There's no denying that Dynasty Warriors 5 Empires certainly sounds appealing. The promise of building and maintaining an empire, forming allegiances with neighboring nations whilst invading others, placing troops to defend the kingdom, it's something that calls to mind the timeless board game Risk. But instead of dice rolling, Empires throws the player into the battlefield, the nitty-gritty clashes theoretically more enjoyable, not to mention gameplay-oriented, than those luck-based dice. With aspirations for both great strategy and great gameplay, the potential is vast.

Unfortunately, the reality is something far less glamorous than that potential would suggest. That's due to a number of reasons, but chief among them would be that Empire mode is barely more than a brief distraction in the grand scheme of things. For all the time the player spends making decisions, furthering their dynasty, they end up spending the majority of their time out on the battlefield, whereupon those prior decisions rarely make a difference. Thus, empire management is reduced to brief filler between the lengthy battles.

This wouldn't be so bad if the battles, the core underlying gameplay, wasn't problematic in its own regards. As players traverse the battlefield, Dynasty Warriors veterans will find not much has changed, the issues plaguing the franchise in the past once again present without much improvement.

Most notable of these flaws would be the stiff camera. Positioned too close to the player, the camera offers a limited view of the player's surroundings. Movable only by tapping the L1 button, which snaps the camera back behind the player, this setup doesn't work all that well, especially with the player's constant movement, the movement patterns of certain foes and the enemy's tendency to attack from all sides. A rotatable camera, controlled by the as-yet-unutilized right analog stick, would be a far more efficient solution.

As in past Dynasty titles, enemies, trees, and various other level elements magically pop up right in front of the player, what appears to be an empty clearing revealed to be a crowded enemy base as the player is mere feet away. Multiplayer accentuates the problematic draw distance, anything outside of a small radius hidden beneath a murky brown landscape.

Once again, the AI, both of teammates and enemies, is another sore spot. Watching an enemy storm through an ally's base, with neither side attacking the other, is a confusing instance, but one I witnessed multiple times within my first few hours. Issuing commands seems a worthless gesture, it seems the only capable warrior is the player themselves.

That brings us to the battles, long drawn-out ordeals generally lasting fifteen to thirty minutes in length. And while it's not true one can simply mash an attack button throughout the whole of these encounters, it's remarkably close.

Different characters use different weaponry, the strategy lying in that specific weapon's attacks. For instance, my created character used a broadsword, which allowed her to jump into the air and slam back down, injuring nearby enemies. Thus, gameplay sessions with her would consist of a few normal attacks, a slam attack, a few normal attacks, and so forth. After defeating all of the foes in a certain area, I would run through the empty environment for a bit, eventually ending up at another battle, which would then consist of the same simple strategy and result in another journey across the map. The variety amongst different weapons and characters doesn't help the tedium much, each has their own effective yet numbingly repetitive strategy.

Considering this is actually the tenth entry in the Dynasty Warriors franchise, the series' ninth appearance on the PlayStation 2, one would have expected these sort of shortcomings to be addressed long ago, especially in regards to the archaic camera. And despite how nifty the enhanced Empire mode may sound, the emphasis on the same old gameplay renders it a bonus for those that have enjoyed past titles and a non-factor for everyone else. With the rest of the next generation consoles set to arrive later this year, let's hope the folks over at Omega Force use this opportunity to fix some flaws and add some new gameplay features. For now, however, Dynasty Warriors 5 Empires isn't that far removed from past Dynasty Warriors titles, and considering there've been nine of those in the past six years, that's certainly saying something.