Where's the strategy?
Dynasty Warriors 6 Empires is the fourth Empires game that Koei have produced in their Warriors series. The Empires series adds strategy into the mix of ancient Chinese warriors skirmishing in multiple battles filled with trivial troops that serve no other purpose but to add to the player’s KO count, and other warriors that are around the same skill area as the player’s warrior (not as smart as the player though). However, as the title suggests, I only see fighting in this game (which we’ve had before in every other Warriors game)... where in China did the strategy go?
Gameplay:
Dynasty Warriors 6 Empires has brought in two new modes of play: Vagrant and Officer. In Vagrant mode, you are a wandering warrior that lives life in China as a Mercenary, and has the ultimate goal of serving a Ruler. There isn’t much to do in this mode, other than taking on tasks by other warriors, such as saving a village from wild animals, bandits or pirates. You won’t want to stay in this mode for too long, and will inevitably take service under a Ruler in China, making you an Officer, and this then takes the player on through to the Officer mode, which seems to be the main mode of play. It has a lot more to offer than Vagrant Mode, as not only can you still sell your services in Mercenary battles for Gold and Treasures, but you are also given Assignments from your Ruler every season, which can include helping to invade other territories by protecting a certain Officer, or taking a base within a certain amount of time. Your Ruler will also follow a certain Policy for that season, such as increasing relationships between Officers under his rule.
There is also many other cool things to do in Officer mode, such as making Friends along the way, which can even progress to swearing Oaths or to Marriage (unfortunately, you can’t have Sons or Daughters with your Wife/Husband). Relationships can be quite handy in the game, as they can give you special bonuses, like restoring your Troops. Events (as rare as they are) can also happen in Officer mode too, such as the player advising his/her Ruler to ascend the throne, and become the Emperor of China.
Of course though, no Dynasty Warriors game would be complete without upgrading what you use to slaughter 1000s of troops during your game, and that is your prized weapon. The weapon system has been vastly improved in Dynasty Warriors 6 Empires, as the player has a lot of options to choose from when upgrading their weapon, like being able to add five attributes to their weapon, one being elemental damage such as Fire, which slowly depletes the health of enemies, or Ice, which freezes enemies, and allows the player to inflict double the amount of damage to their enemies in that state. The player is also allowed to have four special skills, such as being able to Recover their life during battle or, create a giant shockwave that stretches long enough to hit every enemy on the screen, as well as having a chance to freeze them.
Sounds cool? Definitely! This is the best weapon system any Warriors game has ever had, and it makes the game so much better! Never, in any Warriors game that the player has had so much control over how they want to improve their weapon. Who needs special weapons from the previous games whenever you can simply make your own. Of course though, all of these upgrades come at a price, which involves the player having the right type of treasure, the right amount of it, and as well as having Gold in order to pay for it. These can be obtained as rewards from the player’s Ruler for completing Assignments, or can even be found from the battlefield.
While you complete Assignments from your Ruler, you will raise in Rank, from starting as an insignificant Field General to a prominent position in the Ruler’s force, such as Prime Minister. You may however, have your own motives, and can, at anytime, defect to another force during battle if your Ruler does things you don’t like (every Ruler has their own personality, such as some may not invade just as much as others). If you don’t like making a drama about it, you can simply leave your Ruler and become a Vagrant.
However, it’s always fun to make a drama about it. I can remember when I was playing as Lu Bu (serving under Dong Zhou), the Emperor didn’t like how he was running things, so, I was informed by an emissary of the Emperor to assassinate him, and take over his land. I did so, and declared independence. I took over all the land he had, and the Emperor paid me for it. Later on, I started taking China for myself, and even seized the throne from the Emperor, and became Emperor myself. You will have a lot of fun with these types of Events. Unfortunately though, they don’t happen very often, and are pretty much the only Story the game has, so make the most of it.
Now, I have been mostly praising the game but, I am going to turn to Ruler mode, which is the other main mode of play. It is no where near as deep as Officer mode, and is very limited. For some strange reason, Koei had taken everything that made the Empires series so great out of Ruler mode, and replaced it with a very shallow Card system... which is the so-called ‘Strategy Phase’ of Ruler mode. Really, there is no Strategy in Ruler mode, other than your luck on what Cards you get, which grant the player with options he/she should already have, such as to make an Alliance with another force. Even then, the Alliances in this game feel non-existent. The other force doesn’t even acknowledge you are in an alliance with them, other than sometimes sending reinforcements when you’re invading another territory or defending one of your own.
In the previous Empires game, which was Samurai Warriors 2 Empires (which is more or less Dynasty Warriors with a Japanese coating), alliances were expanded upon, with a very cool Subordinate system, where a Ruler would have a permanent alliance with another force, which was either Superior or Inferior to (there wasn’t much of a difference between the two, other than one having more power over the other).
