Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce

March 6, 2010

Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce is the latest in a long series of action games based on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms strategy games. Unfortunately, it doesn’t play any better than any of its forbearers. In fact, it’s quite possibly the worst of this generation.

In Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce, you are tasked once again with selecting a faction and then attempting to unite China under your rule. The story has been told many times over, and really is nothing more than an excuse to slaughter thousands of enemies by this point in time.

At first, Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce is a very enjoyable game. It’s a blast hacking and slashing through dozens of enemies at a time as you work your way through the first couple missions. Unfortunately, that’s where the fun ends. The next few missions ramp up the difficulty to ridiculous proportions. Rather than mowing through dozens of basic soldiers then facing a couple bosses, you’ll be faced with dozens of troops almost as strong as the first few bosses, and a boss several times stronger than you are used to. By itself, this isn’t a problem because one would expect the difficulty to get higher as you continue. However, ramping up the difficulty as fast as Strikeforce does and leaving you no way of beating a level other than luck is not fun. The only way I beat the rest of the missions I played was by button mashing and lots of trial and error. I eventually just ran through the levels, past anyone that wasn’t a required kill. 

Visually, Strikeforce looks every bit the PSP port that it is. There’s a ton of clipping, the characters anad landscapes are bland and there’s very bad hit detection. This only serves to make an already frustrating game even worse.

Koei added multiplayer co-op for this venture but it doesn’t add anything useful to the game other than to provide some company for your misery.

Unless you are a die-hard fan of the series, this is not a game you should consider picking up. If you’ve got an appetite for hack and slash games, there are plenty of other games for you to whet your appetite with.

Plays like: All other Dynasty Warriors games

Pros: It’s fun for a little while, before you get to the meat of the game

Cons: Visuals are low quality; combat is tedious and shallow; difficulty is frustrating; clipping issues and bad hit detection ruin whatever fun you could get out of the combat

 

Score: 1/5

Questions? Check out our review guide.