MELBOURNE: Tecmo Koei has confirmed the availability of Dynasty Warriors Empires for PlayStation 4, Xbox One (Both at retail), PlayStation 3 (PlayStation Store) and PC for £44.99.
Following the relative success of Hyrule Warriors it seems a whole new group of gamers has been introduced to the phenomenon of Dynasty Warriors. The core games aren’t on the Wii U, but a crossover with the The Legend Of Zelda can’t help but raise the franchise’s overall profile – just as the forthcoming Dragon Quest Heroes is likely to do when it’s released in the West later this year. The Empires games are also spin-offs, and generally speaking the ones we’d usually recommend the most. Although we feel like we’ve seen this one before…
As those unfortunate enough to be long-time fans will know, the Empires sub-series are standalone expansion packs that always appear a few months after a mainline sequel. (There’s also a more ordinary style expansion before that, called Xtreme Legends, which means that Koei get to wring three new releases out of the same game – which is in turn often only imperceptibly different from the previous sequel anyway.
Since Dynasty Warriors 8 came out in early 2013 it’s been an unusually long wait for this iteration, although you should immediately dash any hopes that this is an indication of any greater time or effort having been expended on it. Not unless you count the trouble Koei must’ve gone through to think up all the extra downloadable content.
The idea behind Empires is that it adds some much needed depth and strategy to the shamefully shallow action of the main game. You still play the action element as normal but, especially in the eponymous Empires mode, you get to make the big strategic decisions too. The exact manner in which you get to order around your troops depends on your rank, with the rulers being able to move troops around a Risk style turn-based map, mine resources, and construct buildings – like a simplified Total War game.
