Gaming Target - Xbox: Dynasty Warriors 4

Written by Leigh Culpin on September 25, 2003

Full Review: Omega Force's 4th installment of the chaotic war simulation series Dynasty Warriors is both astonishing and buggy, and once you get past both of those you'll find a pretty damned decent game.

Anyone who's played Hunter: The Reckoning knows how insanely fun it can be to have absolutely absurd numbers of enemies on screen at any one given time. While Dynasty Warriors 4 doesn't give you 4-player co-op, you are presented the option of some good ol' fashioned 2-player team play. And the number of enemies on screen certainly shadows Hunter's 32 Ц at times you can be so surrounded that not only can you barely move, your screen is filled with enemies and allies alike. Having said that, the game can slow down somewhat, and while the fogging distance is significantly better than the PS2 version, it's still very apparent. Nonetheless, the number of enemies to slaughter isn't anything to shake your fist at Ц getting 300+ УKO'sФ when playing solo isn't really overly difficult if you have the time to hunt everyone down. If not you can mow through each level pretty quickly if you want to, which does become the way to play through the game after the first few levels Ц doing nothing but mindless killing can get kinda repetitive, and between the fogging distance (which prevents you from seeing the pretty well designed levels fully) and the limited gameplay (while you can upgrade your weapons and characters, the advancement takes a bit long and there isn't really a whole lot of noticeable impact). However, even if you can't play this game for many hours straight, it's good enough to play on and off over a few days or weeks.

The stock character design is pretty good overall, with a decent amount of varied attributes changing from character to character. Creating your own character lets you alter these attributes, create your own look, and pick your special move. However, while changing the various clothing items on your character does seem to change your character's attributes, you don't see what attributes are altered by what, which means that you won't be able to see where you've allocated your points until your character's completely created Ц something which is somewhat irritating when trying to create a character who is specifically slow and strong, fast but weak or whatever class fits your playing style.

The basics of the gameplay are just that Ц basic. You can attack, jump, charge, or use your special move. Unfortunately the only camera control is the re-center option, something which was a fairly major oversight in a game where enemies can come out from the fog from any and all directions. Additionally, enemies will sometimes appear out of thing air right in front of you, not something you'd expect to see from a finished and polished game. Despite that, the gameplay is pretty well developed Ц the power ups are well scattered, the combo system allows for some very large combo series, and the boss battles are pretty intense. The AI is also pretty respectable considering the number of enemies present onscreen at any one time and the hardware limitations of the Xbox. Having said that, it's certainly no Halo.

Graphically, DW4 is pretty impressive Ц there's nothing really that new to be seen, but the existing technology is well used, everything is relatively high detailed and the possible number of enemies on screen is insane. The audio isn't quite as high quality mind you Ц the over-dubs are so poor it's funny, and the music could certainly use some work. Having said that the sound effects are pretty decent and certainly do a good job of getting the point across, even if they aren't particularly astonishing.