In this latest installment of the Dynasty Warriors saga, honor and loyalty in the face of adversity serve as game’s theme. You will need strength, courage and desire to fight against impossible odds. Dynasty Warriors™ 4 uses the most advanced melee-fighting engine ever to deliver the next evolution of tactical action.

Dynasty Warriors 4 ( 真・三國無双 3 Shin Sangokumusō 3, Shin Sangokumusou 3 in Japan) is a hack and slash video game and the fourth installment in the popular Dynasty Warriors series. Dynasty Warriors 4 was developed by Omega Force and published by Koei.

The game is available on PlayStation 2 (PS2) and Xbox and is based on a series of books called Romance of the Three Kingdoms, written by Luo Guanzhong. As the series has progressed, it has strayed further from the actual plot of Romance of the Three Kingdoms but instead has given the user more input on how the storyline progresses.

When it was released in Japan as Shin Sangokumusou 3, it topped the sales charts, sold over one million copies within nine days, and received an average of 78 out of 100 on Metacritics reviews.Originally released on the PS2 in March 2003, it was later ported to the Xbox in September of the same year and, in 2005, ported to the PC under the name Dynasty Warriors 4 Hyper. Two expansions were released for the PS2 version of the game, Xtreme Legends and Empires. Whereas Xtreme Legends requires the player to use the original Dynasty Warriors 4 disc to access all of its features, Empires is a stand-alone game and can be played with all of its content without the use of the original disk. The game is the first in the Dynasty Warriors series to introduce an Empires expansion pack and the second to include an Xtreme Legends title.

These expansions are not available for the Xbox version of the game.GameplayDynasty Warriors 4 expands on its predecessors by adding new characters, new modes of play and a completely new 'Edit Mode.' Instead of having strict routines to follow during battle, officers, to some extent, will have a greater reaction to the events taking place on the battlefield in the game and may react to things more often.The aim of most of the stages in Dynasty Warriors 4 is to defeat the enemy commander. The player must make their way through the stage, defeating enemy officers and troops while trying to keep their own commander alive. Some stages have secondary objectives for the player to complete to make the stage easier, unlock new features, or help in later stages. Each playable character has their own unique weapon and individual superhuman abilities.

You can drag any of the handles at the four corners or sides to to resize the box. Dropdown block 3d letters free.

The scope of each stage allows for each side to have thousands of soldiers in the battlefield. The game uses a fairly simple combination system so that players can chain attacks together; the highest possible attack combo being 10.

And new character designs and attack moves are also updated in this hit game, leaving more damage and raising your characters skill up more easily.Playable starting officers include Liu Bei, Zhang Fei, and Guan Yu for the Shu Kingdom; Xiahou Dun, Xiahou Yuan, and Cao Cao for the Wei Kingdom; and Sun Shang Xiang, Huang Gai, and Sun Jian for the Wu Kingdom. It is possible to unlock new characters from other kingdoms as well as use a player created character in any of the campaigns. The new 'Edit Mode' allows players to create an officer from sets of different features, motions, and weapons to use in 'Kaiba Mode.' The characters stance and motion are affected by their gender and the weapon the player has selected them to carry and use. The motions for the weapons are taken from pre-existing officers as well as from two characters removed from Dynasty Warriors 4 that were in Dynasty Warriors 3: Fu Xi and Nu Wa.

Some characters are unlocked by fulfilling optional side-goals; most are unlocked by completing certain battles during gameplay. The maximum number of playable characters is 42, 46 with created characters.Each playable character in the game has the ability to equip items. Weapons in the game, unlike its predecessors, are gained in levels. Some items are only found in certain stages, but is only obtainable if completing a goal. Sometimes the goal may be very simple, but some may be not that easy to figure out how to obtain the certain item. By defeating generals and lieutenants, the player's character is awarded experience scaled by the difficulty of each officer, and the amount of them defeated.

This experience is allocated at the end of the level and allows the player to increase their attributes or obtain new forms. Each playable officer has 9 levels to achieve with their standard weapon, while a 10th level is accessible through special in-game requirements, and on the 'Hard' difficulty, which is found to be frustrating like most games, the harder the difficulty the more eager you gain. Items can have a number of effects on the player such as increasing attack power, defense, and movement speed. You can also retrieve your health level to avoid getting killed and having 'Game Over' by obtaining 'Chinese Meatbuns' that at first, look like onions like in any other game in the so far successful Dynasty Warriors franchise. You can also obtain item boost that increase a certain skill by 2 for limited time only.

You can also get packs of wine and packs of Chinese Meatbuns in certain stages in certain locations during gameplay. As said above, special items can also be unlocked by completing objectives during gameplay. Special items can grant the player a statistics boost, a unique ability or skill, or even a ride-able mount such as an Elephant or Horse.'

