Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce brought a greatly improved gameplay into the aged and boring Dynasty Warriors formula.
Although you can choose any character you want for story mode, there's only 3 stories for you (one for each kingdom: Wei, Wu, Shu) so it isn't wise to just play all characters of one force. And since every force's 1st and 2nd chapters are -same-, you'll just want to stick with 1 character until you beat the game.
When you start the game (story mode), a cutscene will be introduced to you, and some briefing, etc. You start the game in a village/town (this is a brand new feature!). It is a place where you can buy equipments, orbs, upgrades; deposit and retrieve items; accept missions; talk with some boring NPCs,...etc. Your village can be "upgraded", simply by talking to officer-like NPCs and they'll give you an upgrade card. When you finish doing a mission, your village's buildings will receive bonus EXP, and will level up when have enough EXP. The higher the level, the more stuff you can buy,
Equipments in DWSF have changed a lot. Now, your character can equip 2 weapons, first one being a specific weapon for a character (like Cao Pi can only use long swords as his main wp; or how Sun Shang Xiang can only use bows as her main wp.). The sub weapon is up to the player, you can equip any type of weapon you like in the 2nd slot, as long as you meet the requirements such as stats, levels,... You can choose between swords, blades, pikes, polearms,... Although there are many types of weapons, every character will just perform the same attack action (except for their -main- weapon). Weapons can be slightly customized by changing the type (3 types: Power, Skill, Standard) or by adding orbs and special effects to it. The next equipment slot is used for "Chi". "Chi" is like some upgrading stuff, like how you can get 2 jumps if you equip a specific "chi" to the leg,... Last equip slot is to change outfits. It's basically just changing the color of the outfits, and most times, it's uglier than the original.
Missions can be taken by talking to the gatekeeper or reading the bulletin board. You can choose any mission available, it ranges from easy to hard (like collecting items, fighting stupid bosses,...) to OMFGWTF!!? (fighting crazy beasts and bosses). Normal missions just feels like "oh well" but missions including ridiculously powered up bosses will be quite hard. Dual missions (you get one-on-one with the boss, this mission is optional, most must be unlocked by getting some kinda books) is ridiculously hard, not because your opponent is hard, but because of how unfair it is. Although it's called -dual-, bosses will just call MORE bosses when his health is dropped to about half). You can use items in missions to recover health; recover fury gauge; throw bombs,... After completing/losing a mission, you'll earn EXPs, moneys and materials. Materials are required to do almost everything, you need them to upgrade town, make new weapons, orbs,...
Enemies' AI has been improved quite a bit. Soldiers are still dumb as rocks, but they attack more often, not that often, really. They can still hurt you bad if you are ganged up, but you can jump away any time. Normal officers are okay, still weak though. But when it comes to -portraited bosses- (those that have unique portraits), it becomes crazy... They attack too often, block like turtles, and use severely damaging special attacks. And, almost every place is backed up by -machines-, one of your worst enemies in DWSF. They charge, then deals devastating damages as long as you aren't blocking. They also really like to get in your way or backstabs you when you're fighting bosses. Good thing that almost every mission grants you 3 lives, so if you accidentally die, you still have chances. Oh, and did I say there's no difficulty choosing? You're stuck with the mission's difficulty.
The new thing in combat here is Fury Mode, which can be used by filling the fury gauge, shown under the health gauge. When fury mode is activated, your character's outfit changes, it becomes rather...cooler, with auras covering them. Your strength improves dramastically, and the characters' main weapon will do severe damages; sub weapon aren't much stronger though. Fury mode will last until fury gauge becomes empty, or when you unleash musou attack (a special attack - not THAT strong though, compared to bosses' musou). Next new feature is air skills. New air skills have been added, which requires a bit of button-mixing, instead of just mashing the same button over and over. And mostly, when fighting crazy bosses with annoying sidekicks, you'd rather use air attacks to both do better damage and evade enemies' attacks.
To conclude, DWSF's gameplay's great and not being as repetitive and boring as it's predecessors, with many new features added.
[7/10]: Graphics/Visuals: It's okay. Cutscenes are nice, though there's too less of them, and they aren't used nicely. It's mostly just scenes of the commander and his army striking a pose or dancing around, then the narrator says stuff. Battlefield visuals aren't nice, they don't seem -unique-. Enemies look mostly like a clone army which pops out of nowhere. The nice thing here's -your character-. They move smoothly, attack nicely, unleash cool skills, and almost everyone has a very nice fury outfit. KOEI just need to work more on making the battlefield's environment a bit unique.
[7/10]: Sounds: The music here's a mixture of techno/electronical. Some of them sounds nice, some sounds okay. Voice acting is too weak. Character's voices can't be heard cause of the background music.
[8/10]: Unlockables/Replay values: There's quite a lot to be unlocked like special missions, characters,...
----- QUICK SUMMARY -----
The good:
[+] New air attacks.
[+] Fury mode.
[+] The whole new RPG-like feeling.
[+] AI's some how improved.
[+] Many things to be done even if you completed the storyline.
The bad:
[-] Still have the repetitive feeling due to the un-uniqueness of each characters/battlefield/weapons/storyline.
[-] Battlefields' environments look bland.
[-] Some dual challenges can be frustratingly hard.
[-] Camera is stupid.
----- OVERALL: 8/10 -----
Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce is a great game for anyone out there. People new to Dynasty Warriors can experience intense combat with a light mixture of RPG; Dynasty Warriors' fans can enjoy a new gameplay.