DYNASTY WARRIORS 7: Xtreme Legends Definitive Edition
This is the best possible start for newcomers to the Dynasty Warriors franchise period.
Sure most people will say play Dynasty Warriors 8 first as it has better gameplay but if you start with 8 you will not be able to appreciate the series as much as you will if you start with this one.
Why is that? Because Dynasty Warriors 7 has a story mode that has you playing pretty much every major character in the game. This is great because those new to the series are likely going to be overwhelmed by the massive roster of character, much like in fighting games, Dynasty Warriors roster usually consists of picking the character that looks the coolest (unless you have any interest in ROT3K lore prior to playing this series). This isn’t the case with Dynasty Warriors 7 as you get to experience every single character’s perspective rather than just playing as one character over and over again. I find that this keeps the experience from being too repetitive compared with previous games in the series where you just stick to a certain character for each mission. Dynasty Warriors switches the characters up giving you new moves to use each time and no character is hard to master since the entire game is designed around pick up and play gameplay which is great.
– Real player with 73.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Historical Hack and Slash Games.
Every Allied Officer ever: “Whatever you do, DO NOT PURSUE LU BU!!”
Proceeds to pursue Lu Bu
Repackaged as Xtreme Legends Definitive Edition, Koei’s number one “Ancient Chinese Genocide simulator” series returns back in time 7-8 years back to re-release 7 into Steam,
! knowingly that they kinda admit they screwed the pooch with DW9.
To make things short
Gameplay: Dynasty Warriors 7 returns back to their usual bread and butter 6-button attack combos after immediately divorcing 6’s Renbu attack system. Levelling up is non-existent and was rather replaced with a skill system (8:XL would eventually revert that).
– Real player with 55.9 hrs in game
DYNASTY WARRIORS 8: Xtreme Legends Complete Edition
Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends Complete Edition Review
Nostalgia Goggles Factor: Very Low.
Bug Factor: Very Low.
Crash Factor: Very Low.
Replay Factor: Intrinsic.
A crowd-control, hack’n slash game based on a Chinese novel, set in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. DW8XL contains an enormous amount of content and repetitive gameplay.
As I have played and reviewed DW3 recently, I will be doing some comparisons between these two games. Like many other reviewers have pointed out, “Complete Edition” is a lie, as is evident from glancing at the DLC section and you should not be playing this game with a keyboard.
– Real player with 749.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Historical Hack and Slash Games.
-sigh- Where do I begin?
Well, I gotta start by saying, if you’re looking to get into the Warriors/Musou games, this would be the ideal title to start with. Easily the best title in the series (at least since DW5).
For those new to the series, Dynasty Warriors (a.k.a. Shin Sangoku Musō) is, basically, a hack-n'-slash based on era of the Three Kingdoms of China, and the romanticized novel of the same name. In its stages, there are thousands of enemies of various calibers to mow down. You got your peons that go down in a few hits, your commanders that are a little tougher, your generic named officers that are a threat, and other playable characters that have the same abilities you do. You have a more-or-less equal amount of allies on your side, and how they fight is determined by your side’s overall morale, which itself is determined by your performace. Each character has their own string of combinations, but I’ll get into that in the next paragraph.
– Real player with 681.6 hrs in game
COAST GUARD
One of a handful of titles which would benefit from a “Mediocre” addition to the rating system on here, Coast Guard really never could decide what it wanted to be. For the first two thirds of it, I’d have given this game a positive rating…but then you get to the last third and it all goes down the tubes.
! You follow the duties of coast guard Officer Finn Asdair who ends up rescuing and falling for refugee Fatima Morgane. Fatima is then recaptured by the scumbag trafficker who originally had her, raped, and murdered. Your boss is in on it and sinks the ship with you aboard to cover everything up, the game ends with you saving the seemingly sketchy but actually decent forensics specialist and credits roll. Pretty lame.
– Real player with 20.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Historical Atmospheric Games.
I’m giving this game a 5/10 Some very cool ideas here, and some solid simulation building. The CONCEPT of the story is very cool.
All that said, I am kind of offended as to how little research the developers did into the actual Coast Guard. I was in the Coast Guard. Its nothing like this. This is more like the story of the most well funded, die hard auxilarists the world has ever known.
Also special mention has to be given to the script and voice acting. I think the developers voiced this themselves in their house and had to keep their voice down because the kids were asleep or something. It’s “Jill Sandwich” bad.
– Real player with 9.4 hrs in game
Over The Hills And Far Away
Tensions brewing since the Napoleonic War resulted in the War of 1812 between the United States and the British Empire, alongside 10,000 Native Indians. Over the Hills and Far Away, a debut kinetic visual novel by War girl Games focuses on the aftermath of a battle when the British Empire suffered a major defeat and Procter abandoned his army. Our protagonist, William Aubrey survived the battle and has ran to an abandoned farmhouse where he meets a young Shawnee girl called Mai hiding from the storm.
– Real player with 7.8 hrs in game
No matter who wins or loses a war there is always pain left behind -for the victor, the vanquished, and even for those who try to remain neutral. Set in the War of 1812, Over The Hills And Far Away tells the story of a soldier and a little girl on the run in a harsh and unforgiving world. This game is a kinetic visual novel, meaning there are no choices to be made, the entire experience is reading. While this may not be everyone’s cup of tea the story itself is very much worth it as this is an engrossing piece of historical fiction.
– Real player with 6.8 hrs in game
Imperialism: The Dark Continent
I will give this a VERY tentative thumbs up; however, to maintain the positive rating, it needs to be finished into something much better than it is now. I wish there was a neutral rating as that is what I would rate it right now. It is basically a click-fest for 1-3 hours and you CANNOT possibly lose at this stage of development unless you colonized a territory in the beginning of the game and spend all your money on influence infrastructure improvements instead of gold generating resource improvements.
– Real player with 32.5 hrs in game
no challenge at all its like a clicker game. Imperialism the original game involved building things like mines, building armies. conquering territories much like the classic Colonization.
The game needs a lot more depth and objectives, at the moment its an ecpensive game of risk, with no challenging opponents.
Please take a look at the original Imperialism game and at least make this game as challenging.
– Real player with 32.0 hrs in game
SAMURAI WARRIORS 4-II
Intro
Coming straight from Samurai Warriors 2, I expected nothing short of fluid and great gameplay and Koei has delivered
with Samurai Warriors 4-II. I’d always prefered the SW games compared to Dynasty Warriors or the
Warriors Orochi games which I played on the Xbox 360.
I’ll make many comparisons to Samurai Warriors 2 as that was the last SW game I played, back in 2007 and I recenly played again to get that ever so good Nostalgia feeling.
Warriors / Story
– Real player with 212.2 hrs in game
Samurai Warriors 4-II is a sequel to Samurai Warriors 4, or it’s a remake, or it’s Xtreme legends. Or…. honestly exactly what it is, isn’t clear.
The Warrior series has a long history of doing Xtreme Legends which is their “complete” edition usually allowing someone to play both the original and extra levels in one with more characters. However, there’s only one new character, Naomasa II, who is interesting, but not enough for a whole new game. There’s also no way to play the old game, there are just new stories here. It’s not a remake either, as the stories are vastly different, and the characters are the same. The game claims to focus on the characters more in the stories, but honestly, the stories feel the same style as the original game, though the original Samurai Warrior 4 has better stories (At least characters you care about more), but I found the ones in 4-II to be more interesting on some levels. At least it’s not the same story we’ve heard three times already in this series, it’s a new character that the game wants to focus on, which is a good change.
– Real player with 59.3 hrs in game
Ancestors Legacy Free Peasant Edition
**First and foremost ,**big thanks to the dev team for the Open Beta. Allow me to cover a few things
Communication
Activity levels in the discussion thread has been consistent ·Users are having their questions answers from technical ,bug splatting ,historical accuracies ,feature requests ·Kudos!
MP Potential
I am glad to be part of the Open Beta phase and test out this game at its infancy ·From my experience ,this game would be the next title to sink thousands of hours into ·The recent successful community driven tournament run ,garnered ~250 participants which I am taken aback by the response ·Introduced the title to my friends and had matches against bots ,the reception was positive
– Real player with 104.6 hrs in game
An other squad tactical game. Players start all around the map and there is villages in the center of the map.
You have to take and hold thoses villages to have ressources and improve your army. In that kind of game, victory is exponential so everything is played in the first minutes of the games. A balanced game play with counter units and the possibility to trick your opponent would allow a come back. But for now the beta doesn’t offer much this possibily. I’m also afraid that, the way this game is made, the final version doesn’t allow it also. Something else that waste the gameplay in this beta is that maps are not balanced at all. Some sides of maps are totally bad for a team. In the “Autumn rise”, 3v3 map, the team that spawn south have difficult access to the villages and when they loose it, because they will, they are surrounded by moutain and narrow way that the ennemies will block with 3 little squads that will be in position to kill 6 - 8 squad. The south team litterally spawn down the cliffs when the north team is up the cliffs. In the same map, this south team also spawn near only 1 food gathering village when north spawn are near 3. And food is what you need to maintain any army. Gameplay also need big improvement in the civilization balance. For exemple it’s impossible to play the anglo-saxons, archer civ. Because their attack are so ridiculous that 3 squad archer can’t kill 1 squad of infantry in open area. Even with run & hit and shooting by behind. Archers are really, really bad in this game. The result is that anglo-saxons are not played at all because you can’t win with that archer bonus civ if you play against any decent player. So people keep massing infantry, because it’s the strongest units of the game. Infantry is better than cavalry too. They usually make 8-9 squad of infantry and 1 or 2 squad of archer and cavalry for harassment and to force the ennemy to engage the fight when it’s not his advantage to. Vikings, infantry civ also have better archers than anglo-saxons. Thoses vikings archers shoot from a farther range than longbow Dafuq? Lacking point of the interface, is statistics of the units for let you know what is interesting to do or not. There is games that doesn’t show and I’m afraid that the final version will be one of them.
– Real player with 40.1 hrs in game
Valiant Hearts: The Great War™ / Soldats Inconnus : Mémoires de la Grande Guerre™
One of the best all around adventure story games released in the last few years. A mix of a beautifully composed musical score, stellar artwork, great story, impressive puzzles, and real life historical content. This game actually made me think about the collectibles and ponder the historical facts as much as I did the story at times.
Set during World War I (The Great War), Valiant Hearts gives you a look at individuals in war and how this particular group of individuals finds themselves connected. A German man married to a French woman who is forced to go back to Germany and fight. His father-in-law forced to fight for France. An American who befriends the Frenchman. A female doctor that finds herself crossing paths with all of them. Then there is Walt, the war dog, who becomes their ally, friend, and savior at times. While they all may battle for different reasons, countries, or leaders, they all care for one another. They all find ways to help one another overcome struggles, support one another in troubles, and connect to one another as humans rather than enemies.
– Real player with 26.6 hrs in game
It seems only natural that since we are in the midst of the centennial anniversary of the war that was to end all wars, a game should be released. In the gaming world, it seems that almost every war has been covered. Sadly, little to no recognition has been given to the war that launched the world into the modern age and changed how we live today. Valiant Hearts proves to be one of the first games to give a great picture of the struggles of World War I as well as a satisfying gaming experience.
In Valiant Hearts, we follow the stories of five heroes: Emile, a Frenchman; Hans, Emile’s son-in-law who is deported from France because of his German origins; Freddie, an American who volunteers and fights alongside the French in his quest for revenge; Anna, a nurse searching for her father in Belgium; and Walt, a German first aid dog that comes across the path of each of these heroes and helps any way he can. While it may seem highly coincidential how these five individuals continually come across each other’s paths, their backgrounds and motivations are very believable. The friendships that they build are genuine and felt by the players, without dialogue. Most conversations in this game are done by comic book bubbles and short distinct phrases that are spoken by the characters.
