Ok, I know what you’re thinking, “number 6? What’s left but the same old thing?”  That’s what I thought at first too, but a lot has changed…..

 

I’ve been a fan since DW3 and have owned all incarnations since.  Each one progressed in it’s own way, adding it’s own flair, but you’re right, nothing really changed.  The developers realized that as well when they made DW5.  Anyone remember that?  I’ll wager not, or you didn’t like it.  It changed too much.  They took away the standard Muso mode and had a kind of kingdom conquest.  It was an interesting idea, but hard to lose.  Once you had a few territories it was an easy win as your army was huge.

 

DW6 Has taken 90% of the good from DW3-DW5 and made one game out of it. I’m going to give you a few of the highlights and leave you with a few to still be surprised with

First you find weapons instead of them gaining exp, except they are now random drops and you don’t have to complete some ridiculous task to get it that takes two people playing to actually do it (DW3).

             Second they added an ability tree so you control how each character progresses and what abilities they get and in which order.

            Third you begin the game with a few horses that also gain levels, abilities, and exp.  You also find more of them as random drops, just like weapons.  The only thing is you don’t know what abilities they will get until you raise them up.

            Fourth you can now climb the towers, slide down cliffs, and swim in the water.  This is my favorite part so far. How many times did you waste the time to knock down an arrow tower? Now just climb right up and wipe them out! How much wasted time was there going all the way across the level to get to the one f’ing bridge that goes over the river? Now just swim across!  It really is as fun as it sounds.

            Last, but not least, they fixed the rendering and lag problem!!!!  If you’ve played the others then you know there may be an army, but you can only see like 20 at a time and 10 feet in front of you.  If you’re playing coop, forget it, the lag was horrible.  Now you see the 100 guys around you, or the 50 guys that are 300 feet away, even in coop.

 

There are a few down sides to the game that I will warn you about, but in no way kept me from getting and becoming addicted to it.

            First and foremost there is no character creation.  This was my biggest disappointment with the game.  I’ve looked on a few gaming sites to see if it’s unlockable, but as it stands now, it doesn’t exist.  It was a let down, but it doesn’t ruin the game, as some of you may be thinking.  I’ll admit I do miss running around china as “me” the 5’10” white guy with a sword.

            Second there is no online multi-player.  This wasn’t that bad to me because how easy would the game be if you had 8 players against the game.  Two players on easy-normal is almost one sided.  You could have done online player vs. player though.  Imagine each of you controlling one army and having to wipe out the other.  Could have been cool, but alas….

            Lastly, unless I just haven’t found them yet (which I doubt), there are no elephants.  I know, I know, no more riding an elephant into the enemy camp and mowing them all down.  Again, a little disappointing, but a lot more believable.

            To wrap up I highly endorse this newest installation of the Dynasty Warriors franchise.  The few things that have been left behind are worth all the dead weight and impossible tasks (DW3) that have been left behind.  Each story line is fun and playable over and over and with the exp bonus systems raising a character to a respectable level doesn’t take an eternity.  Overall I give the game 4.5 out of 5.

 

www.dynastywarriors6.co.uk this is the best site I found so far.  Look for updates.