Video game review: Dynasty warriors 6

Release format: Playstation 3, Xbox360, PC-DVD, and Playstation 2.

KOEI's hack and slash video game Dynasty warriors is back in the 6th instalment of this "long lasting" franchise! Is this good or bad? Let's find out.

Story:

Loosely based on the historical fiction novel "romance of three kingdoms", Dynasty warriors 6 once again, follows a similar if not identical story to its predecessor. At the end of the 2nd century, China was divided into three factions by three warlords. Each faction is trying to become the supreme ruler of China, it became a warring period known as the "three kingdoms".

The player can take control of one of the 14 characters in the game, and start a quest to unify the middle kingdom.

Although the story sounds epic, which is because it is based on an epic novel, but for some reason when I was playing the game I just couldn't be bothered to pay any attention to the story at all, it is because the story was

told in uninteresting ways.

There are some minor spiritual contents in one of the earlier stages involving witchcraft and rituals that might offend more sensitive players. Otherwise, the story is actually not bad in moral or spiritual content.

Gameplay and design:

Dynasty warriors 6

is like all its predecessors, and this is a one button hack and slash game! One hit by your character can take out 50

people! Almost all the characters use excessively long and large weapon which they wield with great ease. The combat is pretty easy, just like all Dynasty warriors games. One thing worth mentioning is that Dynasty warriors game doesn't have a "kill count" as you, well, kill people, but instead it is called "knock out" count. So you actually don't "kill" people, but simply knocking them out.

Dynasty warriors 6 use

a new combo system called the "Renbu" system (I don't know what "Renbu" actually means). This means if you perform the combo right, your renbu goes up and you can do a even longer combo. This adds a bit more challenge to the gameplay as the player will fiddle through the buttons on their gamepads to try to get the combo right, and rush around the map to keep on fighting so their hard-gathered renbu ranking can stay up.
This time, there are 41 characters in this game. The player have to unlock the characters, each faction is given three charac

ters to begin with. As you play through the main campaign, by completing objectives you can unlock additional characters, but not all of them have story modes. For those characters with out story mode you can play in free mode and challenge mode.

As you play you can level up your characters by gathering experience points. EP can be gathered by either completing objectives or "knocking out" enemy soldiers/officers. The level cap is 50, and the player also have the option of discovering new weapons and horses, which they can equip their characters with.

The replay value is pretty high because of the free mode and challenge mode, this means you can keep on playing the unlocked maps with unlocked characters with your friend. Yes, this game has a two player option, this means your friend can play with you by choosing another character. However, in multi-player mode the screen is split and player 1 and 2 occupy the top and bottom of the screen respectively, which is a pain if you have a small screen, but fine if both of you are playing on a 50 inch TV.

In terms of single player, Dynasty gets boring very quickly as it quickly becomes a repetitive, one button mashing adventure. However, in 2 player mode this is where the game shines as with all its previous instalment. I remember the days when I used to play Dynasty Warriors 5 with my friend until 2 in the morning because we are trying to get 2000 KOs to level up our characters!

In terms of moral and spiritual content, Dynasty Warriors 6 is a pretty clean game, although the game is about war, but there are no blood or death, as I mentioned earlier you don't "kill" people but instead simply "knocking them out". There are no blood animations. However, the design for one of the female characters is in my opinion, more on the side of provocatively dressed but it is nowhere as bad as what you see on the posters on the street of Sydney CBD.

Graphics:

The graphics of Dynasty Warriors 6 is slightly better than the previous game, but not by much. The main improvement is the detail of character design, the texture of character design is now finer, otherwise it is pretty much the same as before. One thing worth mentioning is that KOEI managed to make some of the characters appearance really memorable this time.

Sound:

Personally, I've always love the soundtracks of Dynasty warriors games. Dynasty warriros 6 retains its trademark heavy metal soundtracks, mixed with hints of traditional Chinese music. Where else would you play a game about historical Chinese wars but with heavy metal music in the background? If this doesn't sound cool to you then you don't have a personality!

Concluding remarks:

Dynasty warriors 6 is pretty much the same as all the previous Dynasty warriors, with slightly improved graphics and slightly different gameplay. If you played one you've played them all. While it is not great or definitely not original, it is entertaining playing with your friend in co-op mode. Otherwise, everything about it is pretty average if you are going to play by yourself.

Rating:

Story: 5/10
Gameplay: 6/10
Graphics: 6/10
Sound: 8/10
Moral content: 8/10
Language: no coarse language at all
Sex/sexual references: very minor (almost non-existent)

Overall rating: 6/10