DMC: Devil May Cry Review

Dante; to the use of a different engine.

The game begins with Dante being discovered and hunted down by the Demons. To do this, they drag him into a dimension that runs parallel to our own; Limbo. Whilst in Limbo, Dante has superhuman strength, agility and other powers; though he may have enhanced ability’s the Demons are a danger to him; as it the world itself which will twist, collapse and maybe even try to crush him itself.

The Demons control the world through various means; two of the largest outlets are the Raptor new network and the soft drink Virility. All controlled by the Demon King Mundus; he seeks to kill both Dante and stop the “terrorist group” The Order. Dante soon affiliates himself with the Order after being saved by a Medium named Kat and is introduced to Virgil; the Order’s leader and Dante’s Brother. Virgil helps Dante find out about his true past and helps him to prepare for the battle against Mundus and his network of Demons.

As the Devil May Cry series is renowned for its fast, fluid combat it makes sense that that should remain a staple feature. Ninja Theory has that in spades, similar to Heavenly Sword’s combat you have two alternate weapon types that are mixed in with your sword and firearms. It is all very fluid if you know how to control it and some of the techniques used for the best combos will impress many.

Rebellion is Dante’s sword; a fast and decent all-round weapon which is your staple for much of the game. To help with combos, breaking attacks, juggling and dealing with aerial opponents you get Ebony and Ivory; Dante’s twin pistols. More ranged weaponry unlocks later and as with all weapons your combo repertoire will increase over the course of the game as you earn white souls to purchase these upgrades.

The two alternate weapon types are Angel and Demon weapons or blue and red respectively. Much of the game is spent having one of each of these types but another will appear for each later on; extending the list of combos and tricks in combat to an even higher level. Some enemies can only be defeated by using either Angel or Demon weaponry; which is certainly challenging but also makes for some frustrating combat situations due to the Angel=fast and light / Demon=slow and heavy type combat.

Devil Trigger makes a return; as you dish out the damage or use items to replenish your DT gauge you will build up your DT bar. Once it reaches a certain position that is quite low down the bar, you can unleash Devil Trigger mode. Enemies will be thrust into the air; Dante will become faster and more powerful; slowing time down for enemies. His health will also regenerate slightly whilst in this state. It can change a fight dramatically if you unleash DT at the right moment and as you can turn it off at will you can use it to get out of sticky situation before turning the tides of battle for a more advantageous position.

Style is an approximation of how well and how varied you are in a combat situation. It ranges from D at lowest going to A then S up to SSS rank. It is part of what will make up your score at the end of the level; along with time and level completion. Non-repeated moves and lots of continuous damage will increase your rank during combat but taking damage or being out of combat will drop your rank significantly or completely.

Bosses come in fairly early and are spread out amongst the games 20 levels. On your first playthrough they should be an interesting mixed bag of easy to hard. They all have their tells and weaknesses but they do also change as you progress through the alternate difficulty playthroughs. On higher difficulties they definitely take more of a beating and their attack patterns do change slightly.

As you destroy both enemies and objects in the environment you will collect red souls. These souls allow you to buy items in the stores that occasionally appear in levels or can also be visited in the games mission menus. It mainly has health and Devil Trigger restoration items but it does also have Health and DT bar upgrades which become quite costly. It also houses the Gold Skull; an item that will resurrect Dante but each purchase will increase the price of the item.

In each level (barring Boss levels) there are various Keys secret mission doors and a handful of Lost Souls to free. Not all are collectible from the off and will normally take until near the end of the first playthrough before all are accessible. Keys are one of four types and won’t necessarily match up with the doors in the level you find them in. Lost souls are easier to deal with and will give you a large boost to your red soul collection.

Secret Missions are tough challenges that exist outside of a level and have specific requirements for completion. Enemies taking damage only when airborne in one which you are likely to find early on and it is one of the easier ones. Killing Enemies without taking damage is another that you may find later on. Once competed you’ll earn parts of (sometimes a whole) a Health or Devil Trigger upgrade.

The Alternate playthrough difficulties unlock one by one as you complete the preceding difficulty mode. Once you complete your first playthrough you unlock Son of Sparda, a mode with new sets of enemy encounters in the story with generally tougher enemies even in the earlier levels. Upon completion of that difficulty another will unlock eventually leading to Hell and Hell difficulty where enemies are tough and Dante will die in a single hit.

Story

The new world portrayed in this reinvention of the DMC universe is much closer to home. With that as a jumping point; there are a few tropes that appear, such as the evil corporations with media being most in the spotlight. New Dante takes a little getting used to; to begin with he is the standard rebellious foul mouthed delinquent but he does become more humanised over the course of the game, to be a reasonably appealing hero.

Presentation and Audio

There is no doubt that the game is a thing of beauty in environmental design; the shifting floors, walls and objects take the spotlight away from everything but the combat. The Unreal Engine doesn’t seem to break stride in combat though I did have the game installed to the hard drive. As with Dante’s new look the soundtrack is very good but appeals to some audiences more the others.

Gameplay

The combat is on par if not better than Heaven Sword’s combat system; though colour coded enemies feel less fun to fight against. The platforming is quite challenging at times, especially in the later levels but never feels unfair. The game does start a little slow but the game really comes into its own properly, after your first playthrough and the majority of your arsenal is unlocked for use. The game is heavily based on multiple playthroughs which offer a multitude of increasingly difficult encounters and modifiers through the main story.

Overall

Incredible environments are filled with a flurry of blows from Dante’s simple to use, complex to master combo system. This revamped Devil May Cry is fun, fluid and difficult to a degree that should satisfy most old DMC fans and new fans alike. The level design is interesting and beautiful; allowing multiple playthroughs (which you will do) to never get hampered by their design.

Comments:

Capcom and Ninja Theory have rebooted the Devil May Cry series to what I would say is incredibly successfully. The DMC HD Collection was something that I never really thought to want to try but I am now more than happy to pick up a copy in the near future. Reboots can work at bringing in a new audience and I do hope it gains good traction. Now I’ll have to look forward to the DLC and future titles in this rebooted series. Oh and it’d be great if Andy Serkis made an appearance in a DmC game.

Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.