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The game arrives on Xbox in time for the PS2 update. The Dynasty Warriors series started on the PS One, six years ago with little fan fare. At the time, most gamers couldn’t be bothered to get away from Tekken. Then in 2000, as a PS2 launch title, Dynasty Warriors 2 changed that by going away from one-on-one fighting and into fighting hundreds of people. The game was hailed, and sold well enough to continue the series. The series made another debut with Dynasty Warriors 3 and though it wasn’t a breakthrough change, it still played pretty well. Koei then ported the game to the Xbox, while releasing a remix expansion for the PS2.
Earlier this year, Dynasty Warriors 4 was released on PS2. An upcoming expansion is going to be released this November, but the Xbox version of the original is here now.
Though the series hasn’t seen any major improvements from its birth in this generation, the game still plays very well. As expected, the updates in Dynasty Warriors 4 aren’t that noteworthy but do add a bit more to the game. There are many more moves for your character which include jumping attacks and specific attacks for each character. Your weapons can be become more powerful with the additional of magical attacks, as well. You can take these new fighting abilities to the battlefield. Also on the battlefield, you’ll notice more siege weapons. You’ll see catapults, rams and fire-tanks.
One of the more notable changes to the game is the enhanced AI of your opponents. They react more intelligently now and block your moves. You dish out a combo, and if they can reverse it, you’ll take one back. This adds more depth to the game, since you’ll need to think a tad bit more. Although, with so many enemies, you’ll just button-mash and move.
Occasionally, you’ll step out of the multi-person mayhem, and engage in a throwback to the original Dynasty Warriors. You’ll have one-on-one battles with the leading men of the opposition. This happens in a separate area, which you are teleported into and out of.
In Dynasty Warriors 4, you’ll be able to create your own character to use in the Campaign, Scenario or Multiplayer modes. Speaking of Campaign, no longer do you have to complete the whole thing with a single character. You can now change characters as you progress. You’ll also be able to edit the names and look of other characters in the game, as in Dynasty Warriors 3XL.
Once you get tired of the main game you can enter a few minigames. You can kill enemies as fast as you can (Time Attack), throw as many enemies off a bridge as you can before getting thrown yourself (Bridge Melee), kill as many enemies before dying (Endurance) and destroy as many obstacles as possible (Demolition).
The visuals behind Dynasty Warriors 4 are pretty much the same found in the previous three titles (counting 3XL). Omega Force, the developers, has fixed a few things here and there, such as adding more depth to the environment, but for the most part, it’s the same. The frame-rate has also been improved in this game, and is made more evident on the Xbox. The draw distance was improved a bit over DW3 (Xbox), but not much compared to DW4 (PS2). The game doesn’t run in either progressive-scan mode or widescreen.
The audio in the game does its job. The background music is made up of rock tunes mixed with some traditional Japanese instruments. The overall sound is appealing, fitting both the nature of the game and its background. The sound effects are loud and plenty, though the voice acting is still pretty sub-standard. On the Xbox, you can hear everyone in Dolby 5.1.
Dynasty Warriors 4 is a fun game at heart. While the series hasn’t evolved much from its birth, the core gameplay is still fun. It is questionable that Dynasty Warriors 5 will continue being fun if Koei and Omega Force don’t drastically change the game engine, though. Also a bit disappointing is the bare-bones port to the Xbox. Besides Dolby 5.1, there isn’t any change. This game was made to be played on Xbox Live, but we’ll have to wait ‘til the next in the series. Recommended if you haven’t played the PS2 version. -- Jose Liz, PGNx Media
---- Sep 28, 2003
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