This version of Samurai Warriors 2 is repetitive and tiresome, but it is still a good way to kill some time.
- Gameplay may be mindless, but it can still be amusingly fun to kill time
- Helpful allied officers and tough enemy generals
- Cutscenes look good and good soundtrack
- Some of the attacks are pretty flashy
Negative
- Combat is the same as ever, with tiresome, repetitive hack-n-slash combat
- Camera is almost intolerable at times
- Most environments are completely devoid of life
Some things evolve and become well, other don't evolve well, and others don't evolve at all. Koei's infamous series of hack-n-slash is one which never evolves, and Samurai Warriors 2 is yet another beat-'em-up sharing almost everything with its China dynasty games. Its decent sides and its bad sides. It might grow and you, and you'll play it for long hours, or you just won't even look at it.
Unlike its counterpart Dynasty Warriors which is set in ancient China, Samurai Warriors is set in ancient Japan. Believe it or not, it's the same mess in both eras. Men fighting for conquest, dumb low-rank warriors and plenty of mass killings are always the order of the day. Samurai Warriors 2 may not have tons of modes to play in, but it does have a very lengthy story mode. Each warrior has a story and once you beat a warrior's story, you would have unlocked a new character, normally a warrior closer in battle to that warrior you just finished the story with. Don't come for the history of ancient Japan, because like a certain other game set in the same era it will most definitely confuse you. Even if the story may not be explained to well. Stories consist of stages and if beaten that stage you move to the next. There is some good story nonetheless and are worth following especially if there is a particular Edo period hero (or villain) you like. But there are some cinematics which are really well put together, occasionally sucking you in, making you care for the fate of the your allies and enemies.
If you ever played a previous Samurai Warriors installment, Dynasty Warriors or perhaps Warriors Orochi, you played this game before. Believe it or not, it's still the same button-mashing, ultra-repetitive, sometimes tiresome, but may become addictive gameplay you might have played before. Each stage consists of a large area where you have to kill hundreds of dumb-as-concrete enemies to win. But it's never that simple. Because of the game's mission design which never allows you to do whatever you want, you have to play by the mission's conditions. There are victory and defeat conditions. Victory missions consist of most definitely defeating a powerful enemy officer. Defeat conditions are more difficult to swallow, most likely consisting of preventing a higher-ranking officer of your army from being defeated. To make it worse it's highly likely there are two you must not allow them to die, and to make it worse they could be far away from each other. If one of them dies its automatic game over, and this could be an infuriating setback because the game is not allowing you to peaceful and merrily slash your way through hordes of enemies, but rather abiding to the best strategy possibly to survive. Other minor objectives may appear in stages. These vary more than the conditions, often asking you to protect or seize a place, or going in aid of other allied officers.
The gameplay is insanely repetitive and an insane amount of content is recycled like there is no tomorrow, but it is the kind of game that kills time and those people such as myself who don't mind repetition will see this game growing on them, especially when the game features a leveling up system. It is very similar to an RPG system where the more EXP the character earns the more levels he'll grow, making him or her more powerful with new weapons and skills to use. Along the way you'll be assisted by a guard which may seem like an extra addition. Special attacks are all the same for all warriors, which makes them repetitive and generic. These attacks are generally worthless consisting only of slowing down time which allows you to get behind guarding enemies and deal damage from behind. Having your guard close gives a unique attack which deals more damage to the surrounding enemies. Special attacks can be performed by filling the Musou meter below the health meter.
Most of the AI is as dumb as the hardest rock on the planet. The low-ranked enemy warriors would just stare at you with their swords or lances aimed at you, thinking that they are threatening you. It is very, very easy to hack-n-slash your way through them, almost as if they were no there. Ranking officers are much more than a challenge, making the low-rank warriors seem like insects. Enemy officers will guard, perform special attacks and hit hard. Being surrounded by four will make even the most experienced of players to temporarily retreat. Allied AI low-ranking warriors are as dumb as the enemy's low-rank but thank goodness the allied AI ranking officers are helpful enough to consider their help. Of course they are still AI and have their dumb spots, but they strike and hit the enemy hard. They will occasionally call for assistance when they are struggling even against low-ranks and when you are in trouble; nobody answers your call for help. You can heal yourself with what the enemies you've defeated leave behind, but your allies can't.
Repetition and AI are not the only problems blocking the game. There's a ton of slowdowns on the PC version when facing a ton of enemies ahead which will make the game crippling, but not unplayable. These slowdowns are very common but hurt the game's experiences and even if the resolution is lowered and full-screen disabled, you'll still experience these slowdowns. The biggest issue might be the horrendous camera placement. The camera is placed so you can focus on close enemies and not keeping in check where the enemy officers are, or the allied officer you are protecting. The camera is pretty short-distanced, and adjusting it is a bit of a hassle. There will be times where the camera is intolerable. The keyboard controls are surprisingly good, but still no substitute for a joystick or XBOX controller. With the keyboard it's tough to press the T, F, G, H keys to look around when you could use the right analog stick on a gamepad.
Even by the way the game looks, you could tell 'didn't I see this before?' Most of the environments are pure hideous especially the terrene which is by far awful. There are some certain spots in a battlefield which looks above; practically good enough if there were more of it. Enemies all look the same with the exception of their duties. Their behavior is similar to a fault. Enemy officer might not be distinguishable from one another. The warriors you fight with are at least recognizable. Much better are the in-battle cutscenes which often appear as a big opponent is about to face you. These cutscenes look very good and the warrior's animation is something to be proud of. Other cinematics appear in the story mode and don't look so good. Unlike the in-battle cutscenes which have an anime taste to them, these cinematics are realistic and more believable, but they are too blurry to give a great comment about. The voice acting is pretty cheesy and repetitive. The sound effects, especially when you receive damage are undoubtedly poor with some good soundtrack tunes to make up for it. Some stages have great tunes, too bad not all of them have.
Your excuse to buy this game for the PC is that there aren't as much as there are on the PS2 or elsewhere. The PC is lacking in Koei's fanatic series of warriors beat-'em-up but if you don't like repetition this is no way to go. If you are looking for a game to kill time, this will kill time and possibly infect you with boredom along the way. It's too bad but it's not good either. It been too long since Koei and Omega Force started making these series and it's a game for those who have previously played a single installment and stayed with it that appeals the most to. If you played and got bored, stay miles away from this one.
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Graphics = 5.0
There are some minor decent looking environments, but everything else is just about awful. Decent officer's models, but the low-ranks are way too repetitive and their behavior is identical.
Sound = 6.2
Voice acting is very cheesy, and often repetitive. Almost all of the sound effects are poor. Good soundtrack, and there are some which really get you pumping.
Presentation = 5.5
Blurry cinematics, good in-battle cutscenes which are re-used over and over. Decent controls for the PC, but the camera is horrendous.
Gameplay = 6.5
The action is repetitive, almost never interesting with dumb AI and sometimes annoying mission design. Still the RPG like leveling up system may keep you for a while and there are a lot of warriors to unlock. But you played this game before.
Story = 7.0
Some of the stories in the Story Mode will keep certain players who are into these kinds of things. Each character has a story so you may stick for quite a while. The mission design may punish you more than it rewards you though.
OVERALL = 63 / 100
The PC version of Samurai Warriors 2 offers the same repetitive hack-n-slash the franchise is known for, but it's a game way to kill some time.