Dynasty Warriors 2 First-Impressions

Dynasty Warriors 2, known as Shin-Sangoku Musou in Japan, builds upon the historical weapons-based fighting introduced in the original. Instead of one-on-one fighting, the sequel lets you lead an entire army into battle. You, as one of several generals, will run around the battlefield, either on foot or on horseback, hacking up members of the opposing army. If you're a heroic leader, your army's overall morale will improve. If you're a coward, your army may become so dejected that they simply turn around and run. Various portions of the game will give you different challenges, such as defending or storming a castle.

The gameplay is very fast and loose - you simply run around the battlefield, hacking up everyone in sight. A map in the upper-right helps you keep track of the action, giving away the location of all the soldiers on the battlefield.

The characters and areas look very nice at this stage. However, the game is currently plagued with even more slowdown than Street Fighter EX3, and the horizon is very, very close.

No release date has been set for Dynasty Warriors 2. The game will be released in Japan in August.