Review: Dynasty Warriors 6 (PS3)

One man, in the right place, can make all the difference. It's a time-honoured dictum that defines, directs and shapes the Dynasty Warriors games and has done so since their inception, a single-minded dedication to pick-up-and-play heroism that has earned the series black marks from all corners of the gaming press for its superficial simplicity. Fight, destroy, move on - it's true, the rhythm of the newest game hasn't changed a dot from its predecessors, but this isn't Gran Turismo or FIFA. There's no demand from fans to reinvent the Three-Kingdoms-era wheel. It isn't a shark, they cry; it doesn't need to keep moving forwards to survive.

Dynasty Warriors 6 clearly doesn't feel the need to waste time chasing photorealism and pretty HDR effects either, satisfied that they may take precious resources away from animating the dozens of enemies on screen. That's not to say that the game isn't pretty - it is, in a functional, comic-book way – but it certainly chugs along at points, and over open ground the way enemies and terrain pop into existence in front of the player simply looks daft. There's no opportunity to gaze across the battlefield and plan your attacks on the fly, and constantly referring to the pause-button map to consider the next move breaks the pace.

Placing more information on the flow of the battle right in front of the player's eyes would lift the series from the merely enjoyable to something sublime. Tactical planning is the bedrock of DW, carefully orchestrating where and when to strike or retreat, which general to support and which to sacrifice in the name of strategic progress, and when to unleash your most powerful attacks. Being in the wrong place may cost an army its hard-fought advantage in minutes, while careful consideration – sadly, something that requires a painful amount of trial-and-error at times – can turn the tide of battle.

The drop-in co-op mode for the Musou and Free game types strips some of the accidental failure out of proceedings, as doubling the number of human brains involved half the number of missed opportunities. As with the brilliant Earth Defence Force games, the title comes alive with another person to bounce ideas off, arrange flanking manoeuvres and cover more ground than possible with only the AI side-kicks for support. Predictably, the presentational issues reach their extreme here, some unintended bullet-time kicking in all too frequently and the titanically awful camera compounded by the restricted screen, but it's an acceptable sacrifice.

More thought has gone into ensuring most of the experience is as slick as possible at least. The forty-one characters available all have their own unique, five-hour-plus tale to tell in Musou mode, even if they frequently fight the same battles from different angles. Levelling them up, directing them along their individual RPG-lite skill trees and ensuring their stable of horses are all suitably battle-ready will likely keep series fans in their element for months, and newcomers will welcome the fact that any character enhancements carry over across all game modes, so no victory is wasted.

There's even an alarmingly comprehensive encyclopaedia hidden amongst the copious options, covering every general's history and their place in the era of the Three Kingdoms. Since little context is given for the inter-battle video sequences, it's a necessity if any understanding of the plot is to happen, and the 80s kung fu movie voice acting doesn't help matters. History buffs and action fans alike will be suitably bemused by the combination of austere attention to historical accuracy and magical super-human combat Koei have seen fit to deliver.

Tellingly there's little room for comment on the combat itself - when a developer announces swimming and climbing ladders as series -redefining changes in a game that's had water and castles in it since it's inception such things should be expected. The controls are exactly the same as last time, but now a Renbu meter fills as players handing out damage without receiving it in return, resulting in more powerful attacks. Players hit enemies, move to the next target, and that's about it. Those with previous experience with the series will continue to either feel right at home or to be utterly appalled, but allowing the game to evolve without being bogged down in needless complexities is an issue that Omega Force will need to address.

Dynasty Warriors games are an acquired taste, albeit one acquired by a large and hungry fan-base, but if any in the series represents a chance to bring in new blood, it's this one. For those who have never experienced the DW series before, this is the perfect place to start, and either find a challenging, delightfully tactical slice of unpretentious fun or unearth a deformed, unlovable, fossilised relic of a bygone age. At anything more than a budget price-point, Dynasty Warriors 6 may sadly prove too expensive a gamble for many.

Rating: 7 / 10

Words by Colin Whiteside