Dynasty Warriors 5: Xtreme Legends

"An Enjoyable Title for Many Gamers!"

Introduction to Dynasty Warrior Series:

Dynasty Warrior 5: Xtreme Legends is basically an expansion pack to Dynasty Warrior 5. Koei and Omega Force has been making Dynasty Warriors since the PSX. Basically it's been a Historical hack and slash game, that has small changes from the beginning. This game is not for those seeking originality, but it will still give you thrills and fun!

Gameplay:

Gameplay in hack and slash games is very important because it's basically the portion that makes of breaks the game. Gameplay in this game is very fun and easy to control. You choose/Create a character in this specific game and you can play on Legend, Challenge, Destiny, and others. Legend mode will allow you to follow specific historical events. There are 5 difficulties including Novice, Easy, Normal, Hard and Chaos, with chaos being the hardest. You control in the game by using the X, O, Square and Triangle. X for jumping, O for musou or Special attack, Triangle for charge attacks and square for normal attacks. You will slowly get the hang of it, and it's not hard to pick up! The learning curve would be around 15-30 minutes to discover the gameplay. There's character customization and weapon customization in this game. They are all fun and gameplay is done rather well I would say.

Score: 18/20 or 90%

Story:

In this particular game, story is at minimal. Usually story is more-so in the non-expansion pack. There's are slight chinese history in the game, but overall story is very poorly done, but so are all hack-n-slashers.

Score: 2/5 or 40%

Graphics:

The graphics in this game are clear, but not awesome. It looks pretty nice, but it doesn't reach the capability of the PS2. In the next Dynasty Warrior, hopefully it will be done better, on PS3 most likely. The characters are easy to define. The menus and everything look nice. Weapons are nice. In single-player, many areas are pretty beautiful, but in co-op or 2 player modes, it's easy to identify things but not beautiful in background and landscapes as you barely see it in the half screens.

Score: 4/5 or 80%

Sound:

The voice acting is changed a bit, special note of character Guan Yu. Overall, the voices aren't terrible but they're nothing to be praised for. The voice-acting job seems hard for these games as they are based on history, and people have different opinions. It's mediocre, in one word. The music in the game is a bit better though, the rock tunes in battle is nice and there are some orchestrated pleasant pieces. Music wouldn't disappoint you, although sometimes you might not notice the music.

Score: 3/4 or 75%

Value:

For a price, you will get many hours of gameplay that virtually never ends. After you're done legend mode, taking you about 10-20 hours, you will do Destiny mode, creating your own officer. In that mode it may take 5 hours to finish and you may want to try other styles another 5 hours. In challenge mode, you can challenge yourself and beat old records. People can expect 100-or so hours of it. You'll be bored of the game before it doesn't have anything else to offer. Maxing characters out will be a tedious-yet long journey for you, as well.

Score: 9/10 or 90%

Overall:

This is a recommendation to those Dynasty Warrior lovers and hack-n-slash lovers! People who just loves action games or need somewhere to release their stress would love it tremendously also! Buy this game if you want a game that last very long and can keep offering you more!

Overall Score:

18/20 – Gameplay
2/5 – Story
4/5 – Graphics
3/4 – Sound
9/10 – Value

36/44 - Overall Score = 81% - You'll probably enjoy it!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/05/06