Tecmo-Koei has created a cult following among gamers with one of their best masterpieces to grace the gaming world: the Dynasty Warriors franchise. This franchise has ultimately set the bar for hack-and-slash games in a span of at least three console generations. For more than a decade now, gamers have continuously experienced plowing through thousands of enemy infantry like unwanted grass on your neighbor's lawn. However, its multiplayer options were somehow lacking, considering how vast and expansive the story and the battles are. Enter Dynasty Warriors Online (DWO), Tecmo-Koei's MMO installment to the franchise.
Musou Here and There
Dynasty Warriors Online features the same premise as its console predecessors. The story is still based on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms historical novels, and is still led by the main characters of its previous incarnations, such as Cao Cao, Liu Bei and Xiaohou Dun. The main difference, however, is the demotion of these protagonists to NPC status. Players of the online installment will take orders and quests from these legendary heroes instead of being directly controlled. The premise is just like the original Dynasty Warriors games: players join one of China's three dominant factions (Three Kingdoms), Wei, Wu, or Shu, and fight for complete rule over the kingdom by taking over cities.
The General's Privates
Just like any other MMORPG, players start off as a lowly Private with barely any possessions and credentials. Since the setting is in a war era, everyone is requested to join the military and fight. Creating the character comes first however. The character customizations are somehow limited to a few hair, face and color suggestions. Three different body builds are added into the options as well. The most unique aspect here is the personality type, ranging from Fighter, Intellectual, Passionate, Skilled, and Individual. Each personality has a list of sub-personalities to specific what type of person you are. There are no obvious or visible uses for the personality, but I do hope it does provide a role-playing experience for the character when interacting with the NPCs. Another difference in character creation is the absence of a class/job selection. The whole character schema of DWO focuses more on weapon usage and stat build, which will be further discussed later.
Controlling your character is the first thing to worry about once in the game. There's a significant learning curve to get through in DWO. The controls and the UI somehow reflect its console predecessors, and it's more often a hassle than a convenience. All the needed character and world information are generally accessible via the ESC button. It's more of a chore rather than a convenience, even though there are no apparent interruptions in town. There are keyboard shortcuts for individual windows as a consolation. Movement and combat are both done by keyboard in instanced battlefields. Players relying on keyboard alone will feel the difficulty shuffling fingers of the right hand for jumping, attacking and blocking. The camera angles can only be controlled by the mouse when in town. The battlefield replaces the mouse clicks with attack functions instead, which may confuse players used to moving cameras in the heat of combat. A consolation for everyone though: the use of gamepads/controllers (even Xbox controllers ported to the PC) is easily available.
Warrior in the Making
Since DWO differs greatly from the usual MMO in terms of character development and combat, the game offers a highly extensive tutorial processes to guide new players. The game considers training new players as a serious part of character development. And when I say serious, I mean tutorial and training can extend for long hours in a span of at least 10 long quests. Fortunately, the latter part of training through the different bases and weapons is an optional matter, plus other town quests are already at your disposal. Although the quest format remains the same item-picking or enemy-slaying objective, how you go about it greatly differs. All quests have its own instanced arena/battlefield and is always timed. The quests are always win-or-lose; either you complete the task during the allotted time in the battlefield or fail and retry again.
Player progression is not based on skill or job class. It's not even measured through base levels or experience points. Instead, soldiers like you have to go up the military ranks. It takes a number of quests before you get promoted. However, it's not until you reach Lieutenant Major that you get to experience the PvP battles of the game. Character stats can be customized through the weapons and gear available. Tempering and modifying items are integral to your stat build, especially once you've reached Lt. Major. Gears can be picked up during the instanced battles while the more common ones are available in the local town market. Characters have the freedom to equip any weapon without any restriction whatsoever. The weapons have very noticeable pros and cons, plus the learning curve can sometimes be steep whenever shifting from one weapon to the next.
Romance in Battle
While all battles are generally instanced and faction-based, PvP is separated into different battle modes: Melee, Campaign, Arena, Showdown and Mock Battles. Each battle mode is differentiated according to its scale and the conditions at stake. Battles can accommodate as much as 24 players in a 12-versus-12 showdown of epic proportions. Factions have the whole of China, divided into cities, to dominate and takeover. The number of areas taken over has different effects on your faction, such as advances in weaponry and relatively lowered prices.
