14 DAY TRIAL // 
Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends Complete Edition is a pompous-sounding entry in an increasingly over-the-top franchise that explores the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" historical novel from the perspectives of various characters hailing from China's rich history.
The original story is a mixture of facts, legend and myth, romanticizing the lives of various feudal lords and the tumultuous events taking place at the end of China's Han Dynasty, close to 2000 years ago.
As such, the events are also presented in a dramatic manner within the game, with treason, goading, gloating and everything in-between, while also featuring a bit of magic and showing how the mighty warriors of the era rose to the status of historical legends.
The gameplay itself is perhaps the most famous instance of the hack-and-slash genre, as the series is dedicated to killing astounding amounts of enemies by employing a wide arsenal of flashy moves for close to fourteen years now.
Dynasty Warriors 8 has been out on consoles for close to a year, but this is the first version that's available on PC, and it's especially exciting since the game is also packed with the Xtreme Legends expansion, as well as some additional content on top of that.
The story mode retains the style of its predecessors, following faction-based storylines and particular characters' evolution, complete with cutscenes that deliver the narrative and set the stage for the missions.
In an attempt to offer more replayability to their game, Omega Force has introduced a historical and a hypothetical branch for each of the faction's stories. Also of note is the fact that during the campaign, which is now multiplayer-enabled, you are no longer restricted to your pre-determined character, being able to elect from several prominent warriors in your faction, and the mission objectives will be different depending on the chosen character.
Aside from the campaign, players can also play in the free mode, being able to play the opposing faction in the different missions they have already completed. A completely new play mode has also been added to the game, in the form of Ambition Mode.
Ambition is somewhat self-explanatory, it allows you to carve your own path in history and build your own base of operations, and then engage in different types of battles with the peasant armies that you have gathered, from small raids meant to gather materials for erecting your base to large-scale skirmishes where you can recruit new allies.
Gameplay
The biggest element of the Dynasty Warrirors series is the fighting itself, and Dynasty Warriors 8 doesn't disappoint, delivering the most complex system yet. Each character from the over 80 available can equip two weapons from a very long list, which defines their main and power attacks, as well as the combos available, and each character also retains a unique weapon used for special attacks.
The system offers a lot of variety, since both weapons can be switched on the fly and can be changed between missions in case you get bored with seeing the same animations over and over again. Each of the weapons you collect during your adventures is suited more or less for each character, conferring various bonuses if you choose to equip it on the right one.
Although the game is heavy on button-mashing, the two weapons complete with the ability to execute various combos by using normal and heavy attacks add some variety, and switching things up with a bit of aerial action, fighting on horseback and using a bit of crafting, as well as a rock-paper-scissors type of elemental affinity that rewards using the right weapon against certain enemies go a long way when it comes to keeping the game interesting.
The missions themselves have seen many improvements since previous titles in the Dynasty Warriors series, most notably being the fact that you are no longer restricted to a single path and you have to pay attention to your allies and offer them assistance in times of need.
The enemy AI, however, is still as dumb as a rock, with countless faceless drones to slay while making your way through the campaign, making what initially feels like an epic display of your power become a tedious requirement for progression, at times.
For the most part, no enemy will ever pose any kind of challenge, apart from the ones in the harder difficulties, which pretty much have more hit points and much higher damage in order to offset the fact that you can actually understand what is going on around you and react accordingly.
Though the countless nameless peasant you will slay have seen no improvements, and the series stays faithful to its crowd-fighting roots, the big picture has changed a bit, the AI being overall designed to punish players who don't heed their allies' cries for help and who don't follow the mission objectives and simply choose to eradicate all non-playable characters on the map.
There is a bit of strategy involved when fighting enemy generals, though, as you need to block attacks and break through their guard before you can land hits on them, and you also have to pay some attention to their weapons and attack wind-up animations, which will offer a pretty good idea of what's going to happen next and allow you to circumvent their attacks.
Sound and visuals
An area where the game suffers is its sound, as many of the battle shouts are incredibly repetitive, and it feels ridiculous for everyone to praise your fighting prowess every two minutes, even beyond the first time you demonstrate your ability to take down an army of very mild-mannered, ill-equipped and badly trained peasants all by yourself.
The repetitive weapon sounds, groans, yells and taunts quickly become tiresome, and, on top of that, the actual storyline is delivered in a very corny manner, full of shallow lines delivered unconvincingly, making the game seem more like a cartoon than a legendary depiction of history.
The music also factors into this, as most of the time it just sounds like a very generic action tune is running in the background, without any relation to the actual events taking place on the screen or to the time period that it all takes place in.
The visuals are unfortunately not too great either, as the PC version is ported from the version running on last-gen consoles, which becomes apparent while playing the game, in spite of the fact it features superior graphics to the console edition and much more entities on the screen at the same time.
It's not by any means bad, as the game features a lot of cool visual effects and many outlandish characters with quality animations, but it just seems like the game somehow misses its graphical potential.
In spite of the repetitive sounds, uninspired music and dated visuals, the game still offers the best experience in the entire series. The brawling itself, although repetitive, offers enough variation to keep things interesting, and it will take you a while to try out all the different weapons.
The many gameplay opportunities afforded by the various game modes are also an ace up the game's sleeve, as they offer a ton of content to go through. These games usually get a pretty polarized reception, you either completely dislike them or like them a lot, there's little middle ground, and those who like it will definitely get many, many hours of enjoyment out of it.
There's a very big chance that newcomers to the series might also enjoy Dynasty Warriors 8, since it offers the best gameplay so far and many different storylines to explore, as well as cooperative multiplayer for the story campaign.
On the flipside, those who want a truly challenging, diverse and mature experience will be sorely disappointed by the fact that the game doesn't take itself seriously at all, from the shallow dialogue to the ridiculous weapons used, from painting brushes to mini-boats. In addition to this, it ends up feeling very repetitive, and the thousands of people you kill feel meaningless.
That is especially aggravating since apparently you don't kill anyone. There is no blood, everyone simply disappears, and all the adversaries that are important enough to have a name shout things like "It's not my time yet" or "I will return once I have revised my strategy," which sound completely out of place considering you have just put a halberd through them.
The fact that the game lacks proper murdering and doesn't show you the repercussions of your actions on the families of those countless faceless peasants you nonchalantly slay makes everything seem very shallow and disconnected, offering all the violence a very gratuitous veneer instead of conferring it historical depth and allowing you to assess the price of your conquests beyond faces moving across a map.
The game goes as far as making your kill count read "K.O." We all know history is written in blood and I for one would appreciate it if the games that feature weapons and rely on your use of them as a main gameplay mechanic also had the courage to admit that fact.
That being said, beyond the disconnect due to the fact that the game tries to trick you into thinking that you're doing something else rather than mindless murder, playing it is really enjoyable and it is definitely worth a try, especially if you haven't played a game in the series in a while.
Whenever a game that is supposed to be played by mashing one button is complex enough to disorient you at first glance and to have you not know which game mode you should try first and which missions you should start with, it means that the developers have put a lot of work into offering you an extensive amount of content to enjoy.
Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends Complete Edition represents Koei and Omega Force's most ambitious project yet, and the definitive Dynasty Warriors title on PC, especially since it's the first incarnation of Dynasty Warriors 8 on the platform and the game is just so, so big.
