although it is the same old dynasty warriors beat'em,up game, there is a few changes that make this game more enjoyable!
M-O-D-E-S
Musou Mode- this mode is the most fun mode to play. you choose 1 officer from the kingdoms of shu, wei, wu or other, and play through a storyline that is unique for each character. you unlock more officers bycompleting certain characters musou mode. most characters musou mode consists of 5 stages, but some characters have 8 stages. each story has a few cutscenes thrown in some stages to make it more fun and progressive. once you complete a musou mode, you will get a special ending consisting of a beautiful cinematic sequence for each character.
Free Mode- free mode will let you go into any battle and build up your officers abilitys. you can aquire weapons and items to help you in musou mode, and all your stats and ranks that you build up here will carry over to musou mode.
Challange Mode- consists of mini challanges like time attack, bridge melee. these are just games you can do for fun to try and beat your previous score.
Options- change various options display, sound, movies etc
Camp- here you can view all your officers, weapons, bodygaurds etc
Encyclopedia- here you can find alot of information on the three kingdoms era and all the officers.
G-A-M-E-P-L-A-Y
the gameplay as i said is very like previous instalments, but there is a few changes people often dont mention in reviews. the basic square, square, triangle button mashing concept stays, but all the officers some different charge attacks now. each characters 4th charge attack is now usually a whirlwind, shockwave type of attack instead of a jump in the air combo. also some characters like zhou yu and cao cao shoot fire balls which explode, instead of the previous shot of energy that only killed one person. also evolution attack is introduced, you can now do a 9 hit combo with the standard square attack. you need to find a weapon that has a white orb at the top of it to use this.
C-H-A-R-A-C-T-E-R-S
all the characters from dw4 stay, as well as 6 new characters introduced!
shu- Guan Ping, Xing Cai
wei- Cao Pi, Pang De
wu- Ling Tong
Other- Zuo Ci
the new characters are a blast to play as, and all have musou mode.
M-U-S-I-C
the music in dw5 remains pretty much the same from previous instalments. cheesy, rock that you either love or hate. nothing spectacular but may appeal to some, as there is a few catchy tracks.
O-V-E-R-A-L-L
i think any dw fan will definatly love this game as it offers a musou mode for all characters and alot of gameplay. even though it is same old same old on most areas, well, thats why we love it :)