Hack n' Slash at it's finest......or is it?
Dynasty Warriors 6 is the 18 installment of the hack n’ slash franchise. The story takes place as many of you know in feudal China as three factions Wei, Wu, and Shu fight for control of the land. This installment adds many new features over the previous games. The first thing is the all new Renbu System. Basically how this works is the more hits you land the more your combos increase. There are 4 levels of the Renbu Meter( level 1,2,3, and Infinite) which is located on the lower left hand of the screen. The only problem I found is that there is no depth to the combos. All you need to do is mash on the square button and hope for the best. The triangle button is used for your strong attack, the higher the Renbu meter the stronger your strong attacks get. Some of the strong attacks are almost impossible to land and are just awkward to pull off.
The second new improvement is that you are now able to climb ladders and swim. I found these new additions quite pleasing. If you climb a ladder and jump down to the enemies below they will be surprised and if the shake in fear you have succeeded in ambushing the enemy and if you kill the enemies while they’re still surprised you get and experience bonus. The third improvement is they gave every warrior a new look from the crocodile-man Wei Yan to the robot like Cao Ren. Don’t kid me wrong some of the characters new uniforms suit there persona but I seriously doubt the Chinese skinned a crocodile and used it for there armor. Besides the new look there weapons also get new looks, but unfortunately that doesn’t mean they get new move sets. Multiple characters in the game have the exact same moveset and quite honestly this was the most disheartening aspect of this game. I’am a huge fan of the series and own every game since number 1. In previous games every single character had a unique meaning different moveset. What was Koei thinking , if they did it for the past installments what made it not so that they didn’t do it for the series introduction to next-gen consoles. Finally the last improvement they make is in the visual department. This is with out a doubt the best looking game in the series so far, but the same problems plague this game like in past installments: fog and pop-ups. When you are riding on the horse in a forest trees just pop out of no where and this feeling increases when you play with a buddy. They also add an online component to the game but you can only upload your scores to a leader board. So in all is this game worth the $60 you will dish out, well if you’re a hardcore DW fan then yes, but if this is you first experience with the franchise then I would say go buy DW4 for a more pleasurable experience. Koei almost had a slam dunk with this but they fell short and I hope they listen to the fans and give us the DW experience we all deserve.
