What Is "Strikeforce"?
Dynasty Warriors "Strikeforce"is another entry into the Dynasty Warriors pantheon, a series of games that focuses on battles and the warriors highlighted in Luo Guanzhong’s "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" of ancient China. It is a hack and slash game, where the character is seen from a third person perspective, and certain objectives must be obtained or enemies defeated. There is a vast story mode and a well-thought out online multiplayer mode as well, where up to four players can cooperatively complete missions.
The story follows one of three of the warring kingdoms of the time: Wu, Shu, or Wei. While the basic story and path are similar for all three factions, certain levels or battles are different for each. There are also many interactions with characters outside the three realms, lords and rulers such as Dong Zhuo and Meng Huo, as well as the famed and feared Lu Bu.
Game Play
Basic game play is relatively straightforward. The player picks a faction, then a character to start fighting as. If other officers are available, the player may have allied officers with him to fight. The other officers are able to be given simple commands, and gain experience alongside the player.
The in-game hub is a city that grows in stature as the player advances. Here is where "Strikeforce" sets itself apart from other entries in the series and adds some depth to the game play. Each character has a main weapon class, a sub weapon, and chi skills. Main weapons are not interchangeable; that means that Wei Yan of Shu’s main weapon is from the cudgel class; it cannot be switched with a sword. However, his sub weapon can be of any of the classes, from a bow to pike to claws.
Chi skills appear on the character looking like colorful jewelry, and can provide the player with boosts with virtually any aspect of the game, from moving faster to regenerating health to providing a certain type of elemental damage. Items acquired from beating missions can then be used to acquire better chi skills, create new weapons, or to upgrade the properties of weapons (think gems or crafting from Diablo II).
As the characters defeat enemies they gain experience points, both in levels but also innate skills including health, attack, and weapon proficiencies, which allow the character to use more powerful weapons created in town. As the game progresses, more officers are unlocked that can be used in battle. From time to time, officers will appear in town as well, giving you their "officer card" which can be used to strengthen your city, as well as being used on the battlefield for tactical advantages in an area of the map. This might be something like freezing enemies or reducing their life.
Playability
Note: This review is based on game play through the Xbox360 version.
"Strikeforce" does many things right, with a huge stash of missions, about forty playable characters at its peak, and a nice online multiplayer element. The game throws more tactical and strategy elements in the mix than previous entries in the Dynasty Warriors series. Basic resource management, weapon class, and placement are basics for strategy-based games, but add a nice layer of depth to a hack and slash entry. The sheer amount of options for customizing between skills, weapons, and attributes for the weapons will entertain collector types for hours. Many of the achievements/trophies (Xbox or Playstation) are reasonable to attain, and the voice acting, while not integral to the game, is well done with good talent behind it. The ability to loan out officers to online friends for added officer bonuses is a unique touch that deserves recognition.
Drawbacks would be a spotty camera system that can cause the action to be lost on the battlefield, especially in some of the harder fought boss battles, where the powered up officers are zipping across the screen and high above the ground level. The action can also grow repetitive, as many of the missions have similar objectives, sometimes across all three campaigns. Graphically the game will fail to impress many compared to many current releases, and slow down will occasionally happen, though neither of these flaws will be of any surprise to long standing fans of the series.
Conclusion
"Strikeforce" does some things very well, expands on the basic Dynasty Warriors concept, and keeps its core intact with what many will expect from the series. The drawbacks are evident, but for someone looking to get a little more out of a hack and slash entry, they are forgivable offenses. It can be found both new and used many places for around twenty dollars, making it a bargain price, and for that investment will provide a player with more than their dollar’s worth of entertainment.
Aaron Krygier - Actor,writer,musician,producer from Buffalo, NY. Predominately a stage/screen writer, but interests in all aspects of the craft including ...
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