![]() It makes for faster-paced combat, propelled by those additional systems that help you endlessly juggle waves of enemies without interruption. A new combo state system allows you to easily flow through encounters, while a trigger system gives easy access to stuns, launches and knock-downs. Which is a shame, as the core musou mechanics hold up, and this time out there are some fine adornments. Even worse, it detracts from the action that's the meat of any decent musou game. Played on a PlayStation 4 Pro there are sudden lurches in the frame rate, and the dreary backdrops and stuttering traversal animations don't really account for such sickly performance. Dynasty Warriors is, to put it bluntly, a mess. There's ambition - the map is sizeable and seamless, taking in towering mountain ranges, open fields, thick forests and castle courtyards - but it's spoilt by appalling execution. ![]() There's a day/night cycle as well as weather systems, all of which impacts how enemies behave - so it's easier to take out a camp at night, for example, while rain will dampen the sound of your footsteps if you insist on taking a stealthy approach (probably best to play something other than Dynasty Warriors if that's your style, though).ĭynasty Warriors games aren't exactly renowned for their technical prowess, either, but this is surely a nadir for Omega Force. Dynasty Warriors games aren't exactly new to excess, of course, but the endless list of side missions - none of which gets that much more advanced than going to a certain destination and dealing with a mob or two - and hollow distractions makes it all feel a lot more like bloat. ![]() So there are watchtowers to climb and a map that's slowly filled in over the dozens of hours it takes to see through it all - and there's a lot to see through, with some 83 characters to tinker with throughout the campaign. Dynasty Warriors 9 too often feels like a pale imitator rather than having its own sense of purpose. Yes you can hunt, gather resources for crafting or even purchase your own hideaway to decorate with trinkets - because, well, that's what other open-world games offer. It's a map with plenty of scope but not much by way of spectacle, or satisfying diversions. You can take to your horse and ride from one end of the map to another in a feat that'll take up to two hours - although you'll have fallen asleep in the saddle well before then. It's a fairly unimaginative reinvention, at that this is an open-world game, the more familiar musou action pasted thinly across a staggeringly vast depiction of Three Kingdoms-era China.Īnd, as an open-world game, Dynasty Warriors 9 falls miserably flat, mistaking breadth for any kind of meaningful depth. Dynasty Warriors, the vanguard of the musou genre having helped start it all some 18 years ago, has born the brunt of the criticisms in recent years, and Dynasty Warriors 9 now has to take the strain of the series' reinvention. Maybe it's a symptom of over-familiarity with Omega Force's industrious output - if you've inclusive of all the various spin-offs and side entries, it's easy to count over 50 entries in the series since its inception - but these remain games with more detractors than devotees. ![]() You're still cutting through swathes of enemies here - though, weirdly given the size of the open world map, the battles don't have quite the same sense of scale as in previous Dynasty Warriors games. In all that chaos there's something soothing to be found if you know what you're looking for, there's something quite excellent there too. After all, who doesn't like a good dust-up? Even better when it's tied to a game of ruthless optimisation, where you're trying to clear a map as efficiently as possible as you level up members of the impossibly large cast. Omega Force takes that same spirit and outrageously embellishes it, until you're a swirling dervish in the midst of a crowd of hundreds.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |