Been a while since I did a review, mostly because Amazon and the US postal service really dropped the ball on this one. I won’t go into details, but lets just say they are on my bad side right now. But enough of that, onto the review.
Devil May Cry is actually a series born from the team that did Resident Evil. Originally what we now call Devil May Cry 1 was supposed to be Resident Evil 3. However the game-play and style were so different that they turned it into its own franchise. In Devil May Cry you play Dante, son of Legendary Demon Dark Knight Sparda. Being born of a human mother, and carrying half of his father’s legacy of power and desire to protect human kind from evil that may try to invade our world has turned Dante into a formidable foe against the forces of evil. This is assuming, of course, that he ever gets off his lazy butt, puts down the pizza, and actually does some work. New to the series is a playable character named Nero (voice by Johnny Yong Bosch a.k.a. Vash the Stampede for those familiar with Trigun) who has abilities unique to him, changing up the gameplay between the two characters. Most importantly the game is all about style. Think Hong Kong action flick crossed with the Matrix crossed with five kegs of butting whooping on tap. This has been a staple of the series since the first game and gives it a unique niche in the market. Also new is that the game is on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360. This is a rather major step because originally it was a PS2 exclusive.
THE GOOD
Well, lets start with the combat. As mentioned before, combat is highly stylized with combos, gunplay, evasions, and lots of frantic button pressing. The character of Nero is unique in that his right arm is actually a hybrid of human and demon which allows him to grab enemies from afar, toss them around like rag dolls, grabble swing points, ect. This talent makes combat and fluid exchange of sword slashing, shooting and ‘Mortal Kombat Scorpion’ like “Get over here!” actions. Believe me though, it’s a lot of fun to grab a boss that looks like a giant flaming Liontaur (think a lion/centaur) and then slam him into the ground like an egg. Attacks are chained together to gain style points, starting from Deadly, Carnage, Bloody, Awesome, Stylish, Smokin’ Style, and Smokin’ Sick Style. Now the catch to it is that you just can’t do the same combo over and over to build your style meter. Doing so will actually make the meter go down, so you need to mixed things up a bit and try all sorts of different attacks to keep that meter going up. While frustrating sometimes, it keeps the game from getting repetitive.
Later in the game you can finally play as the legendary Dante, but oddly for me I really started to miss the arm ability that Nero had. However, Dante seems to do more damage with his sword, and has a shotgun besides his classic pistols, Ebony and Ivory. Unique to him is the ability to change his fighting style mid combat. This means that you can go from being a sword master, and all the stylish moves that go with it, to a gunslinger, to Trickster, to Royal Guard and build your combo meter that way. It also allows the player to probe the weaknesses of enemies, since some are weaker to swords and others to firearms.
Graphically, the game is beautiful with environments and character rendering that is just stunningly gorgeous. The environments are an over the top neo Renaissance style for the city of Fortuna; highlighted by classic domed ceilings, columns, Venetian influenced courtyards, and lots of marble. In some places I’ll say that the graphics are a little too detailed, but I’ll leave that for the ugly section.
THE BAD
The camera in the game can be your enemy sometimes, as it likes you change position on you at the most inopportune moment. More than once it resulted in near death or full death. So, I really hate it, most Capcom games of this style (Resident Evil, Devil May Cry) all suffer from this.
Secondly, the difficulty on any level higher than Human (easy) gets ramped up around stages 8 or 9 and makes you use health items before you even get to the boss. Health items are also bought with demon blood, and for every one that you buy, the price goes up each time. It’s like they are saying, “You sucks if you need these”. At least in DMC1 there was a certain price that they didn’t go over, but not here.
When playing as Dante you pretty much backtrack through all the areas that you traveled through as Nero. Yes it’s cool to play as Dante, but at least create some new areas for us to play in.
THE BAD
Well, we’re start off with the violence level in the game. No I don’t mean hacking, slashing and shooting demon things, but rather in the cut scenes. Characters get shot, stabbed, impaled, and slashed. Mind you, characters like Dante seem to be completely immune to these kinds of things, as he has been impaled by no less that five swords throughout the series with no ill effects. There is also quite a bit of mature language in it, mostly from Nero. It varies from the odd curse word here and there, to him giving Dante the finger.
Probably the hardest ‘Bad’ thing for me to describe (without being blunt, that is) is the level of… well, detail on three of the female characters. Basically, they are busting out, wearing very little, and in the case of one, wearing next to nothing and doing complex acrobatics with only a strategically placed hanging bit of cloth on her dress (if it could be called that) covering certain regions. Considering that its coming from Japan, highly influenced by Anime styles, and from Capcom I’ll let them slide a bit for this. However I will say that it is for 17 or older for sure. No doubt in my mind.
CONCLUSION
Good game, it has its faults but still a lot of fun. If you love the series, it’s worth buying. If you are unfamiliar with the series, give it a rental see if you like it or not, and decide from there.
