Ignore Gamespot's crap as usual. This game is superb for both fans of the series and new players.
Warriors Orochi 2 is a great game with the usual addictiveness of a Koei game mixed with several interesting new characters and additional stages. As always the formula hasn't changed but since when is that a bad thing? Anyone who enjoys beat'em ups or high speed combat games should pick this one up and certainly fans of the series will have a blast if the first game didn't quench their thirst.
The downsides to the second instalment is the poor voice acting. Sadly Koei seems to have been forced to change a lot of the original voice actors and the new ones sometimes sound downright terrible. The other downside is actually more something of a personal preference as would have loved to see "Edit Officer" in this installment to further increase the content of the game.
Don't let gamespot fool you. The AI isn't very smart... on easy and normal. Try playing Chaos mode against a single enemy general. They'll often block anything you throw at them and try to circle around you. They'll time musou attacks and if they're the appropriate character category they'll also launch coutnerattacks when needed.
Apparently the people at Gamespot also seem to think that when a game is essentially the same as a previous instalment it instantly deserves a ridiculously low score and also deserves to be basically insulted and broken down as if a band of mentally handicapped people made the game. Orochi 2 is an improvement to the previous versions, as always, and in no way dissappoints. As for the bland graphics I'd like to state the following:
Warriors Orochi 2 served solely as the last game in the series on PS2, the graphics weren't improved because it's a game for the fans or for those without the PS3 or other next-gen console. Apparently this concept is insanely hard for critics to understand.
As a last point I'd also like to state that I presume Koei doesn't pay Gamespot as much as bigger companies to get good reviews. Even though many big budget and high rated games are often extremely short (5 hours compared to the 60 hour average you can get from a Dynasty Warriors game) and the only good thing about them are the visuals. I am in no way trashing big budget games, I'd be a hypocrit if I said repetitive gameplay was a bad thing, but apparently for Gamespot it's only a bad thing if you don't pay them up front.