– Real player with 15.1 hrs in game
Rome: Total War™ - Collection
RTW has an epic feel.
As of today, this game is nearly eleven years old. So, the battle graphics are not as crisp as newer titles, the historicity of some units is sketchy (or just made up), and it seems that multiplayer is not smooth in Steam. Fortunately, none of these mean a thing to me. The heart of the game is in the grand strategy and the personal narrative.
With over a hundred regions in which to play, the strategic game is where RTW shines. You need to plan where you will expand and where you will defend… and then be ready to adapt when the AI does not do what you expect. You may be the pawn of the Senate and serve at their beck and call. You might try to expand against the weak. You can follow the trade routes to gain riches through conquest. You will find yourself occupying regions merely to stymie your enemies (and your allies). Or you might work your way towards all seven Wonders to reap their benefits.
– Real player with 1982.0 hrs in game
Classic game, it uses a realistic battle engine which simulates battles down to minute details, in a way no longer found in newer engines which depend apon flashy graphics to generate interest. The sheer effort put into this game really tells you its creators cared about it they were not just throwing something flashy out there to get as much money as possible. The game makes up for its old and ancient graphics with interesting game mechanics that you just DONT get in the newer RTS games with intricate tactical aspects in addition to intriacate strategic ones. since so much attention has been given to FPS games in recent years. The game is well made and it shows. In modern total wars and other RTS games, troops getting into 1v1 cinimatic fights where thy slide around on the map rather than recreating actual formation dynamics and combat in a believeable way as Rome 1 does. In Rome 1 TW you don’t just have static groups of people fighting in one spot like other games, your troop formations collide and dudes go flying, people get knocked down. The larger force slowly pushes the smaller one back while its formation fluxuates, troops arrange sheilds to defend against attackers leaving weakspots open to well positioned archers. Every part of the strategic map is mapped out into battle maps that mirror that place on the stratiegic map. I am not talking you get a different set of cookie cutter template battle maps depending on your region NO!!! I mean the battle map is an EXACT copy of the terrain on the stategic map. You see a hill on the over all map and move your army to it so the enemy will attack you on ground you choose that hill is on the battle map valleys mountain you name it the battle is in that spot not a faximally of that spot THAT SPOT. The same goes for citys, each is unique and grows in unique ways and this shows on the siege map. Build something in a city and its on the battle map, if a saboteur destroys something it is destroyed on the battle map, Your family members/ generals grow as a result of the situations you put them in becoming complex individuals, put them in a big city with librarys and academys and they may become a soft person but a good organizer, or maybe if the city is a religious center he may become pious or slowly go insane, or become blood thirsty if you constantly send him into battle and he gets kills in said battles (yes even what he does in the battles matters). Another really cool mechanic is that when you recruit units the men are taken from the local populus and when disbanded the men generally resettle in that region! and city level is determined by population so recruit to many from a populas and the city will grow slowly while inversely you can move your populus around to level up citys. Another difference from newer games is the factions, they are few in number compared to the scores of factions in newer games but each faction in very unique, with some factions sharing cultures and others with similar but different cultures. Each culture has a unique city style ect.
– Real player with 1183.0 hrs in game
11-11 Memories Retold
achievements
overall, it is not a bad pick for achievement-hunters: no bugged or glitched achievements, no grind, everything is tight and simple (and achievements themselves are vary in goals), but the whole hunting is tedious. without a thoughtful detailed guide you will replay the same stages again-and-again with unskippable cutscenes. also various collectibles are hard to see because of artsy graphics. so, in a nutshell, good hunting overall, but it will be more irritating than fun
– Real player with 25.2 hrs in game
For some reason, I decided to play both “11-11 Memories Retold” and “Call of Duty: WWII” simultaneously. Now, these games might be drastically different: one is a poetic tribute to the fallen of WWI, and the other is more of a straightforward, gritty representation of WWII. But in my playthroughs, I actually found out some odd similarities between them:
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They make you control different characters interchangeably;
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They both have rather unnecessary flying sections;
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They both try to educate gamers about the wars with collectables;
– Real player with 24.4 hrs in game