Koei...What are you thinking?
System: X360/PS2
Number of Players: 1 - 2
Multiplayer: Yes
Online: No
Story: 6/10
By the late 1990's and Early 2000's everyone had heard of a company named Koei, Either from their majestic Series of RTS's (Romance of the Three Kingdoms), or the just starting out at the time Dynasty Warriors series. Well throughout the years we've seen Koei go from RTS to Hack & Slash to Hack & Slash RTS, We saw the rise of the greatest Hack n Slash series known to Playstation and Xbox, Dynasty Warriors, and We saw the rise of a hopeful game called Samurai Warriors, And finally we saw the rise of a Masterful work of art named Bladestorm, Last year in 2008 we saw the begining of a game that combined the majesticness of Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors, the games name was Warriors Orochi, The game put together the DW's and the SW's to fight against a demon king named Orochi...Now, We are back, With Warriors Orochi -2-, This game grants you the ability to play Shu Wu Wei and Samurai story lines, while the Orochi story line takes you to a prequil of the first game, Now there is something all four Kingdoms have in common in their story, You are attempting to do three things, Catch Da Ji, Destroy Kiyomori, and Prevent the revival of Orochi. Each one has a wave of different haracters and exactly 13 new ones, Some from Samurai Warriors 2 Extreme Legends, and Some that are special to this game only, A few which represent the Samurai Games... Gracia, and Toshiie Maeda. And a few that represent new to this game only, Shin Orochi, and Himiko. I grant this a Six out of Ten.
Gameplay: 7/10
The game play is pretty repetitive like the other Samurai Warriors and Dynasty Warriors games, something I like about this game is that it didn't follow the Renbu system that Dynasty Warriors 6 followed. Instead it goes back to the original Samurai Warriors and Dynasty Warriors style of game play which adds alot to the concept of this game, the Originality of it is pretty fun, The game isn't that hard to play really. Its actually pretty easy to grasp, just do combos untill the enemies die, somtimes add charge attacks into the fray to destroy them, and always make sure your HP is above average. Some people in other reviews say that the AI is pretty dumb, when on Easy mode this is a fact, however get on up into Hard and Chaos mode like I am and It becomes quite a problem, They begin to gang up on you and begin doing alot more damage then usual, The Officers become far more deadly then you have ever seen, and they begin to get smarter. Now something that usually pisses me off about a game is the fact that it is so short, and this game is no exception. It is exceptionally short even with the five different storylines in it, Expecially when your playing it on easy. Now I took breaks off and on and it took me three days to finish it, What that tells me is that if I had sat there and played the game non stop without computer and relaxation breaks I'd be done in a mere day. Which for me is a short game. I like the fact they brought back the Three man team, So if one character gets low on HP you can change your characters and the HP Will slowly regenerate. All in all I grant this a seven out of Ten.
Graphics: 2/10
The graphics arn't exceptionally good. Blockades randomly dissapear, your character misses an arm or a leg every now and again, and when you strike an enemy the blade doesn't even hit them, It more like nudges them and they go flying. A few more things I've noticed about this concept is that, one, This is 2009, This was aceptable back in 2001 when Dynasty Warriors 2 came out, But really this is 2009 enough of the lame 2004 graphics, your on Xbox 360 and PC and PS3 now Koei, Really! Its like they did a good version of Dynasty Warriors (DW6) And then downgraded when they saw people liked it! Koei if you ever by some chance actually look at reviews for your games, take my advise and try a little bit harder, Make another Romance game, Or increase your graphics. Second of all, The people, again its 2009 not 2001 this is unacceptable to have only like three different avatars for Generals, a few different avatars for Soldiers, though mostly look exactly the same, and the same avatars for horses over and over, I mean really with the technology today you can do -anything- in a game why is it so hard to work just a little bit harder for us, You know? All in all, The Graphics suck so I give the graphics a two out of ten.
Sound: 7/10
The sound is actually pretty decent. I like the songs and the remixs specially made for this game and the sound of the people dying. However the latter does get kinda old when everyone sounds the same. The music gets repetetive however thats nothing new for these games, I like the fact that instead of just putting rock Music (DW), or Putting Classical Japanese Mixed with New found technology (SW) They mixed the two up. Another thing I like is the sound of hitting, its pretty spot on when you slash, however what I don't get is how hitting a wooden shield (Base Captains), Could sound like your hitting metal.But I suppose thats one of the very few unanswered things in the world. Something that impressed me was the sound of foot steps, not all games catch that. All in all I grant the Sound a Seven out of Ten.
Multiplayer: 6/10
The multiplayer is actually...Pretty decent. I enjoyed playing with my family members and friends, The one thing I did not enjoy was the fact that they could've put Online Abilities in here other then Boards, But eh knowing koei its to much for them to handle. I like the Tag Team Mode most of all, it goes back to the original Dynasty Warriors 1 concept allowing you to go Three on Three against other enemies, There is another Multiplayer mode called 'Tower' where you and a friend can destroy people by knocking them off the edge of the tower, however, be careful you yourself and your friend can be knocked off as well. There are several other modes but I won't go into that, all in all the Multiplayer is a six out of ten.
Overall Score: 5.5/10