Dynasty Warriors 8 (PS3) Review

Bold new ambitions
A first time to the series, Dynasty Warriors 8 brings a new tactical campaign titled Ambition Mode. The ultimate goal in Ambition Mode is to build a palace building called a tonquetai in hopes of bringing Han Emperor Xian onto your side. Along the way, you will have to make tactical decisions about fights to engage in. All fights will offer up a gold and experience point bounty, but only the fights listed as skirmishes will reward you with facility or weapon materials for upgrading purposes.

As players advance through the fights in Ambition Mode and start expanding their base, naturally more officers will rally to the player’s cause. These famous officers can then be used as allies in battle, or bodyguards. Bodyguards can assist your primary officer with various skills in combat. Lianshi, for example, can restore the main character’s health when they are near death. The new officer abilities add another layer of depth in helping to set up the best killing machine possible, but there are always going to be some officers with abilities that outshine all the rest in Dynasty Warriors 8.

NOT

Grinding away
The biggest fault to the Dynasty Warriors series has always been the sense of repetition going on, and Dynasty Warriors 8 is no exception to this rule. While 8 boasts the largest scale battles and brings enough new scenarios and modes to keep it feeling fresh every time, there are always lulls where perhaps there’s a little TOO much action going on.

Let’s face it, action is never a bad thing but too much can tend to burn a person out. Playing a couple of stages at a time helps to keep the game all feeling fresh though opting for the more tactical Ambition Mode is best suited for longer gaming sessions. Part of what makes the Dynasty Warriors Empires series so popular is that break away from straight action to give a more tactical approach to gaming, and it’s great to see that 8 nailed it the first time around with the Ambition Mode.

Technical hiccups
Even with all of the power of the current-gen consoles being tapped into Dynasty Warriors 8, the game is still not without its occasional issues. Problems that arose from the first couple entries in the series way back in the PlayStation 2 days still pop up from time to time during combat. Enemy soldiers may randomly pop-in and out of the screen from time to time, though thankfully the engine can handle rendering close to a hundred units on screen at a given time. There’s also the matter of slowdown whenever almost anything is happening on screen. Running around may start at a smooth 60 frames per second but most action tends to knock that down to a constant ~45 frames per second. Neither of these glitches really detract away from the experience, but they may be a little distracting for newcoming players.

VERDICT

Dynasty Warriors 8 represents the pinnacle of gameplay for the series. With all of its new additions, both in modes and mechanics, there’s plenty of fresh of new content for veterans yet remaining accessible enough for interested newcomers. This is truly one of the best entries in the series and by far one of the greatest action games in the genre.

[Editor’s Note: Dynasty Warriors 8 was reviewed on the PS3 platform. The game was provided to us by the publisher for review purposes.]