Dynasty Warriors 6: Empires

This is probably the best dynasty warriors game i have played since dw3.

advantages:
Graphics are pretty good for a dw game best yet.
empire gameplay has been upgraded brilliantly with the use of cards and other useful things to level up.
can be an officer and rule the land whilst being promoted or be a ruler from the start.
can edit your own officer with nice unlocks to find.

disadvantages:
very easy
repeats itself alot. well isnt that a standard for dw?

although it does repeat itself it is a good dw game. for beginners for the game i would reccomend on trialing out the older versions and try to get the concept of the game because if you dont like these kind of games then its a waste of money. DW games are a cult game really because of its reptiveness. To my taste i love it!!! but thats just me.

Such a shame. Dynasty Warriors 5:Empires was great. This is not.
How can a game improve on its predecessor by removing playable characters? This is really more of a rent then a buy, i sold my copy days after acquiring it and i only carried on playing to get all acheivements.. yet another boring task of playing through one battle with every character. Its about time Koei woke up and made empires available for online multiplayer/co-op. That and bring back removed characters, add more battle tactics, stategies, basically what the Romance Kingdom had (aside from battles). Despite Koei Issueing small leaflets for 'reviews' on all their games, they have failed to get any ideas as how to make their games better. I can safely say i wont be buying another dynasty warriors game unless it contains online play because empires was the last lifeline in the series, dynasty warriors 5 and 6 (standard) were boring/rubbish/pointless.

Pros
- Its Empires
- New interesting take on orders
- Some new customization

Cons
- Graphics still ps2 age
- removed characters
- RUBBISH acheivment system (play as a certain character - PANTS)
- Boring maps
- short
- no plot
- Battle system slightly worse.

I played a few Dynasty Warriors games, including Dynasty Warriors 5 Empires. DW5E was a pretty good game, it did well to mix strategy and button mashing and had a deeper level of gameplay than its predecessors.

So when I heard an empires version of DW6 was being released I was quite happy! But when I started to play it my happiness was became unfounded. The gameplay right from the start was really bad. The council screen isn't actually a council at all (As Koei would have you believe by seeing the intro to this game). It's simply you and your ruler. No body else. What kind of a council is this? Two people? And to start with, you don't even get a say in what the ruler decides to do. You have to level up first to counter your liege's decisions.

The gameplay itself is really bad. The graphics were updated (About time, Koei) but the animations are still horrible. The voices are horrendous, and the game wasn't even tested. When you do an ambush attack the game completely mixes up what the base captains say. Instead of saying "The enemy!" or something like that (This text pops up) instead they say "You there, I want you to deliver this letter" . . .

This tells me one important thing about this game: NOBODY PLAYED THIS DURING TESTING. THERE PROBABLY WAS NOT EVEN ANY TESTING. The ambush attacks were a NEW feature so surely SOMEBODY must have tested it? No?

The sound is possible just as repetitive as the gameplay. Not only that but the sound effects are horrible, like something you'd hear in a SNES game. The characters all have two default voice sounds for attacks. Liu Bei's are `Ho' and `Ha', so while you're spamming the X button and killing off hordes of troops, Liu Bei is shouting out `Ho ho ho ho ha ho ha ha ha ho ho ha ha.' Do you really want to hear that for 30-40 hours of game play?

The difference between ruler and officer is minimal and the strategy change is nil. In-fact, there is LESS strategy as a ruler (Even with the addition of the stupid card system) because you will only be attacking over and over again until you capture all provinces. A moment to speak about this: In previous games each province would have a different number of generals and troops per general. In this it's THE EXACT SAME in EVERY PROVINCE. All generals level up systematically at the same time and always have the same troops. So there is no point in picking where you want to attack, it's all going to be the same. There is no advantage in attacking one territory over another.

The graphics do not make up for the abyssmal gameplay of this game. DW5E was a FAR better game than this. I can only assume Koei wanted to make the worst Empires game to date, and they have succeded.

If you're a die hard fan of the series buy and be disappointed. If you're new to the series get Dynasty Warriors 5 Empires instead (or kessen II) and pretend like this game never happened.