DmC: Devil May Cry Review
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With assured storytelling, great combat, and imaginative design, DmC: Devil May Cry is a more-than-worthy reboot for a classic franchise.
It's a fluid system that's easy to get to grips with. There's a trick to the timing that only practice can perfect, but the barrier to entry is low enough that even newcomers to the genre can dish out some tasty moves. And if you really want to get cocky, there are various moves that can be cancelled midway through their animations for chaining together even larger and deadlier combos. The neatly animated and gruesomely designed enemies add a level of complexity too. Some, such as eerie walking skeletons, are armed with shields that can be broken only with heavy weaponry, while others, like vicious blue mutant dogs, can be damaged only by your lighter, angelic scythe.
And there are others, like decrepit cherubs that hover in the air, that are ready to be pulled down to earth with a mighty whip of a chain, and huge, heavily armoured behemoths that can be destroyed only from a certain angle of weakness. Such variety means you can't simply sit back and hammer buttons to win; you have to make use of your brain as well as your thumbs to succeed. That alone makes for combat that's far more engaging than a run-of-the-mill hack-and-slasher. Plus, if you really want to spice things up, you can use Dante's stylish devil trigger ability to freeze enemies and take out a whole group of them in one huge combo.
The reward for all your hard work, aside from the visual payoff, are souls. Souls can be used to upgrade Dante's abilities and weapons, giving you new moves and increased power to play with. Indeed, there are quite a few moves, including Dante's famous Rainmaker, that are essential purchases for combo chasers. Upgrades that increase your power make some of the tougher enemies--particularly those towards the end of the game--a little easier to deal with. There's also the requisite Devil May Cry scoring system, which remains largely unchanged: the longer and less repetitive the combo is, the more points you get and the higher your rating.
Being awarded with, say, an A rating over a D rating is your primary incentive for perfecting your attacks, and striving for such perfection is compelling. That's down in part to the fact that the combat is so fun in the first place, and partly down to the end-of-level totals that let you see just how poorly (or brilliantly) you performed overall. And because everything is so well put together, you know that the shameful D is due to your own lack of skill, rather than any failure on the game's part.
Unfortunately, for all the greatness of the combat system, the boss battles are a big disappointment. It's not that they're inherently bad so much as that they're formulaic and, well, old. The fights follow the usual formula of learning each boss's repetitive movements, and then identifying key moments to launch an attack. All that time spent perfecting your combos and technique is simply of no use against them; you have to follow the plan or you die. They are at least a visually striking bunch, with the gruesomely bulbous and foul-mouthed Succubus being a particular standout.
The game peters out towards the end, both in its narrative and in its combat. The story takes a twist you can see coming a mile off, while later levels eschew combat for laborious platforming sections that don't live up to the excitement and action of what came before. Things fare a little better for completionists, who can check out the many trapped souls scattered in hard-to-reach places around each level, as well as the unlockable rooms that are filled with fun and sometimes very difficult challenges for you to complete. Those include trying to defeat a whole room of enemies without being hit, or platforming down a tricky obstacle course.
The great completionists, and indeed anyone up for a serious challenge, are catered to with a whole raft of different difficulty levels that are unlocked after you complete the game. You can, for instance, play levels with more-powerful enemies that come in different waves to the standard campaign. Or you can play a mode where every enemy dies with one hit, along with Dante. Or if you've really got it in for your own sanity, you can play a mode with the most difficult, hardcore, no-mercy enemies where it's game over after a single hit. Such is the joy of DmC's combat that even if you're not quite skilled enough to make it through those hardcore levels unscathed, it's still a lot of fun to try. And in those moments when the combo system clicks and you enter that Zen-like state of Matrix realisation to perform an epic SS-rated combo, little can raise a bigger smile or give you such a feeling of achievement.
DmC succeeds both in its story and in its brilliant combat, and it looks the business too, despite a few minor glitches and the more colour-soaked levels looking like they've spent a little too much time in an Instagram filter. Sure, you may baulk at Dante's trendy new haircut, or maybe even miss a little of that B-movie Devil May Cry insanity, but the heart of what makes the series so enticing and so much fun to play holds true here. DmC pulls off that unlikely reboot trick of feeling fresh and inviting while still holding onto what made the original series so appealing and so special. There's no point in looking back: Dante has got a brand-new future in front of him, and if DmC: Devil May Cry is anything to go by, it's going to be a great one.
By
Mark Walton, Senior Staff Writer - Reviews
Writer, riff maker, purveyor of fine foods. Mark currently spends his days trying to overcome his small (large) obsession with high-top trainers and mobile games. He's known to respond well to Long Island Iced Tea, falafels, and karaoke, but not necessarily in that order.
1179 comments
Nice review, I am quite liking it so far, haven't done a full review but but something in anticipation here http://www.i-am-geek.net/upcoming-dmc-review/ please check it out and keep up the good work!
