Review: Samurai Warriors 2: Empires (360)

Who buys these games? This type of strategy/hack and slash fare seems to be the cornerstone of Koei's productions yet we don't know who in Europe or the States actually buys them. They may publish a few different titles in this country, but every year we seem to get an historical strategy title- which lets face it- doesn't exactly receive critical acclaim. You can now add Samurai Warriors 2: Empires to that list.

Koei's many series' of strategy titles prides itself on its historic authenticity and this game is no different. Believe it or not, Gamestyle's knowledge of Japanese history (like the majority of the UK we imagine) is very limited so we're really just going on what we're being told from Koei itself. However, we find it hard to believe that ancient Japanese warlords carry around enormous swords that are twice the size of themselves. Still, it does seem like it follows Japanese history closely enough, with battles like "The Honnoji Incident" and "The Battle of Kawanakajima" featured. As if that wasn't enough samurai attack formations are also based on the olden days of Japanese warfare.

The only real mode of interest is called Empire. It starts off being very strategic and this is the one and only highlight of the game. You have a number of officers and generals at your disposal, and the aim is to invade other peoples' lands and take it away from them. Before you enter the battlefield (more on this hilarity later) you have a number of turns to prepare yourself for the fight. You can mine for gold, hire new recruits, build temporary alliances and much more. It does require some planning unless you like going up against thousands of troop with only a handful of soldiers. Once the strategy element is finished it's time to enter the fight.

By this point you've only really looked at maps and 2D character pictures, so graphically so far it's nothing impressive, but nothing offensive either. Onto the battlefield however and it all goes terribly wrong. Probably the worst looking game on the Xbox 360, we could call this a PS2 port, but that would be offensive to the PS2. Dirt, fog, popup, mud - all characteristics some people would use to describe a rubbish N64 game are found here - and this is two console generations later. Everything is lacking detail and lets not forget some of the most appalling AI Gamestyle has ever seen. The aim of each battlefield scenario is to capture enemy bases until the main 'boss' turns up and then quickly kill him. This is made difficult thanks to the incompetence of your ally soldiers. You're given commands to give your team, but there is no point in doing so because they never listen. They simply stand around for ages looking at an enemy, until a minute later they decide to hit him once or better yet keep walking into walls for five minutes. It's very lucky that the enemy AI is equally incompetent otherwise we'd very quickly be annihilated.

Controls are as simplistic as they come with basic attacks, strong attacks and a Musou attack that slows down the game allowing you to quickly wade through enemies, killing them in one hit. You even have a jump button, which is quite bewildering when there is literally zero use for it. Let's not try and convince you that your moves repertoire is large though because you'll just hammering the quick attack button until your finger goes numb. It's odd that what starts out as a thinking mans game turns into this button bashing disaster.

We aren't over-piling on the punishment. Music and particularly the voice acting are teeth-grindingly awful. The music is often stuck on a loop and features some stereotypical Japanese sounds as if it's being performed on banjos and when characters start to speak get the earmuffs ready. Often repeating the same phrase over and over again (in the space of five seconds) they get tedious very quickly. What's quite strange is- for a game that prides itself on trying to replicate ancient history - why do all the characters speak English? Surely Japanese would've been a better option. That's where it's set, isn't it?

Samurai Warriors 2: Empire is pretty much a dire, tiresome experience with only one saving grace. The impressive strategy section and length of the empire mode soon give way to the abomination that are the battle confrontations. Leave it on the shelf where it belongs.

Rating: 3 / 10

Words by Adam Gulliver