Dynasty Warriors… with Guns

Devil Kings is really fun. Fun as in it feels like you’re playing Dynasty Warriors, which is fun. This game is a shameless clone that fails to effectively copy its idol, but still comes out guns blazing – quite literally.

Released almost a decade after the first entry to the Dynasty Warriors series, Devil Kings feels like a complete rip-off. Released nearly simultaneously with Dynasty Warriors 5, it takes the great, classic elements of the series and adds guns and magic.

Unlike DW, the enemies in Devil Kings are aggressive. You’re just as likely to get taken out by a nameless foot soldier as you are by a commander or a lieutenant. The game really has it in for you, even if you are playing on easy mode. Most of the enemies are defeatable with time and precision, however there is one character that is completely deadly.

The Iron Ox is terrifying, not only does his health bar take up the whole width of the screen, but also he teleports, and hits like a freight train. One hit to him will take perhaps 5% of his health but one hit to you will halve yours. He is the Lu Bu of this game, only if Lu Bu were to partake in Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s training regime and then take steroids as well. It kind of adds to the fear when you realise that this guy is a cyborg.

There aren’t too many playable characters, but there is a high level of customisation for the existing ones, and more characters are unlockable too. You can level up your character to unlock special moves, and bestow different armours and enchantments upon them too. Each character already has one ‘Fury’ attack but its great to be able to switch things up by unlocking more, as you can have up to three equipped at a time.

The cutscenes are amazing in this game too, as they are in an anime style. This gives the game a lot of character and really helps set it apart from its inspiration. Some of the cutscenes are done in CG as well, but those ones just feel pointless and end up being rather tedious, especially because the voice acting in this game is so horrible. The characters all sound as if they are reading from a script that’s been stained with coffee and chewed on by a dog. You can feel the actors get confused and bored and it makes you wonder why they didn’t get fired and replaced.

Overall, Devil Kings is a lot of fun, it allows you to shoot samurai with a minigun and blow up horses. It’s a little predictable and it’s obvious where it got its ideas from, but its spawned 2 sequels and has its own anime in Japan.

7/10

Conclusion

‘A shameless rip-off that’s worth your time’.