Difficulty:

Hard

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"All it's cracked up to be"

I recently picked up the 5th Anniversary Collection of Devil May Cry to see if I was capable enough to play a series so revered by my gaming peers. None of the Devil May Cry games became a center of a conversation for very long, but it tweaked my interest whenever someone mentioned it, especially in terms of difficulty. I'm more of a gamer that just tends to play games for the sheer enjoyment out of it, so going into Devil May Cry required a bit of skill-building than I had originally anticipated.

That said, the first Devil May Cry game was a lot of fun. I had to learn to be a bit patient with it, but the payoff showed definite results. I could see why people loved this game so much: pulling off cool combos required precise timing and quick reflexes, something that you learned overtime with trial and error. Eventually the game made you understand the enemies' behavior, because, much like in a real fight, your opponent often twitches or makes a slight move before they strike, and figuring this out was part of the fun. Once you had a handle of the concept, everything pretty much starts to click. Of course, the game throws in a surprises as you progress, and you'll have to adapt in order to survive.

There are two problems I have with Devil May Cry, and one of the biggest was the camera. While the camera worked extremely well to get a semi-cinematic view of the action a la old school Resident Evil, it was an annoyance to a severe degree since it was hard to adjust controlling Dante's auto-aiming the way you would have hoped. No, hit the guy on the left, Dante, not the guy on the far right! My other complaint, although minor, would have to be the controls. There certainly was a learning curve to mastering it, but having to hold R1 and then repeatedly pressing Square to fire Ebony and Ivory was a little ackward, if not the most pleasant way of developing arthritis at an early age. I certainly could have switched to Easy Automatic, which I did try once, but as with most games if I didn't play it on Normal I felt like a sucker.

Beyond those two complaints, I was deeply satisfied with the game. There's not really much of a story to Devil May Cry, which was somewhat disappointing but didn't drive me away from progressing further into the game. The puzzles weren't much engaging either; they mostly comprised of "find object A, figure out which structure object A goes into, insert object A into structure B". Of course, being a hack n' slash, the focus should be more on combat than puzzles, but if you're going to throw puzzles in there, why not add a bit of variety?

The best part of the game is how it builds up tension. Mission 1 starts of with a creepy vibe, and with a slow introduction to enemies. Towards the last few missions, going back into the same enviorments you've visited before is a treat seeing how it's evolves as opening the gates of hell as an effect on the overall atmosphere of the game. And let's just say the encounter with Mundus is something you shouldn't miss (but don't delve into without preparation!)

Overall, Devil May Cry has succeeded in making me a fan of the demon-slayer Dante. Camera flaws aside, you shouldn't miss out on playing one of the most badass icons in video game history.