Dynasty Warriors 9

If over-the-top, hack-and-slash action is your thing, you'll find this is an immersive war game, if you can overlook the technical glitches, confusing storyline, and repetitive gameplay. While there's room for improvement, Dynasty Warriors 9 is overall a pretty good game -- especially if you're a fan of previous titles in this franchise. First the good news: the developers did a great job in giving players the feeling of pure power -- as you can take on dozens, hundreds, and even thousands of enemy soldiers -- with your unlocked officers and other warriors. The combat is epic in scale, and with the more open-world approach with a huge map, it's super fun to take on missions, ride horseback or on a boat, and then plan and execute a dramatic attack. The melee battles are especially rewarding. You can also trade, buy and sell weapons and other items, take on sub-quests, and engage in optional activities like hunting and fishing.

Unfortunately, the combat -- while initially entertaining and gratifying -- feels repetitive after a few hours of play. Perhaps if there was more depth in the fighting mechanics, and if you didn't have to play through the same battles, the thrill of cutting down numerous soldiers with a few swipes wouldn't get old so quickly. The story can be confusing to follow, and the voice acting is horrible. While the character and costume designs are impressively detailed, the animations are stiff and there are lots of distracting graphical glitches and long load times. Overall, Dynasty Warriors 9 is a B-grade game that has some positive things going for it -- a huge and open world, exciting combat, and many dozens of hours of play -- but with some repetition and a convoluted story, perhaps you should wait until some of the technical issues are ironed out and the price drops to make this game more worthy of your time.