Myself and Koei have had a fun relationship in the past. I?ve had an ecstatic time every single time a Dynasty Warriors has been released from Dynasty Warriors 3 onwards. Yeah, I know they?re monotonous beyond belief, but my appeal to the games are the back story with them.
Based on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms novel, which is based on the Three Kingdoms era of ancient China, they have an amazing historical background which takes artistic license by including magic. In all this though, the most important factor is that we have real history at the base of it all, and some of the most interesting characters to have ever lived.
Now there is Bladestorm. Bladestorm follows the Dynasty Warriors trend by being set in a stage of history. However, the history featured inBladestorm is slightly scewed for a more story based approach. The only problem with this is that they have people fighting against each other when one had died before the other was born. The matter can be overlooked though, it?s just taking artistic license to another level.
Now, when you start up bladestorm you don?t get to select a character. On this it?s purely a create-a-warrior standpoint. Sadly there?s limited choice: Gender; Each gender has a choice of around six set faces; Six hair styles each gender; skin colour and finally a choice of three voices for each gender. The voices aren?t used for any dialogue sadly, only the random grunts on the toilet and in battle.
Now, I do suppose this isn?t terrible. I just expect that they could have made it with a little more choice, it?s not like they?re limited in space to use.
Onto the do or die of this game.
Where Dynasty Warriors had you take control of your own chinese version of god, Bladestorm has you take the role of a mercenary general in the middle of the war between England and France. As a mercenary general, don?t expect to be running in the middle of large groups of foes and showing them all the pointy edge of your sword, you?ll be sent back in a stretcher in no time. Which is slightly worrying as my mercenary has been gutted, garotted and many other nasty things now he should be carried around in matchboxes. But no matter what the enemy does to you, you always retreat. This wouldn?t be so bad if the game didn?t decide to crash on retreat around 5% of the time, though the tedium of restarting my 360 is reason enough for me not to get raped up the rear end by a big sharp sword.
Back to being a mercenary general though. Strangely enough the mercenary you control is by far the most charismatic person to walk the face of the planet. Instead of you having a band of your own to take into battle, which to me would have been a brilliant touch - I would have named my sidekick ?Fred?, you simply walk up to any group of soldiers for the nation that?s paid for your services and tell them to follow you. It?s just a shame you cant betray them mid-battle, trusting somebody you have to pay isn?t exactly the smartest of things. That?s why you always make sure to wear a condom with a hooker!
The soldiers you pick also come into a set number of categories. A few being Sword, Horses, Spears, Clubs, Knives and Bows. To use a group from one of the categories, you need to have a tome and then the page. Apparantly, unless you have a large book telling you, it?s impossible to swing a big stick at an enemy. Ignoring that though, I do admire the variety of classes and the sheer amount of armour and weaponry in the game.
I do wish that these were the only things to speak of in Bladestorm, I really do, but somehow Bladestorm has done the impossible. It has taken the constant hack and slash gameplay of Dynasty Warriors, which I found endlessly enjoying, and made it a chore. This has come as a large shock and dissapointment to me. With Dynasty Warriors I always had a goal to aim for. With Bladestorm I just find myself wishing that the bubonic plague would strike and do my job for me.
The actual playing of the game is my main reason for me wishing the Black Death on everybody. The game has story missions, which come around every 6 hours it seems, between doing those main story missions you have either side-story missions, which are quite fun and introduce you to some cool characters, or generic missions. Generic missions are the result of seething anger on my part. The aim of these missions are to take over a select position(or positions) on the map. Then on the exact same part of France next mission, all your work is put to waste.
These missions also have the same text at the start and at the end, with only the name of settlements changed to represent the mission. I also guarantee that if I ever see the writing ?Thus encouraged, the English/French gathered its strength and moved to control the tide of war? again, I will actually kill the writer of the script for Bladestorm. Cross out the nation you fought against for that mission. That line now has me seething in rage whenever I see it. I literally spent 7 hours yesterday doing meaningless missions, only getting me money and experience, experience was needed to level up attributes and skills in the unit tomes I spoke of earlier.
