When the first Dynasty Warriors game came out on the PlayStation 2 it was a technical marvel. Players were greeted with hundreds of enemies on screen at a time across huge expansive battles. And the horses! Oh my the horses look so real. But it didn't take long until the game's began showing their age, and soon numerous other titles easily surpassed what we once marveled at. We've seen spin offs of the franchise and tweaks and turns along the way adding and removing elements, but nothing has been done quite like Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce. How is it so different while remaining true to the core of what makes Dynasty Warriors games so fun?
While the changes may not be immediately noticeable, the core concept of Dynasty Warriors remains the same, it's a mindless action game. But what Koei has done is layered on different textures of gameplay to add to the depth of the game. The biggest is an almost RPG like leveling system for your officer with heavy character customization. As you complete quests and missions you'll earn experience, pick up items, and unlock officer cards for your empire. While your character levels up from earned experience, you'll power up different aspects of your character making him or her stronger, faster, and more agile. The items you acquire can be used to create new weapons, upgrade existing weapons, unlock Chi skills or build orbs. Each of these things adds another layer of depth to the game.
I know where this spear is going....MEOWWWWWWWW!
The Chi skills are assigned to your various appendages, with up to four being in play at a time. These can be things like faster movement, the ability to hover, stronger attacks, or passive abilities like healing your group in co-op. The orbs on the other hand get plugged into your weapons and unlock new abilities and strengths with them. While you can have as many weapons as you'd like, you can only battle with a primary and a secondary weapon from one of the games 2 dozen or so types. Another item to collect is officer cards, these cards are earned after completing missions and each officer has bonuses that are applied to your city. One officer might increase your Blacksmith's level 10 points every battle, which once unlocked, yields stronger weapons and abilities that you can work with. Your city becomes the hub world between missions, and your staging ground for everything else in the game.
The cities also provide a seamless gateway into the multiplayer co-op portion of the game. You'll simply switch your city to a host city, or join another and up to four people can then quest together. Players can complete quests for any of the officers in the game and their progress is reported back to their single player game. One of the best things you'll immediately notice about the co-op is the ability to show off your customized officer and weapons to other players. With 40 different officers to choose from for your character, it's rare to see even two similar players in one game. Players can customize their character's outfit, and their character reflects which Chi skills they have equipped with glowing bonuses rings surrounding their character. Your primary weapon is also on display and at anytime you can walk up to a player character and get a baseball card style state sheet on all of their attributes. In the hub world you can also trade most of the items you found, including officer cards, between players and plan for the next battle.
You can add fire damage to your weapons, burn yellow turban burn.
The battles in Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce aren't all that different than previous games in terms of concept, though we do see some different missions types. You may be assaulting a base, fighting a giant creature, or holding an area from enemy advancement. The biggest difference in the game is the over the top nature of the battles and characters themselves. While the story and character names are grounded in realistic Chinese history, the characters abilities are not. Now you'll face off against flying monks, battering rams, rock throwers and various other lackeys that you can make quick work of. The officers on the other hand all now have the ability to go into a fury mode, it's in this mode they transform into a fantastical version of themselves. My main character, Huang Gai, doubled in size, grew a giant mohawk and was covered in flames when he entered a fury state. Some characters get covered in ice, grow wings, or my personal favorite was one character that looked like a fat little purple devil. While in the fury state your character can jump higher, move faster, hit harder and perform different special attacks. As long as you keep up the carnage you'll remain in this state before changing back to normal.
Like I said, this state isn't just for player characters but also for enemy officers. This over the top notch carries over to the battle grounds as well. The infamous Yellow Turban Rebellion which is found in just about every Dynasty Warriors game to date returns, except this time the end mission takes place in a giant floating palace with huge bells that shoot lightning. It's very Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. What's more the four player co-op becomes critical to completing these missions at times as I found the game to be extremely difficult, especially in the early going. The difficulty usually came from being knocked down with cheap shots from an enemy, and then being repeatedly knocked down while trying to get back up. This is where you buddies can come in and save you. Combine this with the passive group Chi abilities characters can have, and there's almost an MMO type nature of building a group for a mission.
Arial battles play a large part in the game.
Previous Dynasty Warrior titless had local co-op as an option, but Strikeforce is an online only affair for four players, which a lot of players may find disappointing. The game also suffers from a bit of framerate slowdown when the action gets chaotic, so split screen may have been a technical limitation more than a design choice.
Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce isn't perfect, but it's the biggest upgrade to the franchise in years. There's over 200 missions in the game with 40 officers to play in three separate campaigns. This is one meaty game in terms of content, and Koei promises to offer more missions in the form of free DLC. The co-op is an absolute blast and is where the game truly shines, there's no greater moment than watching four flying, and flaming, officers beat on a Lu Bu riding on a giant fire breathing dog.