Who hoo hoo its all been done! Who hoo hoo its all been dooone befoooooooooore!
Dynasty Warriors 5 is the 5th entry to the main DW series. No there has not been 5 games in the series as parts 3 and 4 got several spin offs tallying up the series to 890 games. If you've never played a Dynasty Warriors game before the theme of the game is action. You play as a legendary Chinese warrior in over the top costumes killing hundreds of soldiers in a mission. The action is constant and killing hundreds of guys in a matter of minutes is a pretty awesome feeling, for about 10 minutes. DW5 goes back to DW3 style in terms of Musou mode. Each of the 48 characters have their own unique but mostly un-interesting stories and missions. This makes DW5 quite a long game to complete, 48 characters with a Musou mode lenght average of 2 hours, thats 96 hours there. Then again thats 96 hours of pain, boredom, and suffering. Each of the characters have different moves in specials but in reality you'll be pressing the same combo strings with different animations. You can upgrade your weapons too for best results and to keep up with the enemy's upgrading hardware. The bodyguard system has been changed here. Now you only have one guard who is 50 times more active than having say 6 guards with full levels in DW4.
Graphics-wise the game is the best in the series. More guards can be seen on screen but the enviroments are still drab and uninteresting.
I find it a crime that Koei charges you 50 dollars for a new version with features that are even smaller than last years Dynasty Warriors 4 Empires. Maybe its because Koei plans to make 599 side games to Dynasty Warriors 5. Even at 30 dollars those DW side games are a waste. This kind of subtle expansions is free to PC games and Xbox Live downloads. You should not fork up cash to obtain them. Dynasty Warriors 5 is niether a step back or up for the series. Its been stuck in the first step for years now.