Ninety-Nine Nights II hands-on

Twice Nightly.

There are few things as empowering in games as the intense thrill of being a ridiculously skilled warrior, capable of tearing his or her way through hundreds, if not thousands, of would-be opponents. It’s this feeling of power that has made the Dynasty Warriors series so enduringly popular despite few changes to the formula; it’s what gamers love about all hack-em-ups, from Bayonetta to God of War, from Devil May Cry to Dante’s Inferno- that feeling of immense strength that you get from single-handedly ploughing your way through legions of enemies.

Q Entertainments Ninety-Nine Nights was not the first game to bring that sensation, but in 2005 it was the first to do so on a (then) next-gen console. The leap was astounding; wide open environments packed with thousands of enemies for you to cleave through. It was still a bit 7/10, but in a good way- it delivered on that satisfying sense of power, and became a cult, if not commercial or critical, hit in the process. And five years on, Ninety-Nine Nights is back, an unexpected sequel from returning developers Q Entertainment and Feelplus.

The two levels on offer were a castle siege and a boss encounter. I wisely opted to try the siege first, to check out the improvements to the combat system. It’s a fairly straightforward, bite-sized level; an opening skirmish with a hundred or so enemy soldiers, followed by a destroy-the-objects section, rounded off with an encounter with a huge tough thing; the sort of elements that frequently made up levels of the original game, in fact, which made N3II feel instantly familiar. The standard light and heavy attacks can be strung together in freeform combos, guarding and dodging is handled by the triggers, jumping is possible if a touch pointless, and the dual-sword wielding protagonist Galen also has access to a range of skills, accessed by holding down the left bumper and pressing a face button. These are fun; charging through hordes of foes, unleashing lightning bolts of doom, etc, but all have a recharge period before they can be used again. In later levels, that might make you plan when to use them, but on this level where the only enemies I faced were hapless infantry, it wasn’t a concern. Slicing through the foes was a breeze despite their numbers; pretty soon the combo counter ratcheted up into the hundreds, my Kill tally not far behind. Mercifully, thanks to a fluid and responsive control system, I was having fun as well; attacks feel powerful but trigger swiftly, making N3II a much more immediate feeling game than its predecessor.

The next section was marginally more challenging; three towers that spawned infantry were dotted around the area, and getting to them meant fighting through the hordes of troops and smashing the tower before it spawned too many more- reminiscent of some sections of Creative Assembly’s Viking: Battle for Asgard, actually. The final tower was guarded by a stronger soldier, though even he didn’t put up much of a fight.

The last section took place before the castle walls, a where consignment of elven soldiers was hemmed in by enemy forces led by that huge tough thing. Killing its friends wasn’t an issue, but the brute itself was pretty tough, and made me actually think about my attacks and strategy for the first time, which was welcome. So, the first level complete, I was left satisfied but not surprised; N3II so far felt like a refined version of the original.

The next encounter took me by surprise. A much smaller region awaited, swarmed with both allied and enemy soliders- though these were hulking armoured troops rather than the pitiful infantry I’d faced before. And behind them all, three fireball-hurling wizards and a massive lizardlike creature that spewed gouts of flame from its enormous gob.

My initial charge didn’t go well. Expecting the same kind of merry hack-and-slash as the first level, I got my arse promptly handed to me on a plate within a minute. Ah. I tried again, this time a bit more wary. I died just as fast. Something wasn’t working. I tried again, this time heading straight for the wizards. That worked better, but after I had dealt with them there was still the matter of the hundreds of bulky enemies hitting me and not letting me get close to the behemoth. Several more attempts followed before I finally made some headway; clearing out the mages, then the soldiers, seemed to open the best path for me to battle the lizard, but like the best boss battles, fighting it required a careful approach, timing attacks to coincide with lulls in its offense, resorting to frenetic dodging when its attacks then came. The boss fight was an unexpected thrill; whilst the original Ninety-Nine Nights had its share of bosses, they usually required the same tactics as ordinary foes but took more damage. The behemoth had required me to completely rethink my tactics, and in doing so partially changed the nature of N3II- from a basic Dynasty Warriors style Hack-and-slash to something approaching the more considered approach of, say, God of War. That’s hardly high praise when it comes to tactical depth, but it’s a welcome addition to the formula that might help to hold the interest of other players.

Visually, N3II is leaps and bounds ahead of its predecessor; there are still as many units on screen but the framerate is gloriously fluid, and the units pack much more detail and far better animations. Pyrotechnics are as screen-engulfing and impressive as ever, and there’s a much darker art style about N3II that seems to suit the setting well, even if it does make things seem a bit bleak.

Written by :

James Hall