|
The
collaboration between Beat-‘Em-Up’s and Strategy games has taken
it’s time to develop; each platform is totally unique in its own
right and yet completely intertwined at the same time. It’s only
now, twenty-odd years of production later from the first
Beat-‘Em-Up and Strategy releases, that we really have the power
to combine the two to seem like a realistic hand-to-hand combat war
simulation, with more than five enemies on-screen at any one time.
One of the few games to really bring this kind of gameplay into the
open was Dynasty Warriors, a series from Koei. It was this,
open-ended combat-supplemented Strategy titles’ gameplay, with
expansive areas and thoughtful RPG elements that really inspired the
now blockbuster titles; SEGA’s Spartan:
Total Warrior, the new Ninety-Nine Knights from Taito on the
Xbox360 and, although not directly linked, based on entirely the
same idea comes Nintendo and Kuju’s recent collaboration on Battalion
Wars.
The recently released Capcom title, Devil Kings, has
all the styling of these games but also a much deeper root into the
Capcom depths with great influences from Devil May Cry and Onimusha’s
hack-and-slash ideas. The game sets-out with the generic
RPG-inspired idea of Levelling-Up the various characters though
either the Conquest Mode; where you invade other people and take
their territories to become world conqueror. There is also the
industry-required Free Play Mode where you can play with the
characters and Levels unlocked in Conquest Mode. To start with
there’s eight different playable characters, all with specialised
strengths in various weapons and styles of fighting; samurai
warriors, giant axe-wielding maniacs, ninja masters and many more.
Your character starts off with a wide range of Combo’s and
Power Moves based around the pressing of the Triangle and Square
Buttons, as you complete the Stages and earn more Experience  you
will unlock other moves accessible though pressing the R1 Trigger
in-conjunction with Triangle or Square. The Levels are set out as
massive battlefields in which you can run through fighting literally
hundreds of people with twenty-to-fifty people surrounding you at
any one-time. Pressing Triangle will Prime the enemy in front of
you, stunning them for a few seconds and allowing you to unleash a
devastating parry of attacks which build up to a huge combo when
timed right - increasing the Experience you receive immensely. As
well as getting bonuses for fighting well, you also get Treasure
Chests for killing Officers, hounding down Treasure Chest Carriers
and finding hidden bonuses around the Levels, these are opened at
the end of each Level and give you either, yet again, more
Experience, or some rather cool items which you can equip to your
character.
The items you get out of the battle are a small part of the
useful Levelling-Up System; as you go through Conquest Mode on Easy,
Medium or Hard you’ll find the items you get vary greatly. On Easy
you’ll get moderately useful items which will get you used to the
three Item Slot System, this lets you learn what you specialise in
and use the three items you can have to increase the abilities you
use most. As you go up through the difficulties you will obtain
higher-Level items that you already have and some rarer items that
can assist you greatly. As mentioned above, through Levelling-Up
each character will start obtaining the R1 Special Moves; you can
only have two at any one-time and when you start you will have
trouble getting many more than that, but you’ll soon find with a
few goes on Free Play Mode you have another huge host of options to
choose from. Also as you Level-Up your health will slowly increase,
making some of the harder fights just that little bit easier.
As stated above, every Level is set up as a sprawling
battlefield. You start at the bottom of the map (shown in the
top-right corner of the screen), and progress up through the
province you’re invading to the castle or mansion at the top to
take on the leader. Along the way you’ll have to fight through
full assaults, highly tactical defence, ambushes and cavalry
charges. You’ll have your army with you, all lead under a team of
Officers. They try and make the best attacking-strategy possible,
but you have no direct control over them whatsoever, and should your
army die, you will lose the battle; a small amount of baby sitting
is required, especially when you have twenty Pike-men all trying, and
failing, to poke down a seven foot bloke with a club. Success is
possible however and when you finally reach the leader of the clan
he will generally be surrounded by a large bunch of goons so
there’s always a nice epic battle at the finish.
The way the Levels are unlocked for Free Play Mode is a
cleanly struck addition to the seemingly basic requirement if
features. You can only play the Levels in Free Play mode when
you’ve played on them in Conquest Mode, but in addition each
character you play in Conquest Mode starts from their own Territory,
and slowly braches-out and each time you fight someone for the land
they’ve conquered. Each character you can play with at the
beginning is the most powerful force in their area and each
character starts in completely different area of their Map. The only
way to unlock every Map in the game in to play as every character or
have a long and elongated plan to fight every player on the game in
the quickest way possible. Another small fault with the game is that
there isn’t (as far as my bewildered button pressing could find)
any kind of Lock-On Feature. Fine when surrounded by willing victims
but when a more precise edge is called for, there’s little you can
do but hit and hope.
The gameplay in Devil Kings is very well paced and
thought-through, but the title’s presentation is far from being
substandard also. The Character Models, weapons, objects around you
and the landscape are truly brilliant - every sword movement and
lighting effect is clear and precise even when the screen is full of
enemies, but there is one small problem that just can’t be
ignored. Unfortunately I have to say the one biggest downfall of
this game was the Draw-Distance, and it’s not just when things got
hectic, it’s all the
time. You’d be happily running towards what looked like a group of
a few men; then, all of a sudden, there’d be thirty of them there.
Random men will appear beside you as you run along then disappear
again as you carry on, sometimes even the giant-men with the huge
axes will appear, randomly next to you. The disjointed programming
doesn’t destroy the game totally, but it does put a small damper
on the occasion, proving the PlayStation2’s short-comings when
compared with the GameCube and Xbox once again.
The sound quality great - full of the old battle cries or
drunken roar that went with the medieval battles and some great
death-cries which sometimes make you want to hang around until
they’d finished, just for the sheer enjoyment factor. The music
was very fitting and orchestral, and there’s even the option of
equipping some items which will change the music for you!
Devil Kings is a great release, and for all of its
faults it really does do a lot for evolving two genres into a new
breed. There are some great bits of anime FMV between some of the
battles, which reflects the Japanese feeling that Capcom have kept
within the title for its European Launch, giving the game a
finishing-coat over what’s already there. Devil Kings may
not be as thorough as it competitors, but it certainly has the edge
on inspiring in-depth titles that remain part of that
Pick-Up-And-Play affixation that this industry currently has, and
needs.
|
