After putting a considerable amount of time into Warriors: Legends of Troy, I’ve come to the conclusion that a conversation such as the one below occurred during the planning stages of this game.
“Look the Dynasty Warriors games aren’t meeting sales expectations in the West. This can’t happen this must improve. Intern, what does the western audience like?”
“Uhh!…Cheese!”
“Oh yes, Cheese Warriors and what do you suggest their on a quest for? Bread? You fired. You there, I want ideas, NOW!”
“Halo! Call of Duty! God of War! Please don’t fire me.”
“God of War meets Dynasty Warriors. Perfect!”
It isn’t.
Warriors: Legends of Troy draws its story from the mythological Trojan War. For all you history buffs out there, it’s from the moment Paris abducted Helen and took her back to Troy, right up until the final Greek victory using the iconic Trojan Horse. Over the course of the game you’ll switch between both characters and sides of the conquest, fighting as both the Greeks and the Trojans. And that’s really it for the story as I found it to be so boring and dull that I nodded off while rereading my attempt to describe it. But one does not come to Dynasty Warriors for a great story, you come for the action and the giant battles, which do occur but aren’t enjoyable.
I’m fan of hack n’ slash games and I’m especially surprised at just how monotonous the act of killing is in this game. For one thing, it’s slow paced, and when I write slow paced I mean it just drags on and on and continues to drag on, much like this sentence. To go into a little bit more detail and depth, the combat is just down right sluggish and the characters feel like the armour their wearing is too heavy and holding them down. For me combat in games of this genre should be frantic and fast paced. There should be a smoothness to my blade flowing from one enemy into the next and the fact that its missing is inexcusable.
There’s also boss battles that are more insulting than enjoyable. The problem is that there is no strategy to them whatsoever, although the game does suggests there is. Once you’ve found a cheap strategy that works for your given situation, stick to it as the fights are lengthy and repetitive and get progressively cheaper the further you progress into the game. The highlight is the 3-versus-2 duels in which your ally refuses to attack anyone, leaving you to take on 3 opponents, all thirsty for your blood.
Further problems, oh yes there’s more, include an upgrade system that also players to upgrade various stats such as a damage increase on a better resistance to arrows. Unfortunately the idea is broken, as the game forces you to change character on a regular basis robbing from you the chance to level up your favourite character, not that you’ll have one. Challenge missions are also available as stand alone missions separate from the main story but being both repetitive and limited in scope, it’s unlikely that you’ll return to them if you ever dare enter in the first place. They do offer a considerable amount of extra Kleos, the points used to level up and buy new items, but the satisfaction taken from each mission is kept to a minimum.
It’s not all bad though as the “Charge” feature from the Dynasty Warriors series makes an appearance and the brutal finishing moves do contain a good level of blood, although limbs never seem to come off. You can also throw weapons that will always manage to find their way into the body of an enemy dealing a killing blow, it’s stupid but I liked it.
To risk wasting any more of your time I’ll put it as simply as I can. Do not buy this game. Had the game featured Chedder McCheese on his quest for redemption then maybe my recommendation would differ. But as it stands this attempt to create a Japanese game disguised as an American game fails badly and should be avoided by hack n‘ slash fans everywhere.