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You have to hand it to the powers-that-be at Koei and the Omega Force development team -- they are remarkably consistent. When the numbers of Dynasty Warriors games were approaching the number of Internet search hits for Lindsay Lohan, was anyone concerned? Apparently not: Koei decided to expand the genre with 2004's Samurai Warriors, which swapped Ancient China with Feudal Japan. For its return visit to PlayStation 2, Samurai Warriors 2 takes the road well traveled and makes relatively minor changes to the core hack-and-slash gameplay. While dedicated fans wouldn't expect radical changes, they probably didn't anticipate something so similar, which ultimately skewers this sword-swinging sequel.

History of Violence

Samurai Warriors 2 retains the third-person perspective of its frenetic forbears, with 26 historically inspired characters that can cut swaths across entire armies without mussing a single strand of hair. Gameplay still involves rapidly thwapping one of two attack buttons to string together various weapons-based combos against literally hundreds of enemy soldiers on each battlefield. The game opens with seven colorful heroes, each rated in areas such as attack and speed, who possess a default weapon that runs the gamut from straightforward (katana) to just plain weird (cup and ball, cannon-mounted spear). Gone is the ability to sling arrows from a first-person view, but in its place are offbeat special attacks. These character-specific moves range from summoning lightning strikes and fireballs to planting mines or enhancing the abilities of nearby allies.

The Weak Part of War

Players can still mount horses or perform jumps, guards, and the dramatic, watch as time slows for a brief moment, musou attacks, which can now be powered-up to one of three levels for even more cinematic flair and wanton destruction. Yet while the new moves are a blast to perform, some in more ways than others, the enemies haven't got any wiser for this installment, possessing the same amount of intelligence as a cup of sake. The "strategy" is once again very basic, with players assisting officers in dire need of rescuing, taking over multi-floored castles to boost morale, and staving off enemy reinforcements by regaining control of nearby gates.

Samurai Worriers?

The enemy's lone "tactic" is to bum rush players as they approach, with only the archers following any semblance of formation. The difficulty in each scenario comes not from the skill of your enemy, but from your allied commanders' lack of skill, whose constant need for help borders on comical. Since many battles end if a key character dies, it can be terribly frustrating to run back and forth trying to keep everyone alive. It often feels like you are more a worrier than a warrior on the battlefield, and this takes away from some of the enjoyment you'll have as you progress.

Look Who's Talking

Other issues include a camera that needs to be reined in more than Tom Cruise at a psychiatric convention, environments that offer few secrets or interactive elements, and a surprising amount of congratulatory dialogue and alerts during combat. The latter is a slight annoyance since each spoken phrase clutters the screen with text and a portrait of the character that voiced it. This incessant chattering is often hard to follow, especially when you are in the middle of attacking a large group of soldiers.

Stunted Growth

Samurai Warriors 2 offers a total four game modes as well as a "vault" that lists weapons, characters, guard stats, and so forth. The main aspect of play, as in the original game, is the story mode, which offers a total of six scenarios for each character from a pool of 19. As they advance through each scenario, players will automatically increase their character's stats, acquire new weapons (up to eight can be saved), and receive skills by defeating enemies. The item system has been dropped, unfortunately, taking one of the game's few strategic aspects away along with it. Instead of collecting specific or rare trinkets by satisfying certain conditions, and then deciding which ones to use before battle, players instead earn over 40 skills to enhance their leveling rate, battle prowess, and more. There are no real decisions involved with character development, other than being able to purchase skills, horses, and bodyguards from a store.

Samur-aye-yi-yi

Both the free and survival modes return from the first game, offering more of the same soldier-stomping action in slightly different guises, but the addition of sugoruko is exclusive to this iteration. Sugoruko can best be described as a Monopoly variant with mini-games. Unfortunately, the board game has a confusing layout, plodding pace, and zero options. Samurai Warriors 2 feels like a slight revision to the first game instead of an improvement. Some characters have been cut, there are no costumes to unlock, and expected features, such as more stages, a multiplayer versus mode, a character creator, and branching scenarios, are conspicuously absent. While the over-the-top action is still as fun as in any of Koei's previous Warriors games, shouldn't players expect a little more from a sequel?

Article by: Scott Alan Marriott
Video produced by: Tim Jennings