Review: Dynasty Warriors Vol. 2 (PSP)

If you're familiar with the Dynasty Warriors series then you'll probably have read this review before. Well, maybe not the exact review, but you'll know the things that are going to be said, and you can probably even guess what score is going to be given at the end as well. It's just the way these things are.

On the other hand, if you're not familiar with the series, it's an easy concept to grasp. You control a hero who is such a good fighter he is capable of defeating a vast number of enemies. Sometimes he uses a little magic, but mostly he just battles away with a sword or similar. It's very old fashioned, it changes very little and plenty of people buy it anyway. While it certainly isn't everyone’s cup of tea, plenty enjoy the series. Why?

Well, like every other game focused on killing lots and lots of people it is so repetitive and so simplistic that it actually becomes quite relaxing. Played for an excessive period it starts to feel like hard work, but for a reasonable amount of time it is fun and a nice stress reliever. The PSP version enhances this feeling, as you can just start it up, play until you start getting bored and then slip it into sleep mode to play later.

The main aim isn't necessarily to kill everyone although it does help. Each area becomes yours when you've sapped the morale out of enemies, either by killing a great number of them or by hunting down their leader. It's clearly been considered for portable use as you will either succeed or fail within an area in around five minutes or so, which makes it quite approachable with the whole map being more important than each area. It is important to capture areas as there is also a strategic aspect to the game, choosing where to progress and ensuring you don't get caught out if things do take a turn for the worse. That means keeping an eye on supply points, taking out enemy supply points and making sure you always pay attention to the movement of all armies. Juxtapose this with the button bashing and you have a quite nice mix that works well enough for the series to have managed so many iterations. Possibly more impressive is that each game sells enough to justify a western release for the next in the series despite being focused on Chinese history and never differing much from one to the next.

The button bashing itself is as simple as you'd expect. There is a weak attack and a stronger, broader attack as well as a range attack. And once you've killed enough a bar fills up to allow you unleash your "Musou" attack. And you can jump around too. The game lacks ways to string attacks together and you'll soon start reacting to each event in the same way you did the time before. As time goes on you'll get stronger allowing you to take on the enemy captains. You also get to choose lieutenants to help you out and further into the game you can ride into battle on a horse rather than just walking. The enemies never feel like they are a challenge though, most of them stand around being completely disinterested until you get around to killing them. Occasionally you’ll come across a challenge of protecting villagers, but really it’s simply walking from one area to another and massacring whoever stands in your way.

All in all it's predictable, but not particularly flawed. The 42 characters available for you to complete the game with is pretty vast as well - there might not be massive difference between how you play them but they are different enough to be worth looking through and it's inevitable that some will suit you better than others, depending on how you approach the game.

Unfortunately it's not all good news. Graphically matters are unimpressive, it's not particularly smooth to play and the draw distance is pretty terrible. Even when launching your most impressive magical attacks against an enemy (who is doing the same) you'll never stop to notice what the graphics are doing as they are so basic. Character design is decent and the animation is satisfactory but everything else is completely bland. There is also every chance you'll not be looking in the right direction anyway, as the camera generally doesn't bother to try and keep up with the action.

The major addition compared to the original release is a multiplayer mode, but so few will experience it that it really can't be considered a major selling point. All in all it feels like a very limited sequel, one aimed at removing the more major problems of its predecessor rather than trying to bring anything new to the table. Of course fans of the series will probably enjoy it but for anyone else it is definitely a game to try before you buy. Some might take to its mix of gentle strategy with repetitive bashing but it's fair to say most won't.

Rating: 6 / 10

Words by Andrew Revell