Dynasty Warriors 6 is the next entry in the now long line of Koei titles that center on the exploits of warriors from ancient East Asian nations. Developed by Omega Force, Dynasty Warriors 6 brings back the familiar button-mashing experience with a few slight modifications that help in certain ways and hurt the game in others. Although this can be a somewhat enjoyable title for people who want some straight-forward button-mashing, there are certainly a few negative things to be said about this warrior romp.
As is the case with the previous Dynasty Warriors titles, this game inhabits the scenarios established most notably by Luo Guanzhong's epic Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Unfortunately, most of the narrative is completely lost when playing.
The story is apparently told by spewing foreign (at least for US gamers) names and locations at you without any real introduction or crash course, meaning that people unfamiliar with the original tale or inexperienced with the franchise will be utterly lost. Even the graciously provided Encyclopedia, which documents an impressive amount of information about the game's historical elements, isn't really part of the proper narrative. Obviously story isn't a primary concern when it comes to this game, but it would have been nice to learn a little something about a great piece of Chinese literature in the process. I understand that the game wants to deliver the perspective of as many characters as possible (to expand the gameplay), but perhaps a focus on a single warrior and his or her involvement in the various wars would not only be intelligible but carry greater weight.
With that said, the bulk of the game plays out in the Musou and Free Modes. The only difference between them is that Free Mode lets you replay previous battles with unlocked characters, not only for fun but to gain levels, considering that experience points are cumulative across the board.
Fighting in Dynasty Warriors is pretty much exactly what you'd expect -- and perhaps even simpler than that. You run around and mash away at a single button for the majority of the time. Your warrior of choice can also execute a Power Attack to break an enemy's guard, as well as a devastating Musou Attack that shatters your opponent's ranks. These Musou techniques are pretty fun to use, requiring you to build up energy during combat and save it for the right moment.
New to the series is being able to climb ladders to reach fortress walls, as well as swim through almost any body of water. These aren't necessarily "innovations," but at least the series is attempting to catch up to other games that have offered these freedoms for years. While I found the added movement to be refreshing, Dynasty Warriors is still desperate for better level design. Not only does everything feel horrendously flat and lifeless, but there's almost nothing exciting about hopping from one fort to another.
The other major change made to the title is the introduction of the Renbu system, which alters your character's attacks depending on how long you can chain together kills. Thus, in order to do more damage and perform flashier techniques, you simply have to dispatch as many soldiers as possible in a chain and build up your Renbu Gauge. Initially, I thought this was an interesting idea. My mind soon changed when I realized what was sacrificed in the name of this "innovation": the combos. Most Koei games have at least offered some sort of combat system where you can alternate between "weak" and "strong" techniques to create different combos. As simple as it was, it provided at least a certain layer of control that complicated an otherwise overly simplistic battle system. With Renbu in place, however, you'll spend the entire game pounding away on a single button.
But Dynasty Warriors 6 does have a number of cool things to note. The amount of leveling up you can do is fairly impressive and each character's campaign takes at least a few hours to work through, providing you with quite a lot of content (despite the repetition). The lack of an online co-op mode is once again disappointing, but local co-op is always appreciated.
Unfortunately, my compliments must end there. Dynasty Warriors 6 is not a good looking game, and it performs even worse on the PS3 than on the 360 (even when you opt to install the game data). There is a sickening amount of pop-in, particularly when engaged in two-player mode, and the PS3 can experience some serious slowdown. PS3 multiplayer is almost unplayable.
Lastly, I enjoyed seeing a Challenge Mode available for those who love snagging a high score, but most of the tasks involved were boring. For example, Speed Run involves trying to get to each base on a map as quickly as possible. It wasn't overly enthralling.
Subject: PS-3 Dynasty Warriors 6 
Fri Apr 18, 2008 3:30 pm