlefield. Each officer also has a skill that can help his side in the battle, ranging from the ability to launch a charge attack or ambush the enemy. Being able to take advantage of your own officer's skills or being in the right place to counter those of the enemy also adds a small bit of strategy to a game that might otherwise fall into the hack and slash category.

Sadly, however, the game does not allow very much control over either your own unit or the others in your force. Admittedly, the focus of this game is clearly on fighting, but I find that I spend a lot of time backing up my own officers that either overextend themselves or fall prey to my opponent's plots. For the most part, your officers move forward on their own whims, rather than following any set attack orders. Your unit, on the other hand, simply follows you around mopping up whatever you personally leave behind. I would not have minded having a little broader control over the battles.

The strategy element of the game also has its ups and downs. Admittedly, it adds a great deal of depth to the game, since it unfolds differently just about every time. The designers have included a historical mode that follows very loosely the story of the three kingdoms (should events take place in a certain order) as well as a completely (and I mean completely) fictional mode, where everything is randomly generated to start. At the very least, this allows the game to escape from a set path or paths of battles that a player would simply follow as the game progresses.

On the other hand though, the strategy elements of the game are not terribly well done and they don't run very deep. There is no sense of allocating resources, since all your generals are kept in a single officer pool for use in combat when appropriate. This means that you can essentially conquer all of China with your 3 best generals and lieutenants as long as you focus on healing them between battles.

On top of this, you have frighteningly little control over the administration of your empire. Every game turn you can choose from 4 different plans proposed by your officers. Each plan has two different policies, which range from recovering troops to recruiting officers to allying with another power. The problem arises when officers propose poor combinations of policies. Want to recruit Zhao Yun but don't want to ally with Dong Zhuo? Too bad, because only one officer wants to hire Zhao Yun, and he also wants to ally with Dong Zhuo. Want to heal all your soldiers to the max? Great, but you better also be prepared to extort extra taxes from your subjects.

There is also practically no sense of any domestic management of your empire. Granted, occasionally officers will suggest to improve upon a good produced in one of your territories or to begin production of a new good, but this really is the extent of domestics. Again, the game is clearly focused on warfare, so this can be expected, but a little more depth in this area could have rounded out the strategy part of the game nicely.

In the end, really all that DW4:E gains from the strategy side of the game is the ability to have a completely open ended game that develops differently every time. The other strategy elements are admittedly rather disappointing. Thankfully, the gameplay in battle (where more than 90% of the game lies) greatly makes up for this.

As far as graphics go, very few will be disappointed with this game. The character designs are really terrific and vary a great deal from character to character, although I doubt Zhang He would be too happy about his ultra-effeminate incarnation in this game. Every unique officer has several different weapons that also look superb. For their part, there is even a variety in the grunt soldiers that the player spends time pummeling into the ground. The battlefields are also aesthetically varied, with some dominated by multi-leveled towns and others consisting of small flat deserts. There is also at least one specially designed battlefield used in event battles.

Really the only problem that deals with the game's graphics is the fact that there is occasionally some bad slowdown when there are an especially large amount of characters on the screen. This seems to be the most acute when there are a lot of unique generals engaging each other at the same time, probably because these models are the most detailed and most straining on the system. This only occurs in rare circumstances, however, so it does not really detract from the game too much.

Sounds are somewhat of mixed bag. None of the music in the game is particularly memorable, with the exception of a few of the event battles, which are pretty solid. The voice acting is generally decent; every unique officer has his own voice and sayings, and they are well varied and well performed. Sound effects are pretty standard fare for this type of game; certainly they are nothing to be especially excited about. This game really pales in comparison to some of Koei's other works when it comes to sound though.

Will you play this game again after finishing it? I certainly did. There are numerous endings and archives to unlock, and with so many different characters to play as and events to trigger in the game there is a lot to miss in a single play through. The gameplay is also solid enough (at least in battle) that you'll probably want to play it a few times all the way through before you get tired of it. On the highest difficulty level the game still poses a challenge to even the most experienced player, so it is unlikely to bore just from becoming too easy.

Overall, Dynasty Warriors IV: Empires is a successful and fun game. Although the strategy elements can be somewhat weak, the solid gameplay during battles more than makes up for it. If you are interested in the Three Kingdoms or just like a good fighting styled game, definitely pick this one up.

8/10 Good.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/22/04