I like it but it does have a few drawbacks. More of the same with added strategy.
Good - I have noticed some more intelligence on the part of the opposing army and the generals. It takes some intelligence on your part to actually win a few of the battles and random hack and slash is not going to win all the time. I do like the fact that you can pick and choose which general you play or send off to battle and can play someone different each time. There are enough different fighting styles that it is not hard to find one or two that you are very good at. You can also train and work on certain generals and make them better or stash one you don’t like in the far corners and forget about him/her. Not only does the level affect the size of their personal army, but it also makes a great difference in their own skill in battle. The graphics are nice and when someone is riding the horse, they have the correct tack and the horses look normal!
Bad - repetition in battle, as the main draw back for any of these games. One can only take so much of swinging a weapon and taking out 20 guys at the same time. The other major complaint is the lack of voices. Yes it is nice to have tons of different name generals to pick from, but in the other games you can tell who is saying what by their voices. Not so in this game. One battle, every single one of my generals sounded alike. Sort of hard to make any plans when you are not sure who is where and makes it hard to continue when you have to keep checking the map to see who needs help or who is moving where. I also see little difference in the various time starting scenarios. Give it time for the groups to work out and you pretty much end up at the same place every time. It got a little old fighting Cao Cao on every last battle. Note - Can’t prove it yet, but I think Cao Cao cheats when it is down to just you and him. Beat him quickly and get him out of they way before he has a chance to become powerful.