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The fourth installment in KOEI’s popular Dynasty Warriors series saw a release this March, and fans of the series will likely find themselves pleased. With all the fun of the previous Dynasty games and some cool new additions, Dynasty Warriors 4 makes for an enjoyable, action packed experience!
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Like the other Dynasty games, Dynasty Warriors 4 takes place during the Romance of the Three Kingdoms era in China. This is a period of great unrest, and war is breaking out all over China. You can play as one of three dynasties (the Wu, the Shu or the Wei) all of which have their own agenda, with different characters. It’s a story that’s basically been told many times before, but it’s still interesting. Besides, the real draw to a game like this isn’t the story… it’s the action.
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There are a lot of different characters to play as, and you’ll unlock more as you progress throughout the game, each with distinct moves. Each dynasty has different missions to battle your way through with new objectives and enemies.
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Gameplay is pretty straightforward, and pretty much the same as previous games in the series. You’re equipped with a charge attack, a basic attack which allows you to do combos, and you can jump. You can also perform a special attack once your special meter fills up, and can fire arrows as you pick them up throughout the game. As you kill enemy officers your weapons will level up, and on occasion you’ll find weapon upgrades and equipment spread throughout the battlefield. As you level up your sword will gain in strength and you’ll be able to do more combos. You’ll also be able to equip more items to yourself and will be able to recruit more bodyguards.
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You’ll sometimes find yourself hugely outnumbered in battle, so your bodyguards can be pretty key. On top of that, the enemy AI is actually pretty good, and because of this you’ll see a lot of variation throughout the battle and you’ll rarely see the exact same events unfold twice. When all else fails and the enemy starts to overwhelm you, you can jump on a horse and bash into crowds of enemy soldiers and smack them down with your sword. Yes, it’s actually as fun as it sounds.
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A new feature to the 4th installment of the series is the new duel mode. When you come across an enemy officer who is a foe of the character you’re controlling you will have the option to fight that officer in a 1 vs. 1 fight. This gives fans a taste of something new when they’re tired of fighting on the battlefield, but for those who’d rather continue their 40 on 1 fight, the duels are totally optional.
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Probably the biggest downfall to the game would be the simple fact that, admit it… hack and slash gets dull. On top of that, most aspects of this installment aren’t exactly groundbreaking over previous installments of the series, although many are noticeably improved. Fortunately, the RPG-like upgrading was done very well, and gives the game a dimension outside of “mindless hacking”. On top of that there’s the option for multiplayer where you and a buddy can team up on the battlefield and fight off entire armies of enemies. It’s a lot of fun, and will make things a lot more interesting without losing much of the challenge. Another thing Dynasty Warriors has going for it is the amount of strategy involved. Although the game is certainly a hack and slash, you have to coordinate a massive battle, and there’s a lot more to worry about than simply the 30 guys currently fighting you. You’ll need to protect certain allies or kill certain enemy officers while killing off as many baddies as you can and keeping your allies from getting overrun.
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The game's graphics are nice, with beautiful character animations, detailed backgrounds and smooth cinematics. The immense size of the battlefield and the enormous amount of characters on the screen will amaze those who have never played a game in the series, although at times the framerate will drop significantly in the highly populated areas. Overall though, the framerate remains consistently good throughout the game.
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The music is a crazy collection of heavy metal stuff. It may not seem like heavy metal music would be very fitting for a game that takes place in ancient China, but somehow it works and the game has an enjoyable and addictive soundtrack. The sound effects are also of good quality, with explosions and clanging swords being heard all over the battlefield. On the negative side, the voice acting is awful. Well, awful may be an understatement. Just ignore the guys when they start talking because you’ll lose respect for the game. Not a single character in the game even pulls off a decent Chinese accent, and the voices are a huge disappointment.
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All in all, Dynasty Warriors 4 promises a solid gaming experience for fans. The gameplay can get a bit repetitive, but the game's other strengths more than make up for this and will have you coming back for second and third playthroughs.
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