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A lot of noise has been made about this, the latest entry into the Dynasty Warriors series. Since the series first went down the “kill thousands of enemies” route seven years ago, there have been a good dozen of DW-style games – be they proper sequels, spin-offs, or the birth of similar franchises. This time, Koei is touting DW6 to be the first in the series built from the ground up to take advantage of the latest consoles. Funny how everything looks and feels pretty much the same…

Hack n’ Slash

That’s not entirely fair. Longtime fans of the series will notice a difference in how the game looks. The battlefields in Dynasty Warriors have never looked or felt so organic. Major elevation changes are the key, as you’ll constantly find yourself at the top or bottom of a set of cliffs or a lake, watching a battle unfold in the distance.

That’s the other big visual upgrade – the draw distance is now quite respectable in Dynasty Warriors. No longer do enemy soldiers simply fade into view a few feet away from your hero. You can see them all across the battlefield, now. And it feels like there are more soldiers on the screen than ever before, really driving home the epic feeling of battle Koei has always tried to deliver in these games. Unfortunately, all of this action also makes it more apparent that you’re fighting generic drones, since almost every enemy that finds the end of your spear looks exactly the same as the hundreds before him.

n’ Slash n’ Slash n’ Slash….

Dynasty Warriors 6 features a few updated game play systems as well, including new abilities for your hero, as well as a new combo system that rewards lengthy hit strings with more spectacular moves and better rankings. Unfortunately, none of it makes the game feel any different than the dozen before it. This is still an exercise in button mashing, where the best strategy is almost always to wade into a group of enemy soldiers and jam on the attack button until you feel joint pain coming on. After all of that, you have to mash some more.

The Year 2000

The whole premise has officially become stale. The Dynasty Warriors series has refined returning to the well into an art form. Along with the standard story mode and the ridiculous amount of characters that encompasses, Dynasty Warriors 6 also features a challenge mode that tasks you to go through each level killing as many enemies as you can, surviving as long as possible in a one-hit-kill scenario, visiting a certain number of bases as quickly as possible…that sort of thing. The heroes can now climb ladders and cross bodies of water. Now that’s progress.

Dynasty Warriors has a rabid fan base, and so it stands to reason that Koei doesn’t want to mess with the formula too much. It’s disappointing that seven years and endless games later, this latest iteration feels like such a miniscule step forward in the series.

Review by: Greg Stewart