Slash-o-rama (Dynasty Warriors 3 (PS2))

Member Name: Dante7797

Product:	Dynasty Warriors 3 (PS2)
Date:	01/03/03 (75 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: More than 50 enemies on screen without slowdown, fast paced action

Disadvantages: Won't last forever

Imagine you are the commanding officer of an ancient Chinese army, pitted against wave after wave of enemies from another alliance for the land they possess, and the authority over the Far East. In Dynasty Warriors 3, this is everyday life. You play one of 9 (to begin with) historical figures, and have to hack and slash your way past hoards of cannon fodder…I mean highly trained Chinese soldiers. Although you start with only nine different officers, (3 from each alliance), in total there are no less than an astonishing 40 playable characters to unlock.

As usual, the character that you play as is significantly stronger than all of the cronies up for the slaughter, with some attacks able to take out up to 20 or 30 people in a couple of blows. The combat is far from realistic, but that is far from a bad thing. It is generally fun to play, and it makes you feel good when you defeat a whole crowd of people with one sweep. You also get to ride horses which are capable of quick destruction by trampling people, and also elephants, which are slow, but tough. The real destruction comes when you unleash what is called a "Musou" attack. There is a bar in the corner of the screen called your "musou meter". This fills every time you smack an enemy, get smacked yourself, or stand still holding "circle". When it is full, (it will make a loud sound of two swords smashing together), you can press "circle" again, and unleash a mass fury of special effects and pain. This absolutely annihilates everyone in your path. When your health is critical, you can perform a "true musou" which opens up a whole new world of pain, (think sharp swords, spinning, and fire). A nice touch here, when you enter true musou, time stops for a bit, and the camera circles your character, matrix style.

In terms of lifespan, this game has real depth. There are many modes, the main one being Musou mode. This is
basically a story mode, or campaign mode in which you take control of one of the commanding officers in one of the three alliances. Each kingdom has its own campaign, or story, so all in all there are 3, (4 counting the secret one) different campaigns, each with around 10 missions. These missions usually involve battling through the waves of enemies and killing their leader, but all have a very tactical feel to them, (if you play as a different character from the same alliance, you carry out a different part of the operation). Another mode is challenge mode, where you can choose either survival, (in which you battle endless hoards of enemies, getting progressively harder, until you die), or time attack, (where you kill as many people as possible in a limited amount of time). These two modes can prove quite entertaining, and very stress relieving. The other mode is a versus mode, which is a new addition to the game. This is extremely fun, and very enjoyable. Just get a mate over, choose your character, and compete against each other in either a team or just a one on one, and even do a two player cooperative story mode.

The graphics are impressive, with nice character models. It is genuinely very colourful, and the special effects are eye candy. When you pull off a true musou attack, it’s like a box of fireworks has gone off around the character, (without the third degree burns), as explosions of colour fill the screen. The game can easily handle more than 50 enemies on screen at a time without dipping below beautifully smooth. The only complaint I have about the graphics is the fact that there is a lot of fogging, (the background disappears and is replaced with white fog like effect), which is not good, but apart from that, they are impressive.

The soundtrack for the game is composed of electric guitar rock riffs, and metal solos, which are not entirely relevant to the time period, but inspire you to slay as many people as
possible. The sound effects are full of "urggh!"s ands "arrrrhh!"s, which are pretty bog standard, but it doesn’t matter, because you don’t really listen out for them. The same goes for all the other sound effects, they aren’t really anything above average, but they’ll do.

All in all, this game is of high quality, with a wealth of options and a good deal of lifespan, but it is very unforgiving, (there are no checkpoints, if your near the end of a level and you die, you have to load it again and start from the beginning of the level, and levels often take around 45 minutes to do). I would recommend this game to anyone who enjoys fast killing on a large scale, with thought out tactical campaigns, or anyone who just needs stress relief.

Summary: