- Plunge into battle as one of nine devastatingly fierce soldiers and battle hordes of enemies on foot and on horseback..
- Join the ranks of the heroes of old in your quest for the greatest prize of all - the right to control all of China..
- Features include environmental battlefields based on historically accurate locales, upgradeable weaponry and characters, and various full motion video cut scenes..
Product description
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The Romance of the Three Kingdoms comes to life in Dynasty
Warriors 2. As a general in second-century China, you must lead
your troops into epic battles against thousands of warriors. On
horseback or on foot, you'll use various weapons and combo
attacks to forge a path into enemy lines and scatter all who dare
stand in your path. Strategic planning is key to victory, as
enemies can attack from all sides and when you least expect it.
Review
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When Kessen displays thousands of soldiers fighting onscreen,
it's not uncommon to wish that you could go down onto the
battlefield and actually fight in the battle.Koei seems to have
answered that wish with its second PlayStation 2 release, Dynasty
Warriors 2. The original Dynasty Warriors is a fighting game for
the PlayStation, but the sequel offers a mixed collection of
action and strategy-simulation elements.
Dynasty Warriors 2 is based on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms
series, in which three kingdoms - Wei, Wu, and Shu - battle each
other in China during the second century. Much like in Sega's
Spikeout and Yukes' of the Berserk, you'll control a
character in a fight against thousands of enemies in a 3D
polygonal environment. Initially, you will be able to choose from
one of nine characters (three from each kingdom) who all serve as
the leading generals of their respective kingdoms. You can unlock
about a dozen playable characters upon finishing the game. The
, attack, and defense parameters of each character vary at
the start of the game, but ultimately the range of attack
(determined by the different weapons) and the fighting style are
the only things that differ. The control scheme is
straightforward, consisting of jump, attack, and Musou (special
attack) buttons. Tapping the attack button two times allows for
air combos, three times to stun enemies, and four times for a
chain combo. The L1 button is also helpful, since it allows for
blocking, strafing, and immediately changing the camera angle to
match the direction your player is facing. You can also switch to
first-person mode to shoot arrows, which is a handy technique for
attacking enemies from a safe distance.
At the beginning of every stage, a of the battlefield is
displayed with the locations and quantities of troops from your
kingdom's battalion, as well as those of the enemy. A little bit
of strategy helps in playing the game, but as your level
increases, you can pretty much overpower enemies all by yourself.
Cutting off enemy lines to prevent them from calling in
reinforcements and defeating enemy generals to decrease morale
are the fastest ways to increase your level and finish the stages
quickly. The game is fun and exciting when playing the first two
stages, but the game's difficulty increases pretty sharply in the
third stage. Luckily, in addition to the main quest mode, the
game features a free mode, which lets you replay stages you've
already cleared and level up your character in the process.
However, the game is repetitive enough as it is, and with only
five stages, it can get old fast. There is also an intro edit
mode, which lets you place your favorite characters in different
scenes in the opening demo, much like in Namco's Soul Calibur.
While you can always find your troops in the field, it seems
like your comrades just stand in one area and don't help you in
battles more often than not. It's as if they are waiting for you
to clear up the front line so they can position themselves
further into the enemy territory. Even a simple summon command
would have helped. The other concern is that enemy bosses have a
tendency to cheat. After being knocked down with a chain combo,
they tend to use items to replenish or to increase attack
or defense. You, however, can do that only when you pick up an
item from defeated enemies or when you destroy things like
crates.
Despite some concerns, the game happens to be one of the most
efficient among the PS2 games so far, as the frame rate stays at
a constant rate of 60fps. Although the early version of the game
had us worried, the final version successfully cut down the
slowdown, which now occurs very rarely. It is also a
demonstration of how powerful the PS2 hardware is, displaying
dozens of soldiers on one screen. There are CG cutscenes with
voice-overs between each stage as well, adding plot details. The
music is mainly heavy metal rock, and, despite the cool opening
intro sequence, the in-game music gets really redundant after a
while.
Dynasty Warriors 2's beat-'em-up gameplay is simple enough to
make it easy to get in to, and the game is interesting enough to
keep you entertained for a while. It's definitely a solid
purchase for fans of the genre.--Ike Sato--Copyright © 1998
GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in
part in any form or medium without express written permission of
GameSpot is prohibited. -- GameSpot Review