Dynasty Warriors. Now there’s a series that’s gone down in history. It has everything; huge weapons, screaming guitar licks, tons of enemies and a bunch of women with large breasts. They just keep making more and more, and they’re all the same stupid good fun each time. So, naturally, the next in the series, Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce, is… an RPG?

I didn’t even know this game existed until the demo dropped on Xbox Live. So naturally, I was horrendously confused when I was dropped into a hub world with NPC’s trying to sell me stuff and a mission board. A mission board? This isn’t a Dynasty Warriors game at all! Why haven’t I got my weapon out at all times? What’s going on?!

The confusion continues when you get into a mission itself. The controls are identical to the old Dynasty Warriors games, so if you’ve played one before you should know what you’re getting yourself into. If not, hammer X and you’ll win in no time. There’s still a ton of enemies to kill, which is nice. But then subtle things start to trickle into your mind.

The soundtrack is gone. Not quieter than usual, outright gone. In the place of wailing guitars and blood pumping rock tracks, we now have orchestral music. In Dynasty Warriors. What is this? Thankfully though, the cheesy voice acting is still in action, so all is not lost. But why no rock music?

After clearing the area of enemies, I pressed on further up the map, where I found a thin blue wall. My mini-map told me that there was a passage I had to go through to get to my next large area, so I pressed on regardless of the wall. Then, a loading screen came up. Five seconds go by and I’m in the larger area. Yes, the blue walls are actually teleportation gates, so you don’t travel through small passageways anymore. Why? What’s wrong with putting more enemies in the thin areas? Why do I have to wait for the level to load, when there was ample time to do that BEFORE I started playing the level?

It’s not like it takes much time to load the graphics. The character models and environments haven’t improved since DW5, and that came out around 4 years ago. Everything looks smooth and nice, sure, but it lacks the ability to look any better than average. Some more attention to the graphics would really boost the series. No one wants to beat up identical ugly bad guys for several years running.

So I made it to the end of the level, beat up the boss (who took as much damage as the regular goons) and suddenly… it’s over. And that basically sums up my brief affair with Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce. The description informs of four-player co-op, using a team of highly powered soldiers, and even trading characters around, but none of this was present. Which is a shame, since that’s probably the biggest thing this game has going for it.

If you’re at all interested, Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce comes out February 16th.

Scared by the new direction of the series? Actually think it’s a good idea? Tell us in the comments!