Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires centers on the chaotic lives of warriors as their critical decisions affect the rise and fall of the nations in Ancient China as they gamely fight across vast plains, bleak wastelands, narrow ravines and immense castles. Players can select from 83 characters, or create their own original character. The visual customization available in Edit Mode goes further with the newly implemented ability to customize horses, banners and "normal" officers.
Warriors must fight against not only enemies but also the forces of nature as the changing seasons bring new elements to the more than 35 battlefields affected by seasons and the passing of time. Additionally, the game’s Custom Scenario mode adds the ability to control what will happen across the vast Chinese continent, allowing players to adjust every last detail to form a brand new Three Kingdoms world.
Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires is also available on XBox One.
It's hard to make a game that successfully melds genuine strategy and fast action together. There's always the risk that the strategy could be too simple, or the action would either overpower the strategy, rendering it redundant, or become irrelevant itself because the strategy side of things determines success or failure. Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires strikes that balance where both on-field performance and strategy equally determine success, and while it's a different flavour to the typical Warriors formula, it's wonderfully entertaining, and anyone who says the Warriors games "never change" should be sat in front of this until they learn otherwise.
Omega Force certainly takes the core gameplay of Dynasty Warriors and boosts it considerably. A wider and deeper landscape for networking, invading and scheming, and sometimes playing as a politician, helps to make this title more than just another hack and slash experience. This depth will overshadow the lack of visual upgrade for current generation hardware.
Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires is one of the best entries in the saga: the combat system of the regular titles combined with some of the more strategy-like elements of the Empire series, and the ability to customize characters make this game a good title for the fans.
Despite being a little overwhelming at first, Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires blossoms into an engrossing, addictive hack and slash adventure that fans won't want to miss. It's a shame that the game's bogged down by poor presentation and an unstable framerate, but along with the property's trademark combat, strategic elements add some variety to the mix, and the vast amount of customisation options and role-playing systems allow you to forge a legend that's more than worthy of the Three Kingdoms.
Koei doesn’t seem very interested in appealing to new customers because DW8 Empires assumes that you’re thoroughly familiar with not just the DW franchise, but the Empires spin-off.
Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires feels eerily similar to Dynasty Warriors 7: Empires with all the characters from Dynasty Warriors 8, so if you played that game, then you can probably skip this unimaginative release.
Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires is everything a Dynasty Warriors hater thinks about the series made real. It’s a contemptuously assembled recycling project, and I’m sick of it.
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