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I first picked up DW at DW5 (2005) and have since managed to plow through all the DW, DW:E, DW:O, SW, and even DW:G, and it has largely felt like a downhill ride with improving graphics and deteriorating gameplay.
Fortunately I think KOEI got that message loudly from fans after DW7, and Dynasty Warriors 8 is a serious attempt to change that perception (are you watching, Namco?). And it's a really good attempt. For the first time since DW5, the game feels solid, sometimes even challenging certainly a change from the cakewalk gods-among-us gameplay of the last couple iterations. This is done through better attention to character strengths, personal moves, a much better-told story mode, and improved costumes. It is not done at the expense of graphics, which are more lush than they've ever been. While this makes DW8 the prettiest DW game, it means there's still some serious lag at times on the Xbox 360.
One of the first things you'll notice is the maps are much larger than they've been. An average map now is the size of the largest from DW6. While many of the maps will look familiar, others have been completely reworked. The Stone Sentinels is now a much cooler maze, and Hefei Castle is now castle-sized, not a small sandcastle on a hill. For the veteran DW player this is a welcome change, but for the initiate to the series, the constant mission-running from one side of the map to the other may get tiresome (although to KOEI's credit, this is done far less than in DW6).
The combat engine is a little refined, though it remains largely in-tact from DW7. The best improvements are things like being able to jump on your horse while moving, hitting vessels from your horse almost always grabs what's inside, Switch Counter which allows you to precisely counterstrike, and the three different mousou attacks. These are very smooth and easily executed with a little skill, making the game just a little bit less about slamming X.
The upgrade from DW7's career mode is the new Ambition Mode, in which you fight a series of skirmishes to gain gold, glory, and fame. While it should be a cool mode, in reality it's a storyless (and often joyless) rote button-mashing exercise with no tactics or thinking required, making it one of the weaker parts of a strong game. UNTIL...
Online! Yay for finally getting DW online! In theory. Seriously, online was the part I was most excited for in the new game; the idea that you could play a battle with other players playing the other officers is long overdue. But I have rarely found anyone online, and never in the story mode. Which is sad. I hope DW8:E will pick up more online players for what should be the selling highlight of the game.
Though DW8 does not have the DW4-era tactics that some veteran players had hoped, there is plenty of significant improvement to warrant purchase. For the buyer new to the series: this isn't CoD, this is a good old-fashioned button-mashing arcade game and you'll need to get that to enjoy it. See you online!
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This is a great addition to series, and for Dynasty Warriors fans, it's a must have. Since the graphics weren't radically different from 7 the one downside is I wish they would let some of the Music, Costumes, and Weapon Skins DLC from DW7 carry over.Best Deals for Dynasty Warriors 8 - Xbox 360
I've played dynasty warriors for about a decade now going all the way back to the original, DW 3, DW 5 and now 8. I grew up playing the game, learning the core concepts, maps, etc and absolutely loved the older games. Now with Dynasty Warriors 8 I can relive a bit of my childhood and enjoy the game play.The graphics are improved from 5 which is what I last played so I enjoy them more. The new characters and story line make it worth while. You can easily spend the greater part of 8-12 hours depending on how you play on 1 kingdom, and you only play a limited amount of the characters you could have. Load times are decent when disc only, installing to your hard drive speeds it up tremendously.
One thing I enjoy is the different characters you can play as the game progresses on. It's more accurate to the lore as characters die along the campaign and you have to move on to playing someone else.
One grievance I have is the map repetition. There are a few levels that are reused but you have different start/end points and have different functions during them. I would have preferred unique maps each time but I understand it's time consuming to produce a new map for every battle when you can change different areas around to meet your needs. Another is in game the scenery and graphics can bog down and become slow motion like where everything is super slow from everything happening around you. It does happen but it's on a few specific maps. Some maps are fine and you never have a problem. Others it happens every time. I think it may be attributed to too many particle effects, but I'm not sure.
Another feature I enjoy are the pre-battle areas where you can get hints at different things from characters to what happens in battle from the soldiers and other officers.
There are other aspects I enjoyed but I will cut it off here and let you enjoy it yourself. Overall I would give the game a 8.5/10. Mostly taking off points for map repetition and graphics optimization (slowing down during game play), otherwise this is a brilliant game that I think everyone would enjoy in hack and slash type gaming.
Honest reviews on Dynasty Warriors 8 - Xbox 360
Very good game play, some bugs but I'm prety sure that it could be fixed with a patch. I've been a fin since Dynasty Warriors 2, even if you haven't played in a while you can still jump in and pick up where you left off.Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Dynasty Warriors 8 - Xbox 360
The most amazing game i ve ever had. its great and fun. I cant stop playing it. it arrived in excelente conditions
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