One quirk hindering combat is the apparent lag from the numerous character models (specifically the enemy and ally infantry) popping up all at the same time. Although the graphics options can be lowered, the huge number of NPCs flooding the screen will inevitably cause lag and possible disconnection. The lack of a decent AI is also a disappointment for the game. This is especially visible during quests. Ally infantry are utterly lifeless and obviously useless. The assisting lieutenant often gets stuck standing around in the middle of an enemy crowd or base, and calling it to your side often yields frustrating results. Enemy AI is a no-brainer as well. Although their numbers have the potential to stagger your character, the waiting time between their attacks take too long, giving you more than enough time to plow your way out. It's an advantage for everyone, but it can get a tad frustrating in the long run, knowing that the enemies are mindless drones.
Chinese Take-Out
If you've played the previous Dynasty Warriors games, you won't be disappointed with what the online incarnation has to offer. It stays true to the DW franchise. For new players or for those expecting something closer to the MMORPG genre, DWO is mediocre at best. The lack of AI, the difficult UI and controls, and other quirks all pile up to make the game half and half distasteful. The better consolation is that it's free to play and mowing down hundreds of enemies in one sweep gives you that sense of overwhelming power.
Romance in Battle
While all battles are generally instanced and faction-based, PvP is separated into different battle modes: Melee, Campaign, Arena, Showdown and Mock Battles. Each battle mode is differentiated according to its scale and the conditions at stake. Battles can accommodate as much as 24 players in a 12-versus-12 showdown of epic proportions. Factions have the whole of China, divided into cities, to dominate and takeover. The number of areas taken over has different effects on your faction, such as advances in weaponry and relatively lowered prices.
One quirk hindering combat is the apparent lag from the numerous character models (specifically the enemy and ally infantry) popping up all at the same time. Although the graphics options can be lowered, the huge number of NPCs flooding the screen will inevitably cause lag and possible disconnection. The lack of a decent AI is also a disappointment for the game. This is especially visible during quests. Ally infantry are utterly lifeless and obviously useless. The assisting lieutenant often gets stuck standing around in the middle of an enemy crowd or base, and calling it to your side often yields frustrating results. Enemy AI is a no-brainer as well. Although their numbers have the potential to stagger your character, the waiting time between their attacks take too long, giving you more than enough time to plow your way out. It's an advantage for everyone, but it can get a tad frustrating in the long run, knowing that the enemies are mindless drones.
Chinese Take-Out
If you've played the previous Dynasty Warriors games, you won't be disappointed with what the online incarnation has to offer. It stays true to the DW franchise. For new players or for those expecting something closer to the MMO genre, DWO is mediocre at best. The lack of AI, the difficult UI and controls, and other quirks all pile up to make the game half and half distasteful. The better consolation is that it's free to play and mowing down hundreds of enemies in one sweep gives you that sense of overwhelming power.
Musou Here and There
Dynasty Warriors Online features the same premise as its console predecessors. The story is still based on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms historical novels, and is still led by the main characters of its previous incarnations, such as Cao Cao, Liu Bei and Xiaohou Dun. The main difference, however, is the demotion of these protagonists to NPC status. Players of the online installment will take orders and quests from these legendary heroes instead of being directly controlled. The premise is just like the original Dynasty Warriors games: players join one of China's three dominant factions (Three Kingdoms), Wei, Wu, or Shu, and fight for complete rule over the kingdom by taking over cities.
The General's Privates
Just like any other MMORPG, players start off as a lowly Private with barely any possessions and credentials. Since the setting is in a war era, everyone is requested to join the military and fight. Creating the character comes first however. The character customizations are somehow limited to a few hair, face and color suggestions. Three different body builds are added into the options as well. The most unique aspect here is the personality type, ranging from Fighter, Intellectual, Passionate, Skilled, and Individual. Each personality has a list of sub-personalities to specific what type of person you are. There are no obvious or visible uses for the personality, but I do hope it does provide a role-playing experience for the character when interacting with the NPCs. Another difference in character creation is the absence of a class/job selection. The whole character schema of DWO focuses more on weapon usage and stat build, which will be further discussed later.
Controlling your character is the first thing to worry about once in the game. There's a significant learning curve to get through in DWO. The controls and the UI somehow reflect its console predecessors, and it's more often a hassle than a convenience. All the needed character and world information are generally accessible via the ESC button. It's more of a chore rather than a convenience, even though there are no apparent interruptions in town. There are keyboard shortcuts for individual windows as a consolation. Movement and combat are both done by keyboard in instanced battlefields. Players relying on keyboard alone will feel the difficulty shuffling fingers of the right hand for jumping, attacking and blocking. The camera angles can only be controlled by the mouse when in town. The battlefield replaces the mouse clicks with attack functions instead, which may confuse players used to moving cameras in the heat of combat. A consolation for everyone though: the use of gamepads/controllers (even Xbox controllers ported to the PC) is easily available.
