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Post subject: Dynasty Warriors 5  PostPosted: Apr 24, 2005 - 10:49 PM
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Hey, yeah, I reviewed it, and hopefully it'll run. I'll paste in a copy of the review here, and I'll tell you if it gets printed on Thursday, hopefully.



DYNASTY WARRIORS 5

Thousands of soldiers are charging about the field. Dozens of officers are screaming orders. Forts are being maintained; horses are trampling their opposition, and you’ve has just received the order to take the enemy’s left flank. The best part is you have to do it alone. Dynasty Warriors 5 is some of the most fun a person can have when they want to storm a battlefield and defeat an army alone.

Based on the popular Chinese book series The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which tells the story of three warring Chinese kingdoms roughly around 200 A.D., DW5 is the fifth installment in an immensely popular hack-and-slash which requires the player to pick a general from multiple kingdoms, then run them through battle after battle, each fight slightly different, and slightly more difficult than the last. By defeating enemy officers, completing battles, and finding new items and weapons, the player slowly becomes more and more powerful, and can eventually deal with bigger and more difficult opponents.

Of course, the player is not entirely alone. Bodyguards can also be assigned to aid the chosen character, and gain experience during battles until they eventually become incredibly powerful, and act more as sub-officers than actual bodyguards. Though the bodyguard system is old, new abilities have been given, such as the ability for them to do super attacks, or heal the player. Items, meanwhile, upgrade stats or enhance abilities during game play, orbs are used to add elemental damage and status changes to regular attacks, and horses provide quick transport. Though the Musou attack, which is a more-powerful character specific attack, returns, the ability to do Double-Musou attacks, by using either two officers, or an officer and a bodyguard, is new to the series.

As for graphical qualities, levels are expansive, units move naturally, and cut scenes are beautifully rendered. In single player, the player can see distant enemy units and terrain features easily, and hundreds of units can be moving on-screen at once with little slow down. Unfortunately, overall level design is a little dated looking, but this has enabled the movement of many different character sprites on screen. However, this is not the case in multiplayer, where the player can hardly see more than ten feet. Visibility is practically nil, and to make matters worse, enemy and allied troops tend to just suddenly appear and disappear around the player, making it almost impossible to accurately know what’s going on at times. Also, computer A.I. is not perfect in either single or multiplayer, but it is the best of every Dynasty Warriors game by far, meaning enemy units attack in groups, try to attack from weaker angles, such as an officer’s back, and even wait for reinforcements to arrive before engaging an opposing officer.

Sound, meanwhile, is incredible. All Dynasty Warriors music is a beautiful fusion of both ethnic Chinese and electric guitar. On the battlefield, the clash of weapons, the whinnies of horses, and the cheers of battling troops are always present. All sound effects are spot-on, and volume is perfect, so that no order or comment made in the game is drowned out by the surrounding roar. Unfortunately, this is the only problem. As is a trademark of the series, voice acting is nothing short of horrible. Some characters have a voice that suit them, and aren’t terrible at showing emotion, but for the most part the voice work grates the ears and comes off laughable, at best. Also, the cut scenes were not done in the English language, and it shows. No character appears to be saying what he or she is actually saying. There is also no subtitle feature for the game movies, so turning the volume off at times is not an option if the player desires to know what is going on.

All in all, Dynasty Warriors 5 is good. It adds many new features to the series and fixes some problems with enemy A.I. However, many of the problems that have plagued the series throughout its existence are still present. But with 48 playable characters, each with their own storylines, this game has more replay ability than most role-playing games. A definite must for fans of the series, or for people who’ve never played a DW title before, Dynasty Warriors 5 will not disappoint.
 
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Post subject:   PostPosted: Apr 24, 2005 - 10:50 PM
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I've also got a review of God of War if anybody cares to see it.
 
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Post subject:   PostPosted: Apr 26, 2005 - 02:07 PM
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      Ack wrote:
I've also got a review of God of War if anybody cares to see it.


Go ahead and throw it up there.

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If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking.
-George S. Patton

 
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