I was hoping Koei would further expand on that in Dynasty Warriors 6 Empires, like perhaps sending one of your female Officers to marry another male Ruler, and therefore creating a permanent alliance with that Ruler (just imagine what else they could add on top of that) but instead, they have removed it entirely, along with many, many other features Samurai Warriors 2 Empires had, like Battle Tactics (bringing in special units during a battle, or being able to Rally troops to increase morale, which are just some of the many Tactics you could use in a battle) and Battle Formations (which would be employed at the start of each battle, and depending on the formation used by the player and enemy, either the player’s army or enemy army would gain an advantage or disadvantage in battle).
Koei have introduced many new features, but at the cost of the core elements that made the Empires series different from the standard Dynasty Warriors games. Thanks to this, Ruler mode is not even worth playing, as it’s pretty much just standard Dynasty Warriors battles, which the standard Dynasty Warriors games do much better.
In an attempt to make the battles in Empires more interesting and different, Koei have introduced the ability for the Player to perform surprise attacks on bases. These are quite fun at first, as the base that is unfortunate enough to be under a surprise attack, is set on fire, severely reducing the health of enemies inside it, and causing them to be in shock of what happened, and therefore don’t attack the player. The base can then be easily taken over by the player, which could result in isolating enemy Officers that are stuck in fighting your forces. The enemy can also perform surprise attacks, but of course, the enemy’s artificial intelligence isn’t just as sneaky as yours. They will take the standard routes to bases, instead of taking advantage of the environments. There are rivers and cliffs in the many bland maps of the game, which were designed specifically to be taken advantage of for surprise attacks, but they are really only for the player’s use.
Apart from that, a standard battle will usually consist of the player taking over bases, to extend his/her control of the map, and eventually, taking control of the enemy’s main camp, as well as defeating the enemy Commander (that only appears once you have done severe damage to his/her main camp), which will result in Victory. Enemy Commanders will generally be the only challenge you’ll have in battles, but they are just as smart as other enemy officers (which isn’t anything to brag about), and only have the advantage of having higher stats than their allies. The player shouldn’t have any trouble with outsmarting the enemy. You will find that you will be able to command your troops more efficiently than the enemy, and as a result of this, your allies are actually quite useful, if commanded properly (which really isn’t hard to do).
The difficulty of the game is generally easy, even on higher difficulties, thanks to the huge amount of abilities you’re able to have (and the dim artificial intelligence of the enemies), you will be a God of War on the battlefield, not even needing the little amount of strategy that there is in the game.
Really, the only thing that keeps me playing Dynasty Warriors 6 Empires (and the never-ending Warriors series) is the fact that the game is really fun. Even though there’s no challenge to be found in the game, and no skill to play it, it’s really fun.
Graphics/Sound:
The graphics in the game aren’t great, and there are still graphical glitches from the PS2 generation of Dynasty Warriors, which involve grass disappearing, and troops disappearing... really, these shouldn’t even be around in this generation of gaming.
The battlefields are also pretty boring to look at. Some do have very nice designs, one being a large castle that has many different ways of taking the castle. The castle even has a secret, private room which contains a throne, deep within the castle, and is actually quite high up. It’s always fun to jump from that magnificent height, and land on the inner-walls of the castle, to start cutting down troops again.
The game’s music is actually very suitable for the game, which is generally rock music mixed in with Chinese instruments. There are over 150 sound tracks in the game, ranging all the way back from Dynasty Warriors 2, throughout the other Dynasty Warriors, and to the present Dynasty Warriors 6. You will never get tired of the game’s music, which I personally enjoy very much, my favourite track being Ultimate Pressure.
Playtime/Replayability:
The game should last you for a long time. There are many different ways to play the game, provided that you actually enjoy this type of gameplay. There are five Scenarios in the game to choose from. Four of them are based historically on how China would have looked like in that time, which range from The Yellow Turban Rebellion to The Three Kingdoms. The other Scenario is entirely fictional, where you choose a character to play as, and you can begin the game as an Officer or a Ruler. Unfortunately, you cannot decide who the other Rulers in the land will be, and how many lands they will have.
There is also a Create-A-Warrior system in the game, but I didn’t find it to be too much fun. However, there are gamers out there that would buy a game for this very feature, and I can say that they won’t be disappointed with this Create-A-Warrior system, as there are many different costume sets to unlock, ranging from typical Chinese sets, to even European costume sets.
Final Recommendation:
The game is worth buying if you’re a loyal fan of the Warriors series like me. Anyone else who is not familiar with the Warriors series, should definitely rent the game, as the game only appeals to a specific genre of gamers.
As a fan of the series that has played every Warriors game, I can say I was disappointed with Dynasty Warriors 6 Empires, as I expected a lot more after hearing there would be an Officer mode in the game, but it appears, as per usual with Koei (this isn’t the first time Koei have done this), they add in plenty of new features while taking out existing features that will be missed very much. When Koei will create the perfect Warriors game, that contains everything a loyal Warriors fan like me could ever want, is beyond me. As of now, my favourite Warriors game, is Samurai Warriors 2 Empires, and it is in my opinion the best, but Dynasty Warriors 6 Empires is still worth playing... even though there’s no strategy to it, which is the entire point of the Empires games.