A Thousand Men, One true Warrior (Dynasty Warriors 6 (Xbox 360))

Member Name: Goldensummit

Product:	Dynasty Warriors 6 (Xbox 360)
Date:	05/05/08 (140 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: New slick design | Updated Graphics

Disadvantages: Practically Everything Else

At long last, the next instalment to the ever repetitive Dynasty Warriors series, but this time, it being completely re-designed and built from ground up for the next generation, now current generation systems (PS3 and XBOX360). Though for the diehard fans, KOEI have delivered some fatal blows with taking characters out, and dishing out generic move sets by the gallon.

As normal with the Dynasty Warriors series, you are in a setting of Ancient China during the Three Kingdoms Period of the Later Han Dynasty. You choose an officer, then a battlefield to play on, then the main aim is to eliminate the enemy commander, which you do this by charging through several hundred enemy soldiers, bashing down bases and blasting your way though gates with siege weapons. Facing several different types of units, giving some variety in the bland atmosphere, though they will still die just as easily as everyone else. The story mode, or in this case, Musou Mode is practically you choosing an officer, and going through a set amount of battles that follow on from each other, while with an interval between battles with corny cut-scenes and bad dialogue.

Now, pretty graphics and cool designs might make the game look fancy, but that doesn't mean squat when the game play is ridiculed with flaws. With what has been done with Dynasty Warriors 6, the game series has reached a new low with its 'one button only' attacking instead of the usual combo attacks. Even a monkey could pick up and play this game and excel at it instantly even on its hardest difficulty. Although the characters move sets have been completely re-designed to seem more realistic, it completely sucks the fun out of the game when it takes out all of the challenge that was once in prior games.

Though its not all bad, the new character designs do look pretty spiffy, and the very minor additions (such as being able to swim, and climb siege ladders) add additional move ability to the game, and making it more fun to navigate a multi-levelled battlefield instead of a plain flat field with bland looks and designs. With the newest biggest feature, being the 'Renbu' system, it makes fighting even less complex. Instead of previous versions of the game where you found better weapons to increase the amount of moves you can perform, in this, you increase the amount of attacks by killing enemies. Your Renbu is restricted so much to start off with, which you can increase the levels up to 4 (max) via the levelling system. Though really, with what you start off with, you don't even need to bother increasing your Renbu, as your attacks are continuous constantly, unlike previous versions when once you finished your set of attacks, your officer takes a breather, in this you just continually mash the X button, and your officer will continually attack without any gaps or pauses, which makes you practically invincible.

There is still a use for the Y button, like in previous versions, you still use it to perform charge attacks, but you cannot combine it with the basic attacks, you mainly use the charge attack now to break an enemies guard, which is one of the many rare occurrences in a game with incompetent A.I (a trademark for the Warriors series'). Your character also has some other minor attack additions, such as a 'throw' type of attack, where you grip onto your enemy and do some needlessly fancy set of attacks on one single enemy and a few different charge attacks, but nothing that would make this game much of an improvement as they are completely missing the main flaws that the series has carried along with them since the beginning.

The levelling system is a simple feature that anyone can handle. You gain experience by killing enemies and enemy officers throughout the numerous battles you're bound to fight with your chosen character. At the end of each battle, it tally's up all the points you gained during the battle, and you will receive level ups depending on the results. Each level up you gain, you gain 1 stat point, which you can spend in the grid level system, where you have a choice to follow certain paths, that can increase your attack, musou, defense, and life, as well as some bonus skills, such as increasing your Renbu, being able to make your character invulnerable to enemy attacking during a charge attack, and more. Though these extras don't make any impact in the battles as such, and are mainly there just to be fillers from the more important stat upgrades.

On the plus side, the game is boosted with a cheesy rock n roll soundtrack, which has always made Dynasty Warriors what it is today. Who can kill hundreds, or even thousands of enemies without the classic rock? The voice actors have been kept from previous games, as well as some new voice actors keeping the game fresh and updated, but with a bad script, you could even have Morgan Freeman voicing, and it'd still seem just plain wrong.

So this leads to the final remarks. The game has a few cheap thrills that will get dull over a manor of hours playing, nothing that the common gamer should even bother with. You could say that this is a true sequel to Dynasty Warriors, as it has had a complete re-design, but it is by far not a step forward, more of a step sideways for the series. Another hit and miss for KOEI.

Overall: 5.0/10

Summary: The game has a few cheap thrills that will get dull over a manor of hours playing.