Critic: Rebecca Rd
Date of Review: Apr 03, 2015
Version: PS4
File Size(s): 14.3GB(PS3), 18.5GB(PS4), 23.14GB(ONE)
Region: PAL
Game Page: Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires Page
Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires is the latest Installment of the Dynasty Warriors series. It’s a game for those who rather enjoy writing their own stories and focus more on strategy, government and battle. Like in previous DWE games you’re able to create an own Warriors to fight alongside or against the famous and generic Warriors of Dynasty Warriors. For that you get a rather detailed Edit Mode. In the Edit Mode you get different sliders for almost everything from Eyes to whole Body. Players of DW7E already know that sliders. A new feature in the Edit Mode is that you can customize Soldiers, a Horse and the Banner for Squads. The selection is rather limited though, except for Banner. Other than in Samurai Warriors 4 you are not able to implement your own characters portrait, which is rather sad.
You can then decide if you want to play in Empire Mode, Free Mode or if you want to play online with friends. In Free Mode you’re free to play Quests and some other stuff. Online Mode explains itself already. In Empire Mode you can play different Scenarios like the Battle of Chi bi but you can also create your very own Scenario or download a Custom Scenario someone else did. When you decided on which Scenario you want to play, you either start as a Free Officer (meaning you don’t serve a Ruler), a Common Officer (meaning you serve a Ruler) or a Ruler. People familiar with the Empires games already know that as this is something that didn’t change.
When you started your game, you get various options to do. Various Tutorials appearing when something comes up for the first time, explains very clearly what happens or what you can do in the current moment. This helps expecially people that are new to the Empires games but also help veteran players to understand new additions (Which are rather few in number, sadly.)
For the last part of this Review, I will sum up some stuff for players that are familiar with the Empires games and played 7 Empires but are unsure if they should buy the 8th title.
The build of 8 Empires is very much like 7, not much changed, just a few additions. While you were able to create stunning stories of your character in Dynasty Warriors 7 Empires, you will miss this in the 8th Installment. They cut stuff like the Death Scene and focused completely on the Way of life. It’s already noticeable on the number of Event scenes you have in the game. While 7 Empires had a lot of Event scenes, 8 looks a bit pale in comparison. You might like that they included the DLC’s of 7 though and that they let you customize your own Scenario completely and other customization stuff.
All in all the game is recommendable for buying for people that like such games or are a Fan of the series but don’t expect too much additions or as much Scenes as 7 Empires had, you might get disappointed like me.