If you're a real DmC fan, you play the fukin game first, instead of complaining about it. This game is one of the most underrated games even though it's really great.
This game by the way is DmC.But you can call it DmC the Gamespot killer.Has a nice ring to...
This fresh spin on the series has great visuals and a very cool gritty urban art style, a fantastic story and polished to near perfection game-play that never ceases to be fun and engaging. While it?s a reboot of the series it retains the spirit of what made the original series so great and improves it with a deeper story, fighting mechanics and replay value with loads of extras.. its a shame people are so scared of change and criminal that this didn't at least get a 9.. one of my fav's this gen.
dmc, had good gamelpay. but the story and characters was shitt compared to the old devil may cry,
i remember someone said the new dante is better because his more human and can relate better to him, who the fuk cares about playing a character they can relate too, i simply want to play a awesome character which was the old dante,
i dont know how the new dante can be more human, when his half demon and half angel. and the old dante is half demon and half human, which was better, leave the part where you get to play as a Nephilim to darksiders, and the design to all the new characters and weapons was bad, especially rebellion, very unimaginative and low rate creativity,
dmc, had good gamelpay. but the story and characters was shitt compared to the old devil may cry,
i remember someone said the new dante is better because his more human and can relate better to him, who the fuk cares about playing a character they can relate too, i simply want to play a awesome character which was the old dante,
i dont know how the new dante can be more human, when his half demon and half angel. and the old dante is half demon and half human, which was better, leave the part where you get to play as a Nephilim to darksiders,
@Garlygunto they are talking about his relate-ability and personality being more believable and less over the top, not his genetic make up... and the story was less B movie and deeper in the reboot in my opinion..
DmC is a fair action game. but it fails to capture the series soul and turns Dante a lousy son of a b*tch..
can any one help me plz ? i downloaded the game and started playing every thing is fine but the colors are strange ! there is red colors all over the ingame like waves
3 Like I have to say that this is a damn good game. far better then Devil May cry 4 and just as good as Devil may cry 3.
Personally i didnt see a problem with any of the boss fights. (though they're easy to figure as just like the rest of the games in this series). Also the Ending wasn't that bad. it gives us gamers a glimpse of probably what's to come if Capcom and ninja theory decide to make a follow-up/sequel to this game.
I'm rather impressed by this title and would gladly buy future games. No if only capcom would think about making a new Onimusha game that would be cool.
4 Like This game freakin OWNZ. Definitely the best DMC game to date, with DMC3 a close 2nd. I'm loving the new Dante as well, a lot more human and in many ways more likable than the old Dante, only because his character is MUCH more relatable now as a person, and the characterization in the story has gotten a huge boost with ALL of the characters. I'm excited to see where the story progresses in future games.
I just don't understand what is wrong with ending? it was fine for me.miss the taunt feature though.
1 Like Plain and simple I love this game. Playing it for a 3rd time right now on Dante must Die.
@tibbydriver0540 i don't understand how people say this game is too short and has no replay value... :)
Waahhh. It seems like no matter what a company does to a series, people love to complain. I have never liked DMC......in fact I just don't like the genre. But "Crapcom" actually did something right this time because they turned a person who is not interested in the series (ME) into a fan. I thought the combat was OK, but the story revolving around Limbo was extremely entertaining, more so than most games these days. I finished the game within two days on Nephilim and will probably play it one more time around. Good job Ninja Theory/Capcom.
Ninja Theory does very well with environment design for the stages, which often results in spectacular view in some stages. The game also loads superbly well, you never have to wait for more than a few seconds for anything. The fighting mechanics is okay, different than previous titles (especially without lock-on functionality) but also bring new mechanics for Dante. Upgrades system for weapons and abilities is okay, quite similar to DMC4 in some fashion. Though I think DMC3's experience based level-up system is still the best, because it truly encourages using something to level it up. The story is okay, realistic and good though the ending is seemed a bit forced to cover the final battle. Ninja Theory does good job and deserve appreciation, though as a fan I still hope Capcom won?t abandon original Dante with style-based fighting mechanic and Nero with devil hand + revved sword mechanic. I want them to build on that and if they want new mechanic simply make a new character to add into DMC universe, like they did with Nero. And it's 2012, most game publishers will want to hear what their fans have to say. Why don't you, Capcom? You can start by making a contact page on your website. Tear down that wall of exclusivity, be down to earth sometimes with your costumers. Learn from Valve.
well i dont agree with this review, it states that dante is the same guy,which i think is wrong, i dont know if you like or not the new dante but it's not the same guy and I am not talking about the way he looks.
In the bad points he puts that the boss battles are not as fun as the rest of the game, though i think the boss battles where better than the majority of the games and I am happy that the game is not affected by the growing cult called quick-timeeventisism
@paralitos86 Boss battles were - mostly, very static and did not enforce me to move much - hit the boss, avoid, hit the boss until attack, avoid etc
the only good one was bob barbas and the last boss really, the rest was very mediocre :/
4 Like Gameplay, nice! Exciting fight scenes. Story, too direct and not so much free world play. Great remake of the DMC series. Creative environment. The best thing I like about this game, the background music that plays during the fight scenes.
