Crazy loads of fun. This is my first Dynasty Warriors game, and budabubaba! I'm lovin' it.
There are a bunch of things to do in Empires. You have empire mode itself, which in itself contains two scenarios (Yellow Turban Rebellion and a Gathering of Heroes) and is completely replayable because it'll be different each time. Empire mode is really fun, and you can choose where to begin and where to invade or if you want to defend an attack or not. Also you can upgrade things, form alliances, and hire new officers among many other things. You basically have 200 turns (or 200 years; 4 a year, I'm not exactly sure) to conquer ancient China. During each turn you get one battle and a few strategic policies, some of which I have already mentioned. It really is fun. You can also skip battles if you really want to.
Then you have free mode where you can choose from available officers and set up a battle with a great deal of customization. It can be quite fun for just a random battle with a friend.
Speaking of that, co-op is available. In free mode or empire mode, you can plug in (or turn on) a second controller and fight alongside a friend.
But none of that really matters if the battles aren’t fun. But they ARE fun so the game is really gripping and exciting. In game, there is also some very light strategy, such as attack base, defend base, come to your character, or let them decide what they want to do. But really it comes down to button mashing. But I really like it. Press (Xbox) [X] to normally attack, [Y] to do a charge attack, or [B] to do a musou attack, which requires a full musou meter that refill by attacking, charging with [B], or just running. A musou attack is usually just an awesome multi-directional attack to do major damage to a bunch of enemies. You can also shoot arrows to take down a foe or two before they attack. And also, before they attack isn’t hard because the AI is admittedly dimwitted, except for officers. One thing I have to add is that you can’t control the camera except for strafing by holding down [LB]. Otherwise, it just follows your character and often blinds you.
And since this is an Xbox 360 game, I have to talk about graphics. Imagine if you hide your 360. Ok, now your friend (whom I’ll refer to as Bob.) walks in. Bob says “Whoa, that’s one amazing Xbox game!” but you have to tell him “No it’s a decent Xbox 360 game.”
But all lame attempts at humor aside, this is an average looking game. It’s better (albeit slightly) than an Xbox or PS2 game, but looks clean in HD and certainly doesn’t look ugly or bad. It’s an Ok looking game, seriously.
Also worth mentioning is sound. It’s a very mixed bag. The soundtrack is awesome, and most battle sounds are good, but the voice acting is cheesy and some battle cries sound gritty (I don’t know how else to describe it). But sound doesn’t hinder the experience at all, if anything the music (oriental mixed with rock) just adds to the experience.
So Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires, is a really fun game that deserves a try. It’s entertaining, deep, and will keep you busy for a long time. At first you'll be like WTF? But once you get the hang of it it's purely fun.
This being my first DW game, I don't know much about the games except that this one is a whole lotta fun. Oh and by the way it's only $40 *nudge nudge cough cough wink wink*.