This game is almost a perfect masterpiece for it's time, but the sloppy cutscenes and bad multiplayer let's it down.
Minus: The cutscenes look pretty much the same as the gameplay graphics
Interesting: This one is a prequel to the first Devil May Cry game
Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening, for the PS2, was developed and produced by Capcom and has sold over a million copies. It was released in 2005 worldwide. In 2006 Capcom released a special edition, because the original game was too hard. The special edition is just $5 more, and it allows you to watch the cinematics that you've already seen and adds another character to play as. They're both rated M16+ (MA 15+ for Australians) for violence, but no swearing or sexual references.
In this game you are Dante, a Demon Slayer, actually half-demon himself, who goes out to fight with his brother. The story starts off as... Dante is in his soon-to-be-demon-slaying-business-shop and a man who introduces himself as Arkham comes to him and gives him an "invitation" which is actually a bunch of Demons trying to kill him. Then Dante sets off killing bad people and creatures until he gets to his brother, they fight, Dante gets stronger, they fight again and so on. In the end it's all happy… sort of. This is a prelude to the first two Devil May Cry games, telling the story about how Dante got this awesome power which he uses. The power is turning into a full demon for a limited time, so in this game you don't actually have it when you start, you need to unlock it. It's pretty intense and sucks you right in for the ending. The only thing is that it's kind of random how he goes off on a huge journey for... nothing really, it just seems like something for him to do.
Dante is like the coolest character I've come across, he's funny, he's tough, he's witty and he's relaxed. He's just... y'know, go with the flo. He wears a red coat and brown trousers, you can change his costume when you unlock them, and carries 2 pistols and one huge sword. His brother, Vergil, is a good character too. They both have the same sense of humor but Vergil is more quite, but he does talk a lot. These characters are some of the best I've seen, with really cool hair. The enemies all look good too, zombies to demons to… the weird, but they're all great and you will be very pleased with them.
The Gameplay is very, very fun, it's literally the best I've come across in a game. It's truly an action-packed adventure and what official reviewers say is true, it really defines the hack'n'slash genre. You could either button mash or try to get a high mark (which you receive at the end of the level) by launching combos and changing your weapons. You can also chain together as many attacks as possible, making it very fun. Before the mission starts you can customize your weapons and buy more items and you can also change your style. There are 6 styles, 4 you start off with, and the other two you unlock along the way. The different styles see out the way you play and what strategies you use. Gunslinger is particularly for your pistols and guns, allowing you to do combos with your guns that you couldn't do in other styles, Sword Master is, obviously, for your swords, Royal Guard focuses on defense more than offense using your enemies attacks against them, and the last one is Trickster, which is pretty much Gunslinger and Sword Master, but toned down a bit on both styles, but let's you do things like large dashes and run up walls. The other two you unlock allow you to duplicate yourself and to stop time. The gameplay is just truly magnificent here, and it's going to make you want to get better at it.
The controls are great in this game too. No stuffing up, no anything really. X is jump, square is shoot, triangle is to use your sword and circle is special attack for the style you choose. The buttons you use to change your weapons are on the shoulders so you don't need to pull your fingers out of their comfort zones just to do it. The controls are all in the right place, you just cannot hate it in this game.
The graphics in this game a actually really good for it's time. But it's not perfect. When you're watching a cinematic you're kind of thinking, 'eww... they could have at least made the cutscenes better,' because truth it: They're horrible! I mean they are actually very good for the gameplay but when you're watching something... it's blocky, it's fuzzy, it's just not good enough. But don't get me wrong you can still watch them alright, but Capcom could have made them a little better, but the background and surroundings are nice, they're all like a gothic like medieval sculpture.
The music is genius here. When you're running around looking for something or doing a puzzle it's nice kind of quiet music but when you're in battle it turns to a hardcore theme and it's just... awesome! It's really intense, it's brilliant Goth-like battle music, it's kind of suggesting but it's pretty cool.
There is only a little bit of multiplayer in this game, that's at the very end, when Dante and Vergil are together fighting a boss. And that, still, isn't very good, the camera only fixes on player 1, so you probably wouldn't even play the multiplayer part. There is also that style that lets you play multiplayer (but not for more than 30 seconds -unless you use a specific costume you receive by completing the game on the hardest difficulty, or use cheats) and you'd never do this really. Shame…
Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening has 20 levels and about 10 mini-levels. You'd probably finish this game in about 20 hours on average but if you're really good and play it non stop you'd get it done in one long day.
When you finish the story mode in this game you're probably not going to just put it down and not touch it again. You're really going to want to play it, to get better at it and to unlock and test more costumes. You'll come back and play it through again but probably no more than 3 times.
This game is brilliant, it's a true masterpiece. Great gameplay, great replay value, great music and story. It's very good but no multiplayer and sloppy cutscenes lets it down a little. If you don't like this game your crazy, you just have to play it and experiance it for yourself.
Story - 4/5
Characters - 5/5
Gameplay - 5/5
Controls - 5/5
Graphics - 3/5
Music - 5/5
Multiplayer - 1/5
Length - 5/5
Replay Value - 5/5
Overall Rating: 9 -Superb (92%)