Samurai Warriors: State of War brings the Samurai-themed historical action strategy series to Sony's PSP system and, and while it does offer some slight improvements over Dynasty Warriors for the PSP, the end result probably isn't as good as it could have been. That aside, fans of KOEI's tactical action games will find this game an enjoyable way to burn up some time while on the go.

State of War, unlike KOEI's other titles gives players bite sized battles as opposed to large scale maps filled with thousands of enemies. In this game players choose one of eight colorful characters (you can unlock a whole lot more) and play out a series of scenarios which are presented as maps. Players move on these maps in turn-based fashion, engage enemies and take over each "square" as you go.

When players move to a square controlled by the enemy they are thrusts into a short battle map and take on whoever is charge to clear it. Sometimes that might be an enemy major or a high ranking general, but most times a map can be cleared in under a minute. Once the leader is defeated or the objective passed (for example kill X number of soldiers in a certain amount of time) players are given a score and any special bonuses and thrusts back to the map. Adding to the strategic elements are charms and skill scrolls. Players can earn charms and skill scrolls by finding them as treasure or hitting a certain KO count. Players get these bonuses for every 50 KO's they get so there are lots to choose from.

Skill scrolls and charms are very handy because they can do all sorts of things like heal your group, or reign lightening or fire down on your enemy before you engage them. You can use as many as you like within a turn, so these special trinkets and baubles can really affect what happens on the map. Much like the other games, you clear a scenario when you find the toughest general and put him or her down for a dirt nap. There's a semi-historical story to follow as well as some hypothetical happenings, but the action described above is pretty much what you'll get.

We should also mention that as you defeat enemy generals and high ranking officers sometimes you'll earn a weapon or a special skill - these powers or skills are collected when the scenario at hand is completed. Players are then given various points for KO's scores you achieved in each battle, treasure collected and more.

So basically you have the turn-based strategy side of the formula and then small bite sized battles that you can play out rather quickly. While the strategy side of this coin is pretty much flawless, the action part of the game has a few minor drawbacks. Much like Dynasty Warriors for the PSP, the camera is fixed and can be problematic at times. The camera is usually is in a good position ofr the player, which works fine for the most part, but if you turn around you don't see what's in front of you. This means that enemies can be off-screen and out of view, sometimes hitting you. The AI is also not very intelligent - many times hoards of soldiers that aren't in view just stand there waiting to be clobbered, and most of them don't put up too much of a fight when they do engage you. Generals and high level officers are a tad bit more challenging the general soldier fodder you'll run into, but they too are easily dispatched. While the environments these bite sized battles take place in have improved somewhat since Dynasty Warriors for the PSP, they too are still pretty basic.

To its credit, the game does offer lots of unlockables, the usual archive of historical information, a free mode to play single maps with a character of your choosing and lots of the familiar trappings of the series. There's also VS multiplayer mode which consists of two options: Vanguard and Bandit. In Vanguard players must defeat enough enemies to make a Captain appear and defeat other players. When someone defeats 5 Captains the game ends and they are proclaimed the winner. In Bandit players collect gold and beat on other players until one person collects 10, 000 gold. Players can select up to four Subofficers to join them and up to three other players can take part in a given session via Ad Hoc Mode. Finding an Ad Hoc game or hosting one can prove to be a futile affair, but once you do the multiplayer modes can be fun. Probably multiplayer mode would have been served better with support for Infrastructure mode instead because finding opponents is pretty difficult unless you live in a bustling metropolis.

At the end of the day, State of War does do its best to provide some unique gameplay, but as is the case with these games from KOEI, the gameplay still remains a mostly acquired taste. In other words, if you don't like the action they offer than you won't care for this latest title at all. And while there is new content to be found in State of War, it's not going to be different enough to wow anyone familiar with all these series.