Dynasty Warriors 4

"What do you do when your totally surrounded, fight on!!"

The Game:

I have never played any other of the Dynasty Warriors series and besides Kessen I have never played to many Orient based games. I decided to give DW 4 a chance after I read some reviews that gave it much praise.

The game takes place in old China and uses actual characters out of Chinese history. You are a warrior for your emperor your job is to quell rebellions and bring back the glory of the empire. To do this you have an army and some elite body guards, standing in your way is thousands of enemies.

The Graphics:

As you may well know DW4 was ported over from the PS2, they done a fine jump in making the graphics better I have played both games. They added some bump mapping and the power of the XBox reduces any lock up. It still could have used some more but the game still plays well.

What you will immediately notice is the vast numbers of enemies on the screen at one time. I am not sure but they wrote that there can be over 100 charaters at one time all attacking all amazing. Koei developed a really good game engine for this type of game play. You may think the background is rather dull but they did that to increase the polygon count so you can have more characters on the screen. All in all you will be suprised at just what is going on at one time on the screen trully incredible.

The Sound :

They kept to old Chinese type music but added guitar rifts and different sounds to modernize it and all in all I found myself really liking the music. The tempo increases to a fever pitch when your in an all out battle and slows to a crawl when your looking for one. Although DW4 does not allow for customiaing the sound track the music itself is pretty decent.

The characters voices in DW3 I read were really bad, I can't say the same for DW4 they were unique and sounded really good. If you perform an really cool attack and your armies moral rises you will hear a cheer from your forces. All in all solid sound and of course on 5.1 on the XBox.

The Game Play:

There are several modes of the game to play. There is the story game called Mosoul that's also the name of your special attack. There is free roam which allows you to go to any cleared area and fight til your hearts content. There's multi player where you can take on your friend in an all out war however when they ported the game they didn't allow the ability to have 4 players at one time. You can also create your own characters you choose the looks the clothes and what not but this is rather limited and not very well done. The camera is fixed but does a very good job at being where you need it however there are times when you need to move to try and get the camera so you can see where your getting attacked from.

Koei also added a bit of a taste of RPG by allowing you to upgrade your levels of attack and defense. You can also use scrolls to increase your speed, your jump etc. You can also add items to your weapon allowing for different types of elemental attacks ie I have the blue orb which when used in a special attach will put the enemey in a cage of ice allowing you some free hits. The game is a total package and has elements that should appeal to all gamers.

The Controls:

The controls are done perfect there are your basic Jump, rush attack, regular attack, special attack which you use when your meter runs to max and you can perform devastating attacks. Each attack, special and regular has different methods depending on the combo you use. Regular attacks can be beefed up and depending can be quite cool to watch. I believe there are about 4 different attacks and 4 special attacks not the most but definitely enough. Your L becomes your defense and your R allows you to send arrows into your enemies which should be done from a distance or you may end up tasting a blade from several enemies.

Over All:

DW4 has quickly become a game I play alot. It's quite addictive in trying to beat a level you failed on. There are quite a few levels I am not sure exactly how many. The game is fun as you can increase different your levels your weapons and different abilities on your character which you have several to choose from and you can unlock more as you go. There are unlockables as well which helps keep the game entertaining. Even if you mange to complete the game there is still two player mode which should keep you entertained for a long time.

Koei has done a remarkable job mixing history with a game once again. They even included a dictionary in case any of the words get you baffled.

This game is a definite must buy, must own do yourself the favour and pick it up today!!!!!!!!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/13/03