Of late, hack-and-slash games have grown very stale and many titles developed within the genre seem to be copies of one another in barely-different skins. The original Samurai Warriors title was sadly lost within this unending mass and although it was heralded by the critics for its additions and attempts at change, it passed many a gamer by. Samurai Warriors 2 seems to have failed with gamers once again; its launch on the 360, a fresh platform compared to the original that was released towards the end of the PS2’s lifespan, gave it the pedestal and public awareness the series needed, but the game itself has failed to redeliver the innovation and uniqueness of the original.

If hacking and slashing your way through hordes of enemies with a select variety of attacks satisfies you, then you will no doubt find Samurai Warriors 2 an enjoyable game, but if you have played the original and are hoping for the same rejuvenation of the genre it offered then you will be sorely disappointed. Bash, bash, and bash again are all you will ever need in order to complete Samurai Warriors 2 and be successful at it. You have swift attacks and hard attacks, being able to mix the two in different orders to perform varied combinations. Despite there being 26 characters, you only start off with about 8, they only have two unique moves that are performed by holding down one of the shoulder buttons while pressing either attack button.

Some additions have been made to the basic elements of Samurai Warriors, but the gameplay experience as a whole has remained very dull. In each level you will have to fight through a map against certain conditions that are to some degree difficult, but ultimately not very challenging. Maps are also very "penned-in", sometimes resulting in too much time wasted running or riding through streets, courtyards and alleyways to reach certain points or groups of your army.

Story mode and Free mode do not greatly differ; you always have the simple goal of killing this general, kill that amount of enemies, take control of that area and so on. Survival mode is also identical to the original, setting mini-missions you have to perform and stay alive through. The goals here are not too complicated, once again simply killing this person or that, retrieving certain items or keeping people alive. Aggravatingly, the AI is mainly dumb and clumsy as it is in most games of the genre. Enemies usually stand on the spot until you engage them, never running in to attack or using strategic maneuvers to outsmart and trap you. They are also very weak and with a few hits are down before they even have a chance to strike. Sadly the generals are not much of an improvement, their moves repetitive and easy to chart, whilst you will find that all you need to do in order to defeat them is hit faster than they do.

For play there are two options available. Exclusive to is an 'versus' mode. However, it is so poorly conceived that versions on other consoles are not missing out terribly. To put it in one simple, blunt word, it’s pathetic. You do not fight against other people, you 'compete' against them. You only get to attack computer controlled enemies. The winner is the one that can kill the enemy commander first or can cause the most damage before the time runs out. Going through the fuss of connecting online just to fight computer controlled enemies is basically the same as the other off-line modes is no exclusive bonus at all, it’s a waste of time.

Offline multiplayer, in terms of competing against another person, is non-existent. However, on the plus side, it does have a split screen co-operative mode. This only makes the often poor gameplay slightly more bearable, but it is a very good pick up and play style of title, and could prove mildly diverting with friends. If you become bored with the main game modes or just fancy a change of pace there is a bonus party game called Sugoroku for up to four players. Your goal is to conquer the whole of by moving your chosen character around a board of islands; to grasp the basic concept of it, think monopoly but with samurai warriors instead of the iron or top hat.

As your roll dice to move across the board, you will have to buy islands and connect them back to your home plate in order to accumulate money and dominate the board. On certain islands there are bonuses; you can collect scattered flags to increase your earnings or steal islands away from opponents. You will also acquire cards that will have certain effects such as returning you to your home plate or mini-missions that take place on island squares. These missions will have a main goal that you will need to achieve in battle mode, including killing a certain number of enemies within a time limit or ranking up a certain kill score. Although its a simple idea, it can be thoroughly enjoyable if you take the time to get into it.

Graphically, Samurai Warriors 2 does not meet the high standard of Xbox 360 games that players have come to expect. This may be because the title is a port for the and and so the developers have kept the polygon rates low so it is easily manageable on all three platforms. However, the effect is that they have produced a game that does not look very different from its two other counterparts.

As you play through the game, it feels as though the original Xbox could have been capable of running it, as the model design for both characters and structures is minimal and the textures very pixilated as if stretched too tight over surfaces. The environments, especially where foliage is present, are particularly poor and put the Xbox 360 to shame.

The soundtrack is not much of an improvement either and is what you would stereotypically expect of the genre; each of the levels feature classical rock ballads with 80’s style electric guitar riffs and techno beats. Although it does get your adrenaline pumping as you wade through wave upon wave of enemies, and creates an arcade-like atmosphere, it is high-time the soundtrack for this entire genre took a new direction. As for audio effects, they are of a good quality and it is good to see that character voices have become standard in all next generation games - even if they do seem obviously dubbed as they do in this game. In saying that though, the characters are more fleshed out because of it, each having more of their own personality, rather than a continuous stream of samurai warriors where names are their only differences.

Samurai Warriors 2 retails for 35 GBP and, although it is a bargain price for a new Xbox 360 title, it does reflect the low quality of the game. Even the original Xbox could have easily run it. The models and textures are very low rate, the enemy AI knows only to attack or run and the gameplay - despite having added a couple of additions - is very stale. If you want this kind of game at this kind of price, then Dynasty Warriors 5 is more worthy of your money. However, the recently released N3 Nights offers all of Samurai Warriors 2 and more, with stunning graphics, advanced weapons and magical combat, not to mention gameplay that gives the genre a long awaited breath of fresh air.

The age of the Samurai has been dead for centuries. Sadly, did not get the memo.

60%

By Tobias Rowe

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