On the note of experience. Most of the experience is gained through combo?s in battle. Getting these can actually be really fun. The whole battle system of Bladestorm as a whole is really fun. Each unit has three special attacks and a normal attack. Learning to combine them for the best effect even against enemies stronger than you is one of the best parts of the game.
The script... The script in Bladestorm is sadly pathetic. The dialogue is terribly tacky and forced. It feels like it has been rushed and just seems so robotic, for lack of better word.
The script uses ?Olde English? in such a way that Shakespeare would be turning in his grave at the fact that is language has been decimated. I honestly haven?t seen such a bad use of the English language since the infamous ?All your base are belong to us?.
The voice acting is also a large reflection of the script, being as bland as a big lump of ice in a cone. Only a few of the characters in the game have even the most remote feeling put into the dialogue, the rest give a performance as wooden as Wilson in the film Cast Away, less even. Wilson was amazing in that film, who else could get you to feel sorry for a volleyball?
The music on the game does make up for the terrible dialogue and voice acting though. If they released a soundtrack I would buy it.
On a better not, the visuals of the game are nice. The style of game that Bladestorm is doesn?t allow for a full in depth detail of each and every pixel. This is because at times you can have over 300 separate soldiers on the screen at once, all performing special moves. This makes the graphics of the soldiers very respectable.
The countryside is the same. Slightly more bland than the soldiers, but it?s just there to run on. Though it?s got random Deer and Rabbit running around. There?s nothing more exhilarating than chasing a Rabbit through a forest with a squad of 30 swordsmen. Settlements are quite the same as countryside. They don?t have much to talk about though. Sometimes a few houses. Sometimes a huge city. Certain cities you enter are very well detailed though.
So overall. Bladestorm is an average game. I?ve said some bad things about it being boring and monotonous, but that only kicks in after a certain amount of time. It gives a good 20 or so hours or fun gameplay, then it loses the innocence and you realise that it?s just going to keep repeating itself over and over apart from the few glimpses of light that are story or side-story missions. It is countered by the amazing characters you meet when you actually do the important missions though. Some are very likable, incredibly human like and easy to relate to.
I recommend the game to anybody. It?s worth a try and as I?ve said, will give a large amount of fun gameplay. More for some than others.
To find out if it's the game for you, rent it.
Based on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms novel, which is based on the Three Kingdoms era of ancient China, they have an amazing historical background which takes artistic license by including magic. In all this though, the most important factor is that we have real history at the base of it all, and some of the most interesting characters to have ever lived.
Now there is Bladestorm. Bladestorm follows the Dynasty Warriors trend by being set in a stage of history. However, the history featured inBladestorm is slightly scewed for a more story based approach. The only problem with this is that they have people fighting against each other when one had died before the other was born. The matter can be overlooked though, it?s just taking artistic license to another level.
Now, when you start up bladestorm you don?t get to select a character. On this it?s purely a create-a-warrior standpoint. Sadly there?s limited choice: Gender; Each gender has a choice of around six set faces; Six hair styles each gender; skin colour and finally a choice of three voices for each gender. The voices aren?t used for any dialogue sadly, only the random grunts on the toilet and in battle.
Now, I do suppose this isn?t terrible. I just expect that they could have made it with a little more choice, it?s not like they?re limited in space to use.
Onto the do or die of this game.
Where Dynasty Warriors had you take control of your own chinese version of god, Bladestorm has you take the role of a mercenary general in the middle of the war between England and France. As a mercenary general, don?t expect to be running in the middle of large groups of foes and showing them all the pointy edge of your sword, you?ll be sent back in a stretcher in no time. Which is slightly worrying as my mercenary has been gutted, garotted and many other nasty things now he should be carried around in matchboxes. But no matter what the enemy does to you, you always retreat. This wouldn?t be so bad if the game didn?t decide to crash on retreat around 5% of the time, though the tedium of restarting my 360 is reason enough for me not to get raped up the rear end by a big sharp sword.
Back to being a mercenary general though. Strangely enough the mercenary you control is by far the most charismatic person to walk the face of the planet. Instead of you having a band of your own to take into battle, which to me would have been a brilliant touch - I would have named my sidekick ?Fred?, you simply walk up to any group of soldiers for the nation that?s paid for your services and tell them to follow you. It?s just a shame you cant betray them mid-battle, trusting somebody you have to pay isn?t exactly the smartest of things. That?s why you always make sure to wear a condom with a hooker!
