Dynasty Warriors 9 Preview – It’s Different (PS4)

We recently had the opportunity to spend some time playing Dynasty Warriors 9. For years now, Dynasty Warriors has had a pretty fixed structure — running down corridors, capturing forts. Dynasty Warriors 9 promises something very different. An open world Dynasty Warriors game. And boy is it delivering on being very different.

 

China is a big place.

China is a big place. Now replacing the individual maps of corridors and forts is a big old map of China itself, open to explore. Main objectives push you to certain locations, though the map will also be peppered with side-quests, and things to find and collect for tasks like crafting. Historical story events will change faction control of the map, but you can effectively take your one man army on a trip pretty much anywhere.

 

There are even pandas (and other wildlife… but pandas…)

 

We found ourselves enjoying the sneakiness of the going in the back with the hook.

The main objectives we took on in the demo both involved sieging fortresses. Your army is already doing the deed when you show up, so you jump in to help them out. Both objectives asked us to kill a specific general inside the fortress, though how we broke in and defeated them was left to us.

 

Battering rams, siege ladders, and grappling hooks were all solid options, though we found ourselves enjoying the sneakiness of the going in the back with the hook. Once inside, you can mow down enemies all on your own, or make your way to the gates to unlock them from the inside, allowing your army to break in and give you a helping hand.

 

 

Even the combat system is quite different from what you’d expect.

We played as Xun You, a newly playable character in this instalment, and a member of the “blue team” (Wei’s army). He has a whip weapon that was pretty easy to use, and seemed like it had some good crowd control options by swinging it around a whole bunch, though Dynasty Warriors move sets often involve clearing hundreds of dudes doing that sort of thing regardless of armament.

 

Even the combat system is quite different from what you’d expect. At its core, it still involves mashing a light attack, and ending with a heavy attack. But now, these heavy attacks can take different forms based on your input rather than simply where it comes in the combo. Inputted by holding a trigger these “trigger attacks” (as they’re appropriately named) give you four different contextual options, from giving you a big launcher, to a crowd clearing spin.

 

 

Similarly, you can also pepper in “reactive attacks”, which quite simply ask you to press heavy attack when it appears over a nearby enemy, and are counter attacks and finishing moves that see you gracefully leaping around the battlefield. Think an extremely simple version of Batman Arkham‘s counters.

 

These new additions, tied together with the classic feeling Dynasty Warriors combat, does result in combat that feels like it flows and chains together quite smoothly, and makes it easy to work out what options you have for your combos. We did find ourselves getting battered around a bit more than we were used to, but we were told the mission was actually a higher level than the character, so that might be why. But, with plenty of rolling and blocking between laying down the pain, we managed to complete both objectives pretty sharpish.

 

 

It’s the first time in so long that a new Dynasty Warriors feels drastically different.

It was a timed demo, so we didn’t have too much time to just explore the open world, but the horseback riding seemed to make it a breeze. We were told the full version will have more horse combat options, such as shooting a bow while riding. The riding was pretty bare bones, but it served the purpose of taking us from point to another without much hassle.

 

Between the two forts were a lot of herbs we could pick up if we wanted to craft items, though we were mainly just in the mood for wanton slaughter, so didn’t have the chance to look too much into that side of things.

 

 

It’s the first time in so long that a new Dynasty Warriors feels drastically different. We’re really excited by what we played (it seems so big!), and for finding out more about it. Though a little part of us is worrying we’ll miss the comfortable feeling of old Dynasty Warriors. But, from the our short time with it, Dynasty Warriors 9 has us grapple hooked and wanting to play more.

 

Dynasty Warriors 9 releases Early 2018 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

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