Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires Reviews

Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires is ranked in the 34th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
7 / 10
Feb 23, 2015

Despite being a little overwhelming at first, Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires blossoms into an engrossing, addictive hack and slash adventure that fans won't want to miss. It's a shame that the game's bogged down by poor presentation and an unstable framerate, but along with the property's trademark combat, strategic elements add some variety to the mix, and the vast amount of customisation options and role-playing systems allow you to forge a legend that's more than worthy of the Three Kingdoms.

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Feb 23, 2015

If Dynasty Warriors is your guilty pleasure, then Empires would be your guilt trip.

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7 / 10.0
Feb 23, 2015

Although Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires follows in the tradition of a core game followed by its Empires equivalent, the combat feels stale and despite its massive cast there is very little do with it.

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8.5 / 10.0
Feb 24, 2015

A Dynasty Warriors title fused with deep strategy concepts that make it much more like Civilization. If you yearn for more than just killing thousands of enemies on a battlefield, check out Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires.

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Digitally Downloaded
Matt S.
Top Critic
Feb 24, 2015

Also, until Koei Tecmo starts localising the Romance of the Three Kingdoms games again, this will be the closest we get to that superb series in English. While I do want to see the Romance games again as well, I'll take this in the meantime.

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7 / 10.0
Feb 24, 2015

Deep but confusing strategy layered over classic Dynasty Warriors.

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5 / 10.0
Feb 25, 2015

Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires doesn't want to innovate but it fails to provide long-time veterans with anything truly new and exciting. Even casual players will eventually be bored with the utter repetitiveness of combat.

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VGChartz
Top Critic
6.8 / 10.0
Feb 26, 2015

Perhaps brush up on Dynasty Warriors 8 first, and if you like what it has to offer, then Empires might be for you.

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3 / 10.0
Feb 26, 2015

Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires is everything a Dynasty Warriors hater thinks about the series made real. It's a contemptuously assembled recycling project, and I'm sick of it.

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6.5 / 10.0
Feb 27, 2015

Without the heavy emphasis on strategy, Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires would be a fairly dull game. With its poor character AI, bland environments, and underwhelming visuals, actually fighting in Empires gets repetitive and old pretty quickly. But, because of the vast number of customizations one can make to their character, and the numerous strategic and political decisions to be made, the game ends up being not bad in the end. It's hard to say if it's worth $50, but if you are a hardcore fan of the franchise then you might want to give it a look.

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6 / 10
Feb 27, 2015

In summary, Empires is yet another instalment in the Warriors franchise that provides hours upon hours of fun for those who enjoy its tried and tested formula. With that said, it fails to do anything that really pushes the series forward, borrowing heavily from previous games while adding a few extra bells and whistles. Although some will revel in the notion of building their own kingdom and conquering all of China, others will find Empire's repetitive mission grinding and narrow scope hard to overlook.

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3 / 5.0
Feb 27, 2015

Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires has all the entertaining, albeit repetitive combat the series is known for, but lacks the features to back it up. While this is par for the course for an Empires game, it's still hard to recommend as little has changed over Dynasty Warriors 7: Empires outside of some insignificant updates to the highly strategic politics that go on outside of battle.

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6.5 / 10.0
Mar 1, 2015

Koei doesn't seem very interested in appealing to new customers, because DW8 Empires assumes that you're thoroughly familiar with not just the DW franchise, but the Empires spin-off.

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4 / 10
Mar 1, 2015

Almost exactly the same features as Dynasty Warriors 7 Empires, and although it's still more entertaining than the main game the lack of effort put in is downright insulting.

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Eurogamer
Top Critic
No Recommendation / Blank
Mar 1, 2015

But this is really a game for a subset of an already small audience. It's hard to see total newcomers, or fans of hardcore strategy, won over by Empires' strategy-management RPG blend, in much the same way that you wouldn't expect fighting game specialists to be entranced by the Musou combat system. It's a strange compromise really, yet somehow it manages to work. As such, it's certainly worth a spin, perhaps with the upcoming F2P version, if only to get a taste of the Musou series' most complex and thoughtful offshoot.

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8 / 10.0
Mar 1, 2015

Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires provides you with the tools to create your own epic tale of love, betrayal and war, but it won't spoon feed it to you; your imagination must do some of the work to flesh out the experience. The change of pace from the frantic combat offered by the strategic elements of Empire Mode helps keeps things fresh, but if you aren't able to invest interest in the characters and the kingdoms, or can't stomach the cathartic but repetitive combat, Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires may not win you over. For everyone else, Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires is quite possibly the best Dynasty Warriors game to date, on the verge of greatness.

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7.8 / 10.0
Mar 2, 2015

Omega Force certainly takes the core gameplay of Dynasty Warriors and boosts it considerably. A wider and deeper landscape for networking, invading and scheming, and sometimes playing as a politician, helps to make this title more than just another hack and slash experience. This depth will overshadow the lack of visual upgrade for current generation hardware.

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7 / 10.0
Mar 2, 2015

Familiar fun for fans of the series with deep customisation options and an impressive Empire Mode, but the repetitive combat formula hasn't evolved.

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3.5 / 5.0
Mar 8, 2015

Being a fan of the series, I actually installed this latest instalment even though it does become repetitive but the mindless hacking and slashing on the battlefield is quite fun. The mechanics work well but the gameplay is definitely showing its age and once again, hopefully Koei can try something new in their next instalment besides making it a 1080p game.

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6 / 10
Mar 9, 2015

For me, I was hoping for another good step in the right direction for the series, instead, what we got was a freeze in evolution at a time where Omega Force was on the ball with a streak of great releases.

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