So I downloaded the Dynasty Warriors: StrikeForce demo today.  I'm not exactly sure why I did so, although I feel it was mostly out of nostalgia for decimating entire armies on my own on my PS2.  Knowing full and well that Dynasty Warriors does very little to innovate through the series, I downloaded this demo because that's what I wanted: old school army killing action.

I was sorely disappointed.

Quickly, a disclaimer.  I've only played two missions on this demo and did very little to delve into the new features or the customization options; like I said, I wanted to rack up a kill count in the 200s in five minutes.

First off, this feels very little like the Dynasty Warriors I remember.  I can't quite put my finger on it but something in the set-up and the environments was off.  Firstly, rather than one huge battlefield, this game presents the illusion of one large battlefield.  See, it's basically a series of rooms.  You kill enough bad guys in this area, their leader appears, kill him and you walk to the gate, hit a loading screen and jump to the next zone.

Bleh.

Second, the opposing army was underwhelming.  Perhaps I'm glorifying the older versions in my treasured memories, but I do NOT remember seeing opponents spawn right before my eyes.  From the sky.  Further, I remember more enemies on screen.  There just wasn't the epic "I just destroyed an entire army" feeling.

Third, I felt alone.  Playing the previous games I distinctly recall hearing allies scream for help across the battlefield, get indicators of morale, join with an ally's army, do something that feels like I'm fighting an actual war.  This game: nothing.  The description says you can play online with three allies or have these allies AI controlled, but I saw nothing of that.

Fourth, the camera killed me.  It was stuck everywhere.  Trees, houses, giant bows that shoot orbs of energy straight at me from across the map, even enemy soldiers.  Needless to say, this put a damper on my army-destroying agenda.

Fifth, my character was pathetic.  Sure he could slice and dice the infantry, but one hit and he was flying.  He'll land on the ground and stay there for an agonizingly long period of time while being buffeted by long range "magic" (magic here meaning, again, random orbs of energy) attacks and refusing to stand no matter what button I mashed nor how hard I mashed it.  Once I did get on my feet again, one of the aforementioned "magic" attacks promptly knocked me back down.  Again, this was seriously obstructing my ability to destroy an entire army.

Overall, my brief experience with this game was highly underwhelming.  Instead being the same as every other Dynasty Warriors game, this seems to be LESS than every other game in the series.

Maybe I was doing something wrong.  Soon I'll try to devote a bit more time to this demo and see if my first impression was on the mark.  Unfortunately, I'm afraid that won't be the case.