![]() ![]() The sorcerer Zhuge Liang sets his sword on fire, and with it the ships of the Battle of Red Bluff (in an echo of the Dynasty Warriors 2 intro). The beautiful introductory FMV, which was the other element of the demo that we saw, features several events that would be a little out of place in the first Kessen's feudal Japan. Though the vast increase in scale means there will be far more troops on screen than before, hopefully you'll be able to still effectively control them.įor the inclusion of magical attacks in the game, you have Kessen II's arrival in the Three Kingdoms milieu to thank, which will also result in the appearance of other fantastic and supernatural elements. You'll be able to direct troops at the squad level, making it easier to perform fine maneuvers or bring particular amounts of force to bear on select goals. Though that's the most obvious addition to Kessen II's gameplay, its control of conventional troops and tactics will also improve upon the previous game. The lightning attack was capable of causing friendly fire casualties, although friendly troops were immune to the effect of the tornado. Each bolt blew massive holes in the ground, throwing off chunks of dirt and rock and sending every soldier in the blast radius flying. The other spell demonstrated, a series of lightning strikes, wasn't quite so picturesque, but it was at least as devastating. Though the twister seemed to markedly lower the normally smooth framerate, that might have had the effect of actually enhancing its impact ¿ the flying horses looked much cooler in slightly slow motion. The character animation was strikingly smooth for such an unusual occurrence, men and horses alike flailing their limbs as they whirled around. The massive cyclone, composed of complex polygonal dust clouds and throwing debris and particles all around it, inhaled every enemy troop in its path, pulling them up into the air and hurling them about before dropping them to the ground. After the sorceress performed her series of gestures and incantations, clouds gathered above the battlefield, and the twister touched down. Once the spell was cast, the real fun began. On command, the camera zoomed in on her and switched to a targeting mode, where an area effect target could be brought to bear on a particular section of the battlefield. Number 500 was a lone sorceress, standing far off to one side of the field near a small river (the only notable background element in the demo ¿ the rest were simply a few distant hills, while the field itself was a flat, barren brown). See, there were actually just 499 soldiers on the field. The dead quiet was generally the result of spell attacks, the most immediately impressive visuals in the demo. Some time into the fight, certain areas of the field were dead quiet and strewn with corpses, while fighting continued in others. The battle was big enough for different sections of the theatre to develop along different lines. Their behavior is visibly intelligent: some backed off in the face of strong opposition, while others would surround and cut off a lone opponent. ![]() Some run around, kicking up dust clouds others strike with their spears or swords occasionally, you even encounter an extra from Dynasty Warriors 2, twirling his spear around over his head. The soldiers move a little slowly and haltingly, but they're all of them animated by their own AI, and they all move around and do different things at any given point. The demo camera was freely controllable, pulling back to convey the impressive sense of scale involved ¿ if you thought there was a lot going on in the first Kessen, you ought to see the sequel. On signal, both sides charged, meeting in the center of the field with a clash of spears. The in-game demo proper consisted of five hundred infantrymen and cavalry, arranged in ranks on either side of the battlefield. That tornado, pictured in one of the screenshots below, was one of the realtime game elements we saw in motion.
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