Koei's Dynasty Warriors 6 delivers a sensational feeling of wiping out medieval Chinese armies in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms era with a single warrior, while somehow conveying a feeling of repetition that's near impossible to shake. There are a couple of changes to the formula, but not nearly enough to push the series in the direction it needs to go. Still, some progress is better than none at all.

The game has various modes to choose from, including the story-based Musou Mode and the arcade-ish Free and Challenge Modes, among others. Musou is probably your best bet, as you'll follow the fate of a chosen warrior (if you don't know them already from previous Dynasty Warriors games) and get the option to level him or her up extensively. After the course of each battle, which spans anywhere from 30 minutes to a couple of hours, you can choose certain points on a skill grid to improve your soldier. It's a promising idea, but there's just one problem – you never really feel the effectiveness of these changes.

That's because you spend the majority of the game tapping the attack button repeatedly to execute the same kind of rushing and slashing attacks. Hundreds fall to your blade, with only the occasional stronger enemy, such as a boss or a gate captain, blocking your path. You can take them out with ease, however. Simply tap the strong attack button to break their guard and then hack away while they're dazed. As you proceed, you charge up a Musou attack meter, which in turn fires your soldier up with a mega-powerful super attack. Some of these are actually fun to watch, as historically inaccurate as they may be. It's also worth pointing out that you can now swim, climb ladders and beat the crap out of catapults and towers. Koei also tries something new with the game's Renbu system, which ties in more interesting combo moves depending on the pending hit count, but it never really implements itself too well.

Visually, Dynasty Warriors looks attractive. It still runs into the occasional glitch, such as soldiers who suddenly vanish from the screen without a trace (perhaps via Chinese warrior magic) and a hyperactive camera that spins around your player like a swooping crane. However, the environments look dazzling and show a little more broadened scope over previous games. The animation's impressive too, although the PS3 version runs across severe amounts of slowdown. The Xbox 360, however, runs just fine.

Koei really needs to work on the in-game sound. The dialogue is still horribly bad, with diplomats, generals and corporals coming across like used car salesmen. The background rock music is similar to previous games, and would benefit from a Japanese language option and more traditional music.

Along with Musou, Free and Challenge modes, an Encyclopedia offers a chance to learn more about the historical backgrounds of each character. It's an interesting addition, but the lack of any real in-game happenings won't push you to do further research. There is a two-player split-screen mode that lets you to cut down armies with a buddy, but no online play. It would've been great to hook up with a bud through Xbox Live or PlayStation Network to mow down the opposition, but it just doesn't happen here.

Dynasty Warriors 6 does show mild progress over previous entries in the series, but Koei still has a long way to go in making the franchise into something spectacular. If it perks up the gameplay, overhauls the audio and takes advantage of online functionality, then we'll have a war worth fighting. For now, this is an above-average battle, at best.

Related Links

Dynasty Warriors 6 Xbox 360 Game Guide

Dynasty Warriors 6 PlayStation 3 Game Guide

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