Samurai Warriors 2 (Xbox 360)

Graphics

Samurai Warriors 2 takes a graphical step upwards for both the CGI and the in-game engine graphics. It is a vibrant and colourful world of Japanese history that comes alive with a rich character palette. Unfortunately as is the case with all the series, the backgrounds could do with a much better style in terms of both design and colour. They are a little bland compared to the richly detailed main characters and enemy generals.

They’re not awful by any stretch of the imagination but they could have done with a little more life. Samurai Warriors 2 also suffers from the same troubles as the previous titles – the draw distance is bad on 2 player co-op and often there’s a horrendous amount of popup.

Objects appear from out of your field of view and the other player character vanishes if they are a little too far ahead.

The use of light and shade in the game is good, the effects are excellent, the spectacle of battle is suitably over the top and the eye-candy keeps you coming back to pull off more and more varied combos to see what kind of effect pops up next, as well as to see how many bad guys you can trash.

Models

Samurai Warriors 2 has a decent level of detail in the models, especially of the main characters and the various (some outlandish by design) weapons they use. The enemy soldiers are likewise well designed and the background objects are simple enough, basically the level of detail in the models lessens depending on the importance of the object in question.

Animations

The game doesn’t stint on the OTT animations and combat moves, there are some ridiculously long button presses to get some of the more extreme moves but they’re worth it as the animation is performed admirably and brings to mind such things as anime.

There’s also a decent level of animation to the various materials in the game world, like cloth and so on. Each main character has a different fighting style that evolves as you gain experience and more skills; they go from only a few movements to being able to string together linked charge attacks that are extremely well animated.

AI

There’s not really much to be said about the AI, it will often get stuck (especially the enemy) and run into walls, fail to help out and attack the most dangerous opponent when it should really be running away. To be fair the series has never really been about the AI and this game hasn’t really done anything to advance the AI at all.

Physics

Again, not much in the way of cool game physics, swords clash, foes fall back and over – that’s about it.

Sound

The din of battle and the clang of swords and blades are all well done. The spot effects are nice and the whole battlefield is definitely alive in an audio respect.

Music

The game features some very good music, it’s a good flowing score and it matches the action perfectly. The intro theme reminds me that the developers certainly know how to milk an audio soundtrack and make some great tunes.

Voice

The series has also never been known for its stellar voice cast, but the performances are passable and they do have some amusing lines of dialogue. It’s a bit annoying to hear some of it repeated now and then but nothing that spoils the game.

Multiplayer

You can take Samurai Warriors 2 online via Xbox Live and challenge other players. The experience is a fun diversion from the main game but we felt it could have been given a little more thought. A four player coop battle versus an enemy army would have been a nice addition and perhaps the series will eventually evolve in that direction for online play.

As it stands it seems to be a non-confrontational style of play, you don't fight another player directly - you see who can take down their mission objective, enemy general and so on, before the other player.

There were also some lag issues and a few graphical glitches.
Samurai Warriors 2 does promise un-lockable downloaded content via Live however and this is always nice to see.

The last stand…

In the end the series of games keeps on evolving but it is pretty much the same game, different packaging. The developers really need to start pushing the envelope with their next titles both in terms of graphics and gameplay on the next generation consoles – we’re getting there, but I think we’ll see a big improvement from the next few games.

Until then, I shall go back to unlocking more of the story and the cut-scenes.

There's also no custom character creation compared to the rather excellently done: Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires

Wolf out.