Warriors Orochi 2

Written by Tom Clare in PS2 Game Reviews, Tuesday 9 December, 2008

Released: 2008
Developer: KOEI
Publisher: KOEI
Genre: Action
Platform: PS2

As you may already have deduced, Warriors Orochi 2 is rather similar to the fifteen other 'Warriors' themed hack 'n' slash 'em ups that have invaded the PS2 over the last few years and the target audience thus remains much the same; those who find its gameplay unchallenging and repetitive will find plenty to dislike, whilst fans who haven't exhausted the more recent spin-off titles will find some enjoyment within.

As the name suggests, this is the second coming together of the Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors franchises, the pugilists from which are once again thrown together under the pretence of uniting to prevent the resurrection of the all-powerful serpent king Orochi, who in the first game created an alternate reality in which he could force the warriors to do battle for his amusement. It's simultaneously the most comprehensive instalment of the series and yet also the laziest KOEI have yet devised. WO2 provides a vastly impressive roster of 92 fighters that include a credible selection of new ones and a cool 'Dream' mode that proves the pick of the new features. However, in major areas such as graphics, sound and (more worryingly) gameplay, it's utterly indistinguishable from its predecessor.

The Story mode is the place to begin and makes for a solid diversion, the one real highlight being the new 'Orochi' plotline that allows you to be a part of the evil king's uprising. As well as this, you can of course tackle stories from the three Dynasty Warriors clans and also a Samurai Warriors thread, however more so than in previous games the stories seem to lack a sense of theatre; bereft of the atmosphere that the earlier entries have tended to build prior to the final showdowns, lacking as they do any meaningful twists or surprises.

Though campaigns set in areas such as Guan Du, Wu Zhang Plains and Nan Zhong are all very good, they have been used and reused to such a shocking degree over the years that it's likely that even the most ardent of fans are craving some change by now. Given the homogeneity off the series as a whole, the Warriors titles tend to live and die on the new features they offer, and in this respect WO2 is at least partly successful. There are more than 25 'Dream' scenarios that pool together three warriors who normally would never fight together (slightly ironic given the main premise of the Warriors Orochi narrative) for specific missions - whilst some partnerships do indeed appear to be space-fillers, the majority of the levels are quite neat and encourage a much more comprehensive use of the characters than the Story mode does. Another way of gaining experience points for your characters is through the 'Survival' mode, which acts as a sort of Soul Calibur-lite, as you battle side-on against enemy officers. A brief burst of fun, though much like the main game, has zero depth.

It turns out that these features are invaluable to Warriors Orochi 2 as so many other areas of the game have literally been ripped from earlier KOEI games. The music, both menu and in-game, has been taken straight from the first game, so you'll have to endure the same half-hearted rock themes and hypnotic menu anthems all over again, as well as the routinely awful (when are they ever going to fix it?) voice-acting, where the narrator is once again the only member of the cast not to disgrace himself.

The ageing graphics engine remains functional but no longer pretty, with sparse landscapes and ugly texturing contrasting with the decent character models and attractive presentation screens. A little more variety in the enemy soldier designs would have been nice, so it didn't feel quite so much like you were fighting an army of clones, but by this late stage in the PS2's life, KOEI are probably beyond caring about such matters.

WO2 still provides enjoyment in small doses, even though troubles dating back over six years continue to go unaddressed.  Character control is sprightly and being able to chop and change between three warriors during battle certainly removes some of the tedium, even if it does make the game very easy. The primitive button-bashing mayhem is still strangely satisfying, though the eternal request for a little more variety in the attack patterns (anything that doesn't involve hammering 'square' then) once again goes unanswered and because of the poorly-judged unlockables system, will take long-suffering fans down an even more repetitive path than usual.

The Gallery feature makes a welcome return with a plethora of great artwork stills, of which there are now six per character as opposed to four in Warriors Orochi. Frustratingly however, many of the initial artworks are exactly the same as in the first game, and due to really short-sighted design, makes getting the better pictures a horrifically arduous task. As in many role-playing games, characters can 'level-up', though their proficiency rating (which increases based purely on the number of kills) is now inexplicably spread out to cover fifty levels instead of five. Because the proficiency level progresses at a far slower rate, you end up with characters reaching the maximum Level 99, whilst their proficiency level is languishing at or around the 25 mark. The criteria for unlocking the final four gallery arts for each character is reaching levels 20, 30, 40 and 50 for proficiency; essentially meaning you would have to fight at least half a dozen fights per character past the point at which they couldn't improve anymore, which just seems like dire planning.

And for this reason, as well as the general impression that this was intended as little more than an expansion rather than a sequel (even by Warriors standards), means it's tricky to recommend. The Dream mode is a fine edition, and with over fifty campaigns and ninety characters to uncover there's a lot to keep die-hard fans busy at the undeniably pocket-friendly release fee of £14.99. However, newcomers are probably better off starting with Dynasty Warriors 3, when it seemed the series still had some sense of direction.
OVERALL: 6/10

1 Comment

1. Timur I. said on January 28th, 2009 at 3:47am

   Good work! Thank you very much! I always wanted to write in my blog something like that. Can I take part of your post to my blog? Of course, I will add backlink? Regards, Timur Alhimenkov

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