DmC: Devil May Cry Review

 When I had first seen the trailer for the new Devil May Cry game I was skeptical. After finally getting my hands on it, I can safely say those fears have been put to rest.

Release Date:  January 15th, 2013 (Xbox 360 and Ps3) January 25th, 2013 (PC)
Genre: Hack and Slash
ESRB Rating: M for Mature – Blood and Gore, Drug Reference, Intense Violence,  Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language
Platform: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC
Developer: Ninja Theory
Publisher: Capcom

Plot Overview

When you first boot up DmC, an intro video will play. During that video you see this bald guy talking on the phone and is threatening to completely ruin the life of the guy on the other end of the line if he doesn’t get some payment he is owed. Just before the bald guy ends the call he tells the man on the other end of the line ” you have a good night, Mr. President”. The bald guy then goes on to explain that he is going to control the world through debt, before he can celebrate his victory he suddenly realizes that there was a loose end he forgot to take care of. From that point on it basically goes into a montage of Dante getting wasted and having a good time with some strippers. A little after you start playing the game the story shifts to being where the bald guy is trying to kill you, and you are trying to kill him.

Gameplay

Like any other hack and slash game, the enjoyment of the game comes from how many weapons and combos you can do in combat. While having a rather simplistic move list and only about 5 actual weapons (I don’t count guns) the game does an amazing job of giving you ways to combo your moves and string things together. Each of the weapons have the same button combination to do different skills and moves (guns aside). The most basic combo is A,A,A,A,A (A just meaning main attack button), when you unlock the skills you can then do A,A,delay,A,A,A Which will do a different attack pattern, another of these would be to simply hold the attack button to charge up a certain attack (Depends on the weapon). The feature that really helps make the combat system flow so well is the use of the Ophion Whips, which allow you to either pull enemies to you or vice versa. Say you are using the scythe to slash the living hell out of some demons and you do your upward lift move (B button for Xbox 360 or Circle for Ps3) and knock him away. In most other hack and slash games that would be the end of your combo unless you had some really long weapon, well in DmC you just whip right up to that guy and start chaining an air combo on him. I could go into this in much more depth but I think I will let this video show what you can do with the combat system.

Dialogue 

I believe many would agree with me if I were to say that Dante in older Devil May Cry games was a clever bad ass. So I was curious about how well this new Devil May Cry game was going to live up to the older games. What I got when I actually started playing wasn’t what I was expecting… but that’s not exactly a bad thing.

I personally find the games dialogue to be really funny and entertaining. It gets the plot points across while making a few witty puns and throwing in some ‘Fuck’s. I also have to say that the delivery of some of these lines is just too perfect. A few of the lines in DmC are set up amazingly IE. early in the game Dante enters a factory for a soda called Virility, and enters the demon world called limbo. he then reads off words that appear on the crates of Virility and goes.  “Obesity, stupidity… Drink Virility”. All of the joke lines aside, the normal dialogue does give a good feel for the gritty world they portray.

Conclusion

Even with the new look of Dante, the game holds up to the older titles and even surpasses them. Ninja Theory did a great job at making it fun to play even with a more limited move list than other hack and slashes. The boss fights are fun but can be a tad too easy, luckily they have 4 even harder modes you can unlock once you beat the game. The soundtrack isn’t for everyone, but if you are a fan of dubstep I don’t think you will have a problem with it. One problem I have with DmC is that when using the whip outside of combat, it will sometimes not lock you on to the next anchor point if used too quickly. Aside from some little issues this is a solid game in the series, and I am glad to see it was much better than expected.

DmC: Devil May Cry gets a 9 hit combo out of 10