As a huge fan of the Original Devil May Cry series, I’ve been waiting to get my teeth into DMC for a while. I’ll admit, when it was first announced, I joined in with the mass of fans that cried foul because of Dante’s hair colour change (how petty and small a thing to get worked up over). But, upon the game being released for years now, I’ve gotten over that original contempt I felt for the change, and have decided to finally take the plunge and play the game on PC, where I can experience it in full 1080p, 60FPS glory. Below I’ll break down each part of the game, starting with the Story, moving onto the Graphics/Sound, and finally the gameplay. Enjoy!
First up, the Story: Seriously, as much as I enjoyed the original Devil May Cry games, the story wasn’t exactly thorough or deep. I find that with age, I genuinely can’t remember much other than Dante was the son of Sparta, a demon that loved a human and had a kid, allowing that kid to be super-human in strength, and to even summon demon powers to take on the super-natural. Whilst this may have been enough back in the days of the PS2 (a simple enough premise to keep players engaged), these days that simplicity just wouldn’t stand.
So Ninja Theory (developers of Enslaved: Odyssey to the West) took the game back to the drawing board, with the story taking place in a world not unlike our own. Dante and Virgil are still demon kids, but their mother was also an angel, meaning they are nephilim; half angel, half devil, able to kill gods themselves. Unlike the original series, which took place in a real world, DMC takes place in Limbo, giving Ninja Theory the perfect setting to let their creative juices flow freely, with worlds crumbling and contorting in weird and wonderful ways. It also allows them to show Dante fighting demons without humans seeing them, closing a loophole the previous games faced. This setting, and the seriousness of it, really shone through, keeping me hooked until the end of the game. Fantastic retelling/alteration of a mediocre original series I would say.
Next up, the graphics/sound: Well, what can I say. We haven’t really had a true next gen (read: previous gen) devil may cry game, with Devil may cry 4 being more of a slight upgrade over Devil May Cry 3’s engine, it felt awesome to actually play a game made for Xbox 360/PS3, and even on the PC, where I was able to crank graphics settings so high it looked like a PS4/Xbox One title (albeit with silky smooth 60fps framerate at all times). The HD textures were a pleasure to behold, with in game graphics looking better than the pre-rendered cutscenes, I was gobsmacked. Ninja Theory deserve a pat on the back for what they managed to do with the Unreal 3 engine, with the game truly being a beauty on new and old consoles + PC.
The sound was also a joy to behold: with punk rock appearing every time an enemy encounter started, it truly got me into the fight, pumping me up and pushing me to do better. Whilst the music and sound may be a bit “pretentious” due to some of the songs feeling too… contrived (as in, the developers forced the punk aesthetic too hard), it still all flowed well together, with the main menu music also pulling me in to the point I’d stare at the screen for a while, waiting to start.
So, finally: The Gameplay. The absolute core of a Devil May Cry game, and the main reason the series has been so renowned for so long. It’s the gameplay that kept players coming back despite all of it’s terrible story and plotholes. How’d it hold up in DMC? Fucking beautifully.
It was the gameplay most of all that kept me hooked to the game from beginning to end, with each and every action or story-point actually tying perfectly into the gameplay. Whilst playing, I couldn’t help but this Ninja Theory concentrated 100% on the gameplay first, with everything like story and music being made purely to add substance to the game, or to give an excuse to actually play it. You start off with just Dante’s sword, and his trusty guns. This soon changes to a devil weapon (a hammer), and an angel weapon (a scythe). These soon get superseded by stone hands and katanas, which in turn immensely changes up the gameplay and combos you can perform, so much so I was constantly changing my tactic to try and get a SSS rating in fights. Like I say, it truly feels like the whole game was built around the fighting first and foremost, with everything else being an excuse to fight more. It’s fantastic.
So overall, I’m annoyed. Annoyed because I didn’t invest the time (nor money) to play DMC sooner. The only reason I finally got around to buying the game now was because it was only £5 for the PC version, and I really need to finish more games that I buy. I’m glad I finally did play it, and am annoyed there may never be another considering how damn great DMC was. The sales figures weren’t great for this one, with Capcam being in a scary position of almost going bankrupt also, it seems we’ll never see a sequel for DMC anytime soon. If you haven’t played DMC, and are a massive fan of action games, you owe it to yourself to play DMC.
5/5
