I thought Empires 5 would finally be another awesome Dynasty Warriors, but I got bored before I could care.
In some ways, the game is better. It takes you through several eras to start in, there are more cards, a few more generals, and more settings you can mess with to make the game play just how you want. Yet, sadly, the problem is with the gameplay. It still gets stale after the first 15-20 hours unless you've never played any KOEI game before. I used to love the simple, mindless DW hack'n'slash thing, but it doesn't do it for me anymore.
A nice addition that I've been wanting is that they added the ability to give orders to your generals. The sad part is that 60% of the time, they don't listen to you. It could be because certain generals are arrogant and don't take orders well, but I never read anything about that. Maybe if they explained that, it would be understandable and another twist the game throws at you. At this point, though, it's just an annoyance.
Building your own squad and taking out the other guy's is fun, but like the caption says, there is no substance after that. It's not as one-sided as Dynasty Warriors 5, so I guess it's a start. But KOEI has quite a ways to go before this becomes a superb game.