Musou Mode,' the main campaign mode, has separate campaigns for each kingdom rather than a separate 'Musou Mode' for each character, as was featured in Dynasty Warriors 3, which made it more frustrating for the player to unlock their favorite characters. So, Dynasty Warriors 4 Mosou Modes are easier for the player to unlock their favorite characters. While the storyline is still linear, 'Musou Mode' is rather open-ended in the sense that depending on the user’s actions, different events will occur, such as unlocking new characters for use or new kingdoms. The unlockable kingdoms in the game include the Wu, Shu, and Wei Kingdoms, and unlockable characters include warlords who were defeated in the book that the game series is based on, Romance of the Three Kingdoms.In-game features include large battlefields, a large number of enemies and officers to defeat, and multiple outcomes for each stage. Certain levels make use of the siege engine (A new feature to the series) and introduce specialized siege equipment such as bridge layers, battering rams and catapults to the stage. Although it is not essential for the completion of stages, having a siege weapon will increase morale for the player's forces, and help the player succeed.The morale system in the game is similar to previous Dynasty Warrior games.

Morale is increased and decreased by performing a number of positive actions for the player’s army. Action that produce this effect include defeating enemies in multiples of fifty, defeating enemy officers, and completing special events such as ambushes, siege attacks, and finding enemy strongholds.

Morale in the game has a strong effect on the player's forces, determining their strength and speed, as well as their ability to perform Berwald attacks. Morale will also affect how the CPU characters move along through battle. Example: Ally Oxenstiernas are winning.

They are more likely to charge the enemy and destroy the enemies in the path. They may or may not stop if the charging armies morale drops to losing.

More chances they'll stop and stay where they are, or they'll flee back to the ally side of the battlefield.Occasionally, when the player confronts an enemy officer, the officer will challenge them to a one-on-one duel. If the player accepts, they will be transported to a small arena away from the main battlefield where a one-on-one fight with the officer will take place until either is victorious or time runs out. If the player declines, your morale will drop.

If the player wins, their morale will rise and the enemy officer will be removed from the battlefield. If you accept the officers challenge they do become more difficult to beat in the duel. Video Review and Screenshots.

Aside from a few rare gems (like Halo and GTA) PC conversions are usually cop-outs, copies of the console versions only with slightly smoother graphics and more awkward controls. This time around, given the astounding lack of improvements between games, Dynasty Warriors 4:Hyper actually takes a step forward in improving this slash 'em up series.

Although it is a port of a console game, the graphics, for the most part look very smooth and the cut scenes are especially pretty. Your characters move fluidly and convincingly, with each swipe and slash having a convincing feeling of weight behind it. The Musou attacks look as over-the-top as ever, with plumes of different colors and flames being thrown about all over the place as you hack down another fifty peons with a triple somersault and a scimitar. So that's box 1 of the 'typical PC port' guide ticked, then.

When looking at box 2 (dodgy control system) you really need to look at the game itself first; Dynasty Warriors is not known for its complex controls. Visually impressive combos are achieved by simply pressing the same button enough times (or by pressing the Musou button), you can jump, block and that's about it. No matter how awkward some people feel when trying to play a console game on a keyboard you can't say pressing the same button is any more complicated in the PC version. If anything the keys are a little friendlier on your digits than the thumb rash playing DW on consoles gives you!

The game itself is pretty much the same as the console versions, which have varied almost nil since the original DW. Fortunately something strange has happened in the PC conversion - someone seems to have given the soldiers a brain! Now before you all get too excited, they haven't been given a great deal of intelligence; your allies still stand around like lemons and the crowds of enemies don't use any kind of tactic to take you on, but now they actually fight back!

In all previous DW games I've played unless you fight a boss character the soldiers are mostly content to just stand around and be diced up like pork, but in Hyper, the soldiers not only block but also wait for you to finish your combo and then counter-attack! After the initial surprise I quite enjoyed the challenge of actually having to balance my attacks with some blocking too and it makes the game quite a lot different to its predecessors.

Unfortunately, despite the subtle but important change, the gameplay remains far too simplistic in the days where nothing less than two guns and a sword will cut it. In order to survive in the next generation the DW series will have to make some drastic changes to its combat system. Perhaps making combos more varied and harder to pull off, or making the other thousands of soldiers fighting with you more influential to your victory rather than just window dressing would help to make the game more challenging but still keep its Arcade feel. That and fixing the camera, which after more than five years still seems to go where it pleases!

For those of you who are afraid of joypads but long for some quick arcade fun then this'll be just right for you but anyone who's played it on a console really doesn't need to pick this up, unless they want to know what it feels like when someone actually blocks your attacks!

People who downloaded Dynasty Warriors 4 have also downloaded:
Lord of the Rings, The: The Battle for Middle Earth II, Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos, Lord of the Rings, The: Battle for Middle-Earth, Empire Earth, Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive, Medieval II: Total War, Empires: Dawn of the Modern World, Earth 2160