Capcom wanted to reboot the Devil May Cry games to bring in new life and a new crowd into Dante’s universe. Sarah, who hasn’t played all the way through any of the previous DMC games, enjoyed this game as a newcomer. I, on the other hand, played all of the other games and really enjoyed the series. I must admit, I was one of those people who threw a temper tantrum when I heard about the reboot and saw the new Dante. But I wanted to give this game a fair shake, so how does DMC hold up to a fan of the original? It has its ups and downs, but overall it’s a solid game that original fans should play.
PLOT
This retelling of DMC brings back first big baddy of the series, Mundus, as the Demon overlord who killed Dante’s mother and imprisoned his Father for all eternity. No longer half demon, but half demon and half angel, Dante is recruited by his long lost brother Vergil to take down Mundus and free humanity while hacking and slashing every demon in Limbo along the way. One of the best things of this story is the relationship between Dante, Vergil, and Kat. Dante comes off as punkish and uncaring at first and through Kat finds something worth fighting for. Vergil and Dante really feel like brothers here, I really loved the little banter they had closer to the end of the game one upping each other by saying how they are stronger or smarter than the other. Mundus, however, felt really bland as a villain. He has more personality than in the original game, but it’s still very cookie cutter villain. The story is pretty predictable and not great but was able to create some pretty tense cut scenes which I never saw in any of the original DMCs. But the biggest issue I had, and maybe it’s because I’m a fan of the original, was Dante. Dante was a punk and a smart ass, not emo, and that’s perfectly fine. Yet a lot of his quips fell flat. It felt like Ninja Theory couldn’t decide if they wanted their Dante to be his own man or harp back to the original. His dialogue lacked the charm it felt like it was going for. Overall, the story wasn’t great but still good.
Design
DMC takes place in Limbo, a parallel world where the demons reside. Levels are impressive, with ever changing landscapes and the world literally trying to kill you. It makes for some fun platforming action. My favorite had to have been the club level, which looks like every raver’s dream. Yet it seems that near the end, the developers ran out of ideas and fall back on some contrive and all too familiar level design. The graphics are good and flow smoothly. I didn’t run into any lag, which is important for a combat game that moves this quickly. There were a few times when textures took a while to pop up during cut scenes but that rarely happened. Overall a great looking game
Combat
The most important aspect of any Devil May Cry game is the combat, and it shines here. You will get access to five weapons and 3 guns over the course of the game, all of which you can switch to on the fly. This can make for some crazy combos. While the initial combat is easy enough for newcomers to grasp, veterans can appreciate the depth of the hack-n-slash of DMC. And with the new emphasis on air combo and juggling, you can literally fly upward and off the screen if you time all your moves right. Fans of the hack-n-slash genre will enjoy this game. A problem I ran into is that when you finally unlock your devil trigger, the ability to slow down time and fling all your enemies in the air to do extra damage, it takes so long to build up the meter that it becomes almost unusable. Not a huge issue but still an annoyance. After each play through you unlock more difficult settings that remix the enemies you run into and with some settings making you die in one hit. This provides moderate replayability reserved only for the most serious of DMC fans.
Rating
Overall this game hits many of the marks it sets out to hit, while not a perfect game, its still solid and a “Hell” of a lot of fun. See what I did there? Yes, this is a different Dante and a different DMC but long time fans should give this game a try before making their decision, you may be surprised in how much you like it. I give this DMC: Devil May Cry 8 out of 10
