Dynasty Warriors 3 turned me on to a new style of game many years ago, the hack and slash. Never before had I experienced epic battles played from the view of a staunch ancient general leading his army through the battlefield. It was love at first sight and the affirmation that the Warriors series was becoming a truly successful franchise. Koei and Omega Force have teamed up yet again to bring us Samurai Warriors 2. While the Koei Omega Force duo have strayed from the formula that made these games so successful in at least one recent release, Dynasty Warriors 5 Empires being a great example, they return home for this one and make some great improvements that definitely ensure this game is a winner.

While Samurai Warriors 2 is similar in gameplay to its previous incarnations, make no mistake about it this game has a ton of new features that make it by far the best game of the franchise. SW2 has 26 playable characters and features 10 all new warriors. Many of the characters available to use are from the original SW with a few making the return from SW XL. Like all Warriors titles, only a few characters are available from the gate with the others being unlocked after completing Story Mode for the other characters.

One of my favorite new features in SW2 is the all new Skill system. This new Skill system replaces the point-based system from the original game. Skills are awarded for leveling up, learned from an enemy officer, or available for purchase from the in-game Shop. These skills are divided in 4 categories: Ability, Growth, Battle, and Special and play a key role in your continued dominance in the game. Other things you can purchase at the Shop include new guards, mounts, and weapon upgrades.

A few additional features making the cut are the Triple Musou Gauge, Linked Charge Attacks, and seamless Castle Warfare. The Triple Musou Gauge is by far the best feature and allows you grow your Musou gauge long enough to hold 3 full musou attacks. Unleashing this attack is a surefire way to increase your KO count. The Linked Charge Attacks are performed by using different combinations of the Normal and Charge attacks. These moves can be viewed from your characters Move List. Leveling up often times adds a new move and button combination so be sure to watch out for those. The Castle Warfare first introduced in Samurai Warriors is back, but is integrated seamlessly into Field Battles.

SW2 is packed with 5 game modes including the standard Story and Free modes. The Survival mode pits you fighting your way through an endless castle to see how many floors you can capture. Gold and experience earned in Survival carry over to your characters permanent stats. The X360 version of the game also sports a full XBL 2 player Vs. mode complete with Rank Matches to determine the world's top ranked players.

I did attempt to jump on XBL and get some 2 player Vs. action going but didn't find a single person online either of the times I attempted it. This really doesn't detract from the game in any way as the Warriors game have always been about big battles, the addition of a 2 player online mode is merely icing on the cake.

SW2 also sports a new party game called "Sugoroku". Sugoroku is a 4 player game that has players traveling around a map of Japan divided into tiles. The goal is to reach the specified amount of gold. This is achieved by buying tiles you land on and collecting your flags and returning to your home square. Think Monopoly. Land on an opponents square and pay the fee, or pay the full value and challenge them for ownership of the tile. Owning multiple tiles in a row creates a link that increases the value of all the linked tiles. Upon starting the game you can specify if you'd like a large or small map and what the target amount of gold will be. A short game on the small map will take 30+ minutes so be warned that this is not a 2 minute micro mini game.

The X360 version of SW2 also sports the standard list of Achievements for the Gamerscore whores out there. Players will be able to unlock downloadable bonuses such as lists of Vs. play skills, special guards, and mounts. I downloaded some of that bonus content late last night, but didn't head back in game to see what it was.

Now that you know how much time Omega Force spent beefing this game up, is it any good? In 2 words, hell yeah. Taking advantage of the graphical power in the 360 means this game looks great in HD. Gone are the days of disappearing enemies due to graphical limits, enter the times of beautiful environments and tons of enemies just waiting to meet the edge of your blade or spear. The soundtrack is stellar and creates a nice aura about the game with new music from popular fusion artist Minoru Mukaiya. The controls are tight and responsive and your character does just what you expect.

The gameplay in Samurai Warriors 2 is as good as I've seen it in a hack and slash style and I have yet to run across a single issue that takes this game down a notch. Did Omega Force achieve perfection? Probably not, but this game is as good as it gets for now. This version of Samurai Warriors 2 gets a huge thumbs up from me and is a must own for fans of the Warriors series. Gamers new to the 360 that are looking for some good battle warfare should also definitely give this one a shot. Koei also took the liberty of not gouging you and only pricing this 360 title at $49.99, great move guys.

Oct 4, 2006 | 8 comments
Chris Rasco