User Reviews

I've always had an unhealthy fascination with battles. Not the modern-day hiding behind a wall while firing an assault rifle type, (though Gears Of War is superb fun) but the classical kind where thousands of men line up either side of a field and charge in. My favourite kind of films/are epics, my favourite novels is/are historical fiction, and I always ached for a battle game.

Sure there are more strategy games than you can shake a stick at, but where's the personal involvement? You simply throw units at the enemy in the hope of winning the battle, sitting back and watching while the mêlée ensues. Films and books give you characters you are invested in and can relate to and are concerned about their survival and cheer when they best a villain.

So, when I first played Dynasty Warriors 2 on my friend's PS2 many years ago, I was hooked. While the numbers weren't truly grand, I got a taste of being just one of a thousand people.

Ninety Nine Nights is the battle game I have been waiting for. Though the criticisms are pretty true, IE you press the X button until everyone not on your side is dead, the sheer scale of the battles is immense. Where Dynasty Warriors was weak was that there could only be so many characters on screen, usually around 20-30. Once you moved towards a mêlée, more characters would pop up. In N3, you can see EVERY combatant, from the goblin about to swing a machete into your face, to the tiny pin-dot at the other side of the field. There are sometimes thousands on screen hacking away at each other, with the floor eventually being littered with corpses that stay for a surprising amount of time.

Another fault of Dynasty Warriors was the poor sense of unit structure. Units could move in squads of five, but there were never any "big charges", of the Braveheart kind. In N3, your entire force moves as a structured phalanx almost, staying in a rectangular formation. When set upon by an enemy force, the army charges as one, and CRASH, the armies collide, leaving you hacking away with the abandon and desperation I imagine a real battle would require.

The RPG elements are welcome too, allowing your character to level up, becoming more powerful, and exploration of the levels is rewarding due to the large quantity of pickups available in treasure chests.

Those of you who wish to join the battle, make sure you replay the earlier missions repeatedly, as the game is very unforgiving. It isn't unusual to slog away at a level for over an hour cutting down thousands of grunts, then to suddenly be slaughtered by the end of level boss. Replay the early levels to get your character levelled up!