Samurai Warriors 2 for Xbox 360 Reviews by Gamers

Samurai Warriors 2 is in most ways an exact clone of the first game, which unfortunately includes the graphics. While not "bad", the game looks like it was made for the PS2 and not upgraded at all when they ported it to the 360. Gameplay is also lifted straight from the first game, which I guess you could consider a good thing if you really liked the original.

If you haven't played the first game, then this game could be best described as Dynasty Warriors with historical Japanese characters instead of Chinese. If you also haven't played Dynasty Warriors, then this game could be best described as a one-man army versus about a thousand guys, which you basically just button-mash your way through. It's a good time, but it does begin to wear thin after five or six games' worth of doing it.

This game does, however, offer two new additions: Sugoroku and an item shop. Sugoroku is essentially Monopoly with your Samurai Warriors, with the twist being that when you land on someone else's territory, you can fight them to take it over instead of paying the toll. The item shop is a place where you can spend the gold you earn in levels to upgrade your character, buying abilities or weapons or better guards. Both are good additions to the game and help give you a reason to play this game instead of just playing the first game again. That, and the fact that this is a 360 game, meaning you can earn yourself some achievements along the way.

As far as Xbox Live is concerned, there is a versus mode in which you try to defeat a rival general faster than your buddy can. I don't understand why you couldn't just go head-to-head, but I'm not a game developer either. There's also a co-op mode, but you can't play that online. Again... maybe I'm just not meant to understand these things?

All in all, this is a decent game. I expected a few more upgrades, but it's still a good time. If you like mindless hacking and slashing through thousands of enemies, this is definitely the game for you.

Samurai Warriors 2 changes very little of the tried-and-true Koei formula. anyone who's ever heard of Koei should know exactly what to expect from this game. if you've never heard of Koei, here's the short version: hack and slash button masher, buy some upgrades, wash rinse repeat endlessly.

360 owners are again stuck with what amounts to a straight PS2 port, with no real visible changes beyond the widescreen aspect ratio. this installment in the series does give you the opportunity to purchase upgrades between stages, but after buying many of the sequential upgrades I have to say I couldn't find any differences having done so. they seem inconsequential.

the main fault I found in this game was the AI. even Samurai/ Dynasty Warriors veterans might be surprised at how ferociously lame the friendly AI is in this installment. I commonly found my teammates killing fifty enemies in the time I dispatched five or six hundred. in a crowd your teammates stand around and watch. this problem kicks you in the face when your comrades cannot defend your garrison against a tiny force while you're at the far end of the map, and you have to replay the stage you just spent twenty minutes slogging through.

this isn't awful. actually, it is awful but seeing as Koei have made millions peddling this same garbage to us for years, it's not unexpected. all told, I'd have to say this is just about par for the Warriors course.