Everyone's in a rush to go Xtreme this holiday, aren't they? The new Dynasty Warriors isn't a full-fledged sequel to last year's closet hit—it's a mission pack with seven new Musou mode characters and some deft enhancements to the original game engine. If you have an original DW3 disc, you can play it with enhanced features activated simply by loading up Xtreme Legends first. Nothing very drastic has happened to the gameplay here. As before, you're charged with defeating generals and winning battles—or, in other words, you must hack and slash and thrust and swipe through thousands of hapless soldiers and rub out all the nasty red marks on the game map. All of DW3's problems—the same battles, the tiny draw distance (enemies appear out of nowhere in crowded quarters), the silly voice-acting—are still in full force. The stories in Musou mode have been fluffed up a bit (the characters have a lot more personality this time), but they're secondary to the endless button mashing. Still, XL's new features add a lot to the gameplay—the named bodyguards in Free mode are a blast, considering how useless guards were in DW3—and the game's too fun to pick on too much. It's repetitive and (to be honest) gets dull after a while, but the sheer scope of Xtreme Legends keeps it engaging for a reasonably long time. The price is also very nice—if you can get into the battles, XL will last you longer than many $50 titles.