The soldiers you pick also come into a set number of categories. A few being Sword, Horses, Spears, Clubs, Knives and Bows. To use a group from one of the categories, you need to have a tome and then the page. Apparantly, unless you have a large book telling you, it?s impossible to swing a big stick at an enemy. Ignoring that though, I do admire the variety of classes and the sheer amount of armour and weaponry in the game.
I do wish that these were the only things to speak of in Bladestorm, I really do, but somehow Bladestorm has done the impossible. It has taken the constant hack and slash gameplay of Dynasty Warriors, which I found endlessly enjoying, and made it a chore. This has come as a large shock and dissapointment to me. With Dynasty Warriors I always had a goal to aim for. With Bladestorm I just find myself wishing that the bubonic plague would strike and do my job for me.
The actual playing of the game is my main reason for me wishing the Black Death on everybody. The game has story missions, which come around every 6 hours it seems, between doing those main story missions you have either side-story missions, which are quite fun and introduce you to some cool characters, or generic missions. Generic missions are the result of seething anger on my part. The aim of these missions are to take over a select position(or positions) on the map. Then on the exact same part of France next mission, all your work is put to waste.
These missions also have the same text at the start and at the end, with only the name of settlements changed to represent the mission. I also guarantee that if I ever see the writing ?Thus encouraged, the English/French gathered its strength and moved to control the tide of war? again, I will actually kill the writer of the script for Bladestorm. Cross out the nation you fought against for that mission. That line now has me seething in rage whenever I see it. I literally spent 7 hours yesterday doing meaningless missions, only getting me money and experience, experience was needed to level up attributes and skills in the unit tomes I spoke of earlier.
On the note of experience. Most of the experience is gained through combo?s in battle. Getting these can actually be really fun. The whole battle system of Bladestorm as a whole is really fun. Each unit has three special attacks and a normal attack. Learning to combine them for the best effect even against enemies stronger than you is one of the best parts of the game.
The script... The script in Bladestorm is sadly pathetic. The dialogue is terribly tacky and forced. It feels like it has been rushed and just seems so robotic, for lack of better word.
The script uses ?Olde English? in such a way that Shakespeare would be turning in his grave at the fact that is language has been decimated. I honestly haven?t seen such a bad use of the English language since the infamous ?All your base are belong to us?.
The voice acting is also a large reflection of the script, being as bland as a big lump of ice in a cone. Only a few of the characters in the game have even the most remote feeling put into the dialogue, the rest give a performance as wooden as Wilson in the film Cast Away, less even. Wilson was amazing in that film, who else could get you to feel sorry for a volleyball?
The music on the game does make up for the terrible dialogue and voice acting though. If they released a soundtrack I would buy it.
On a better not, the visuals of the game are nice. The style of game that Bladestorm is doesn?t allow for a full in depth detail of each and every pixel. This is because at times you can have over 300 separate soldiers on the screen at once, all performing special moves. This makes the graphics of the soldiers very respectable.
The countryside is the same. Slightly more bland than the soldiers, but it?s just there to run on. Though it?s got random Deer and Rabbit running around. There?s nothing more exhilarating than chasing a Rabbit through a forest with a squad of 30 swordsmen. Settlements are quite the same as countryside. They don?t have much to talk about though. Sometimes a few houses. Sometimes a huge city. Certain cities you enter are very well detailed though.
So overall. Bladestorm is an average game. I?ve said some bad things about it being boring and monotonous, but that only kicks in after a certain amount of time. It gives a good 20 or so hours or fun gameplay, then it loses the innocence and you realise that it?s just going to keep repeating itself over and over apart from the few glimpses of light that are story or side-story missions. It is countered by the amazing characters you meet when you actually do the important missions though. Some are very likable, incredibly human like and easy to relate to.
I recommend the game to anybody. It?s worth a try and as I?ve said, will give a large amount of fun gameplay. More for some than others.
To find out if it's the game for you, rent it.