Warrior in the Making
Since DWO differs greatly from the usual MMO in terms of character development and combat, the game offers a highly extensive tutorial processes to guide new players. The game considers training new players as a serious part of character development. And when I say serious, I mean tutorial and training can extend for long hours in a span of at least 10 long quests. Fortunately, the latter part of training through the different bases and weapons is an optional matter, plus other town quests are already at your disposal. Although the quest format remains the same item-picking or enemy-slaying objective, how you go about it greatly differs. All quests have its own instanced arena/battlefield and is always timed. The quests are always win-or-lose; either you complete the task during the allotted time in the battlefield or fail and retry again.
Player progression is not based on skill or job class. It's not even measured through base levels or experience points. Instead, soldiers like you have to go up the military ranks. It takes a number of quests before you get promoted. However, it's not until you reach Lieutenant Major that you get to experience the PvP battles of the game. Character stats can be customized through the weapons and gear available. Tempering and modifying items are integral to your stat build, especially once you've reached Lt. Major. Gears can be picked up during the instanced battles while the more common ones are available in the local town market. Characters have the freedom to equip any weapon without any restriction whatsoever. The weapons have very noticeable pros and cons, plus the learning curve can sometimes be steep whenever shifting from one weapon to the next.
Romance in Battle
While all battles are generally instanced and faction-based, PvP is separated into different battle modes: Melee, Campaign, Arena, Showdown and Mock Battles. Each battle mode is differentiated according to its scale and the conditions at stake. Battles can accommodate as much as 24 players in a 12-versus-12 showdown of epic proportions. Factions have the whole of China, divided into cities, to dominate and takeover. The number of areas taken over has different effects on your faction, such as advances in weaponry and relatively lowered prices.
One quirk hindering combat is the apparent lag from the numerous character models (specifically the enemy and ally infantry) popping up all at the same time. Although the graphics options can be lowered, the huge number of NPCs flooding the screen will inevitably cause lag and possible disconnection. The lack of a decent AI is also a disappointment for the game. This is especially visible during quests. Ally infantry are utterly lifeless and obviously useless. The assisting lieutenant often gets stuck standing around in the middle of an enemy crowd or base, and calling it to your side often yields frustrating results. Enemy AI is a no-brainer as well. Although their numbers have the potential to stagger your character, the waiting time between their attacks take too long, giving you more than enough time to plow your way out. It's an advantage for everyone, but it can get a tad frustrating in the long run, knowing that the enemies are mindless drones.
Chinese Take-Out
If you've played the previous Dynasty Warriors games, you won't be disappointed with what the online incarnation has to offer. It stays true to the DW franchise. For new players or for those expecting something closer to the MMORPG genre, DWO is mediocre at best. The lack of AI, the difficult UI and controls, and other quirks all pile up to make the game half and half distasteful. The better consolation is that it's free to play and mowing down hundreds of enemies in one sweep gives you that sense of overwhelming power.
Romance in Battle
While all battles are generally instanced and faction-based, PvP is separated into different battle modes: Melee, Campaign, Arena, Showdown and Mock Battles. Each battle mode is differentiated according to its scale and the conditions at stake. Battles can accommodate as much as 24 players in a 12-versus-12 showdown of epic proportions. Factions have the whole of China, divided into cities, to dominate and takeover. The number of areas taken over has different effects on your faction, such as advances in weaponry and relatively lowered prices.
One quirk hindering combat is the apparent lag from the numerous character models (specifically the enemy and ally infantry) popping up all at the same time. Although the graphics options can be lowered, the huge number of NPCs flooding the screen will inevitably cause lag and possible disconnection. The lack of a decent AI is also a disappointment for the game. This is especially visible during quests. Ally infantry are utterly lifeless and obviously useless. The assisting lieutenant often gets stuck standing around in the middle of an enemy crowd or base, and calling it to your side often yields frustrating results. Enemy AI is a no-brainer as well. Although their numbers have the potential to stagger your character, the waiting time between their attacks take too long, giving you more than enough time to plow your way out. It's an advantage for everyone, but it can get a tad frustrating in the long run, knowing that the enemies are mindless drones.
Chinese Take-Out
If you've played the previous Dynasty Warriors games, you won't be disappointed with what the online incarnation has to offer. It stays true to the DW franchise. For new players or for those expecting something closer to the MMO genre, DWO is mediocre at best. The lack of AI, the difficult UI and controls, and other quirks all pile up to make the game half and half distasteful. The better consolation is that it's free to play and mowing down hundreds of enemies in one sweep gives you that sense of overwhelming power.
