Dynasty Warriors 5 Empires

"Everything the last Empires wasn't."

I'm a long time Dynasty Warriors player. I picked up DW4 a while back at my friend's house and loved it, and since then I've gotten every Dynasty Warriors game as they were released. My favorite was easily DW4: Empires, because you had the choice now to customize your force, build your own kingdom, and make your own decisions as to how to administrate your government. The battle aspect was excellent as well, adding quite a bit of strategy to the Dynasty Warriors trademark style of "run around and kill everything" combat. I had quite a few grievances with the series however.

One was the odd way that officers leveled up. You sometimes had to choose policies suggested by them to increase their attack, defense, life meter, etc., even if their policies were crap. Another was the policies themselves; you sometimes had access to useful policies, but sometimes you had utterly useless choices put before you, and there was nothing you could do but skip the policy phase. Finally, the battles were entirely un-epic feeling, considering you could only include six officers in each battle, and seldom was any battle comprised of more than five or six thousand troops. The highest number I ever attained was 12,000, which was a bit of a letdown considering the millitary might of Chinese armies in those days. This newest incarnation of the Empires premise, however, fixes all these problems, and, in keeping with the Dynasty Warriors spirit, tosses in a few welcome gimmicks. Now, on to the meat of the review!

Graphics-- 9/10, Excellent considering what they do

If you seriously bought a Dynasty Warriors game for graphics, I pity you. The graphics are not astounding compared to any decent game on the market today. However, what the graphics lack in style they make up for in function. The draw distance is much improved over Dynasty Warriors 4, and now there is none of the infamous "Fog of War" that used to cloud the areas ten feet away from you. Additionally, the number of troops onscreen has greatly increased, with possibly a hundred troops able to be displayed onscreen at once, and with utterly no slowdown in single-player mode. The characters' textures seem smoother overall as well. If you have seen Dynasty Warriors 5 or DW5: Xtreme Legends, you are not unfamiliar with this change. It's the same graphics from those two games.

Sound-- 8/10, Not too bad at all

Troops groan and scream when hit, weapons clash with the appropriate metallic shrieks, and deathcries are, all in all, less annoying than in previous games. The music is still there, but Empires has added a new twist. In this game you are now able to select any track from previous Dynasty Warriors games (including the victory, defeat, or commander slain music bytes, which will endlessly replay throughout the level :P). With this nice addition, it is very easy now to create any atmosphere you want to on any given stage, which I think is very nice.

Gameplay-- 9/10, Nice additions

As far as the actual in-battle combat controls, if you've played DW5 or 5:XL, then you are already familiar with the combat. If you've played other DW games but not 5 or its offshoots, then you should know that the changes include new C1 attacks, some new C6 attacks (including the removal of energy-slash attacks), and new jump charge attacks, now unique (almost) to every character. The officers now block less (from what I've seen) and there are no more duels. Specific to Empires, the battle map is now divided into sections of blue and red. Bases (not DW5 bases, Empires bases, there's a difference) are scattered around the map, and control which areas are shaded blue and red. On the blue territory you have the advantage, whilst on the red territory your enemy recieves stat bonuses. In this way a level of strategy is required as you capture bases to create more safe blue space to maneuver on. None of this is new or groundbreaking, however. This game's shining aspect is its new policy phase and battle commands.

In the old policy phase, you had one choice per turn of what to do, and you had to choose one of your four officers' proposals. If a proposal you liked was with a proposal you didn't like, too bad. If all the proposals were recruiting- and alliance-related and you needed troop regeneration (a common thing for me) too bad. Fourtunately, this has been remedied. Your officers still present you with proposals, but you are no longer limited to this. If your officers' proposals displease you, you can ignore them and go to a menu that offers a wide range of basic choices (heal 500 to each unit, form a one-year alliance, train an officer, etc.) and choose one there instead. Additionally, with the game's new feature, you can level up as you gain more territories, going from a regular warlord to a Governer, then a Duke, and finally a King. As you progress in the ranks, you gain more policy decisions each turn. In this way, you end up being able to choose four policies each turn.

Additionally, the battle system is now more conformed to the Empires spirit of actually commanding your officers. You are now able to give your officers in-battle objectives such as "Attack Base", "Aid Base", "Attack Officer", "Aid Officer", or simply let them decide on their own. Another helpful thing Koei's included is that officers declare what they're about to do, which has saved my officers' lives several times (such as when they declared they were attacking the main camp, and would surely be slaughtered).

In addition to all of this, Koei's also added a fun little Free Mode to the game, in which you pick a region, whether you will attack or defend, and the officers on each side. Which is OK I suppose, I don't prefer it, but some may like it for a quick Empires-style battle.

Overall-- 9/10 (not an average) A very satisfying DW title

I am having a lot of fun with Empires, even more than the last one now that all my pet peeves are adressed. For anyone who hasn't experienced Empires, but likes DW, then get this one by all means. For anyone who thought DW4: Empires had great potential, get this title and start believing in Koei again.

Non-DW fans might want to subtract a point or two from the overall score, but avid fans will certainly appreciate this upgrade.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/10/06