Writing about the Dynasty Warriors series – and the rest of Omega Force’s offerings within and without the wider Warriors franchise – is made difficult by the inevitable comparisons between titles. The problem’s not unique to this one series, since any sequel, or indeed any entry into a genre packed with similar games, is going to be judged against its precursors and peers, rather than purely on its own merits.

Dynasty Warriors 6 Empires in particular definitely gets the rough end of the deal, being a sequel, a spin-off, and a sequel of a spin-off. Everybody wants to know if it is better than the poorly received Dynasty Warriors 6; they want to know how it compares to Dynasty Warriors 5 Empires, the previous entry in the strategy stream. I imagine the game as the youngest of a huge family of siblings, nearly rigid with apprehension on their first day of school with the pressure of living up to, or disproving, expectations.

The goal of the game, as always in the Empires series, is to conquer the twenty-four provinces of Three Kingdoms era China. This can be achieved either as a force’s ruler, or as an officer under the command of such a ruler. Where the game really shines is in the fluidity between the various states of play; you can attempt a coup against your ruler, or step down if the burdens of government prove too wearisome. It is possible to enjoy the role of vagrant warrior, neither a ruler nor an officer, and wander around the country until you find an employer that suits you – or a territory that suits you, and promptly invade. If you haven’t changed your status recently, other characters will sometimes trigger special events which offer you the chance to rise against your ruler, or overthrow the emperor. I’m not sure if this is just my experience, but these events seem much more likely to happen when you’ve forgotten to save for a few turns, meaning you can find yourself faced with the prospect of reloading a few hours of progress or putting up with the fact that you were just kicked out of the biggest army in the country and have to start again at the bottom in some piddly rival force – and that is a lot of fun. Really.

While the main task of officers is to fulfil an assignment every three turns, as either a vagrant or an officer, you have the option to take on mercenary missions. These little individual battles can be extremely lucrative financially and also unlock special abilities. Performing mercenary missions will also improve your relationship with the officers you meet along the way, who may then offer to become friends, who can be called upon in future battles. Get really friendly with a member of the opposite gender and they might even agree to marry you, which results in occasional presents, experience boosts, and a possible appearance in the ending. Friends of the same gender may swear a pact with you for similar benefits, although in the long run it doesn’t seem to matter which characters you choose to be your BFFs and spouse.

It must be said that completing the mercenary quests and rocking around the countryside as a ronin is rather more fun than ruling. As a ruler, you can invade to expand your territory every month if desired, but that’s the end of your actual participation in events. Everything else is managed via the drawing and play of strategy cards, which grant bonuses like increased gold each turn and extra attack strength. There’s not enough variety between cards to hold your interest long, and you have few opportunities for diplomacy, no input in the placement of your forces, and are unable to take on mercenary missions – so can’t seek out and recruit specific characters to your side. Apart from the ability to invade on every turn, something that rapidly grows repetitive, ruling has little advantage over serving someone else. Since you can win the game as officer or ruler, the whole ruler mode feels a little extraneous for any but the egotistical or historical purists.

However much I try to avoid it, a few comparisons do need to be made. Since DW6E was built on the same engine as Dynasty Warriors 6, we need to know if it suffers from the same crippling flaws. Thankfully, the answer is: largely no. A series that embodies the “one against a thousand” concept simply cannot be applauded for including incredible slow down every time more than a handful of characters enter the same space, and yet Dynasty Warriors 6 endured so much that for a while I was almost convinced it was a deliberate feature to give you the chance to see what was going on in the press of bodies. DW6E triumphs over its brother by running with barely a hiccup despite piling the bodies on screen in even larger numbers. In many hours of gameplay I was only troubled by slow down on two or three occasions, and each for a tiny fraction of a second; about the same amount I would experience in the first three minutes of a Dynasty Warriors 6 level.

In other respects the game’s visuals are fairly run of the mill; Omega Force don’t seem to have introduced a new texture or asset to the series for the last six entries, and despite the fan uproar over recent character re-designs, players of even very early titles like Dynasty Warriors 2 will still recognise familiar faces. In screenshots DW6E looks sadly mediocre, but really, play is fast-paced enough that nobody cares, as long as nothing goes horribly wrong, and if identi-kit bases are the cost of near silky-smooth performance, I cannot commit to a complaint.

Speaking of identi-kits, the Edit Mode (or create-a-warrior) is rather a pleasure. Some characteristics are too limited: both genders have only three face shapes to choose from, and while twice that number of nose, eye, and mouth options mean you can get a fair bit of variety out of the system, it’s difficult to achieve anything representative of yourself, if that takes your fancy, or to sufficiently differentiate your creation from your friends’. Since you don’t spend very long looking at your officer’s face it’s not too big a deal, especially since the hair and clothing options are much more diverse. The initial selection is small but can still be combined in various ways to good effect, with edit officers looking as distinguished as canonical characters and definitely more impressive than the game’s “generic” creations. Completing missions unlocks more options, and Koei seem set to offer more as free downloadable content, so that filling your hundred edit character slots is probably going to be rather too easy.

Rather more disappointing is the slim pickings in the available movesets. A few new additions – Ma Chao’s enormous sword, Zhang He’s claws, Meng Huo’s pillar – spice things up a little bit but balancing the look of your character with an attack or run animation that doesn’t make them look totally bizarre can be challenging, especially when picking from the small pool you personally find engaging to play with. Happily the combat has been tweaked in a very pleasant fashion; while on lower difficulty settings the entire game can be completed with button spamming, the two highest settings prove quite challenging and will force you to master the counter-attack, evade, and grapple moves, as well as the timing on power attacks. It is not for the faint-hearted but fighting fans may well be engrossed.

Mastering the harder difficulty settings will definitely extend the game’s value as it requires a bit of commitment; otherwise, there are only four scenarios and each can be completed quite quickly, and although there’s plenty of bonuses like artwork and voice samples to unlock, most players won’t be too fascinated by these rewards.

It would be easy to review DW6E in dot point, comparing its features to those of previous titles favourably and unfavourably, and laying down my opinion of how the pro and con columns total – but that isn’t anything you can’t find raging in debate form on any of the many, many message boards around the web dedicated to the franchise fandom, and whether Dynasty Warriors 6 Empires is better than Dynasty Warriors 3 Xtreme Legends is not of supreme interest to any but those that already hold very serious opinions on the matter. What it all comes down to is this: if you like the kind of game where you slaughter masses of peons by hitting them with a stick, you are going to get a kick out of this game that may last longer than a weekend rental, but strategy fans, even those who appreciated earlier entries, are not going to be as impressed and should not waste their time.