Warriors Orochi – Xbox 360
Review by Johnus Maximus
Excitedly, I bought this game yesterday, and aside from a few hours sleep, I have been playing it solidly for about 17 hours. After prising my hands away from the 360 controller, I felt it was time to express my joy and sorrow using words.
I’ve been a fan of the Dynasty/Samurai Warriors franchise, and owned every game released since Dynasty Warriors 4, a game my wife introduced me to. When I first played it, the game took me back to my youthful days, where games like Final Fight and Streets of Rage were part of my staple diet, so I was instantly drawn by the repetitive hack’n’slash gameplay.
Like most long running game franchises, little new is offered with each new game except a slightly different level of graphics and the possibilty of 1 or 2 new characters, and “Warriors Orochi” is no exception to the rule.
There are quite a few things that I like about this game:
- The characters play very similarly to the previous games, so if you have any old favourites, you can count on them still being favourites.
- The majority of the characters, levels and music from the franchise has made it into this game.
- The graphics are a lot shinier and crisper than they have been before
- The new storylines, while not groundbreaking in content, certainly keep the game interesting
- The team switching feature is very easy to use
- The game is just as addictive as its predecessors
Unfortunately, there is always something bad to be found:
- The game suffers slowdown far too often, it just cannot handle the number of enemies on-screen
- The 2 player co-op mode is almost unbearable due to the slowdown
- The team switching feature can’t be implemented whilst on horseback
- Hideyoshi sounds like a complete moron in this game.
- The levels haven’t had much of a makeover, I would have expected a lot more weird and wonderful scenery and effects to be used in the mysterious astral plane the game takes place in
- Every now and again, some of the in-game cut scenes are subtitled in German!
As someone who is familiar with, and enjoys this type of game, despite the faults mentioned above I still think it is bloody great. To someone unfamiliar with the series, well you will either love it or hate it I guess. If anything, consider it a piece of light entertainment until Halo 3 comes out.