@ziv741 How is this game crap?! like thereal-15-cent said, Devil may cry was out long before there was even a God of War franchise. if anything God of War took the ideas of Devil may cry and copied it.
personally both franchises are great games in their own right.
1 Like I love this game. The ending clears up the whole physical appearance changes for me, so beat it on normal before you cry about the hair/jacket/etc. However, Ninja Theory made three major mistakes in this one:
1) Directly attacking conservative ideals and the Bill O'Reilly demon (face it, that's him). Personally, I thought it was funny and relevant to current social standards, but including these game elements is one of the reasons people were creating duplicate accounts just to downrate this game on review sites. (which is where the claims of 2/10 and 4.1 metacritic scores come from. Those sites removed the fake and duplicate votes, which is why it's now much higher). Too close to an election season, Ninja Theory. The political folks are going to be after you regardless of your intentions.
2) Who thought removing the lock-on features was a good idea in a game with multiple ranged weapons and ranged mechanics? This is a major gameplay flaw, and it's the only reason I can't rate this higher than the originals.
3) The wig scene. You can't change the appearance of a main character, and then turn around and shove it in the face of people who were already upset over it. The new look isn't good enough to mock people for being fans of the original.
@Muggshelps I actually thought that was really funny "Not a chance" LOL....(don't take this personally I'm just a new fan although I have read about the series)
@Muggshelps I like what you have to say about wig scene. You know who are the people who were already upset? They are previous customers. See, the company shove that thing to its previous customers in the face. Lol what kind of company that runs such concept of customer relation and business ethics? Guess its name. Not Ninja Theory, they only did what they were told.
@hasancakir The actual score is 85 on metacritic. Checked it myself today. I'll check this game out.
How to make a bad game look fine. A guide in three steps by Ninja Theory and Bioware:
1.Make a bad game
2.Make a feature even worse, and stir controversie around it
3.Blame any valid criticism in people angry about point 2
8 Like Although I think it could've been longer, with a little more challenging aspects I respect what Ninja Theory did here to be honest with you all. I also enjoy the original DMC series and I feel Ninja Theory could've did more with it a lot more, but I also accept the fact that this DMC takes place way before DMC3 and actually tries to tell you how the world became demon infested to begin with and that humans actually did walk the earth not just Lady,Trish,Dante, and the acception of a few villians.
I agree with some hardcore fans with the new DMC feeling a bit like a hack and slash but I disagree with some people attacking the mechinics and brining up videos or how they believe the game should've been for the simple fact this version of Dante is quite frankly fresh and still finding his style.
It's a love or hate kind of thing, but for any true DMC lovers between mechinics and looks I believe it's looking pass those things to actually notice this isn't the original silver hair devil in which everyone is use to playing as. New DmC gets a 8 in my book though only because I did sit down to play the game and enjoyed it didn't really drop the controller until I did beat it, and was satisfied overall xD.
1 Like @MaiHatake Correction: This is a reboot and does in fact have nothing to do with the original canon. How in the nine hells did that fact not hit you when you've got Mundus - a character that canonically only appears long after DMC3 - as the main antagonist here?!?!
@koospetoors @MaiHatake We can assume Mundus did not die. He could be sent back to Hell. In DMC3 ending, Vergil, which is left at demon world by Dante, knows who Mundus is and tries to defeat him. Of course he loses, because his soul is used by Mundus to attack Dante in the first DMC.
So, I see DMC as a pre-prequel, not a reboot. There are too many elements that work with the "canon" story to be a reboot. Vergil and Dante fight Mundus in DMC, defeat him and send him back to demon world (where he is the ruler). Vergil and Dante fight each other. Dante spares Vergil, who leaves. The world now is full of demons, because limbo and reality merged. Vergil discovers a way to use their necklages to become even more powerful, opening the Hell Gate one more time. He lures Dante to the tower. It is DMC3, of course. By the middle of the game, the twin fight again and this time Vergil is the winner, "killing" Dante the same way Dante almost killed him by the end of DMC - with the Rebellion stabed through his chest. Dante does not die and active his demon form. By the end of DMC3, Dante defeats Vergil, who is sent to demon world. As I said, there he fights Mundus and loses. In DMC1, Mundus is back and uses Vergil soul against Dante. Dante kills Mundus. Years later DMC 4 begins. Nero is probably Vergil's son, because he has Sparta's blood and is chosen by Yamato to be its wielder, with a demon form that resembles Vergil's DMC3 demon form.
My only deception about this game is that I was expecting an explantion about Nero origin's. I assume that Nero was conceived between DMC and DMC3.
2 Like Finally finished the story. I was delayed in beginning to play the game by the damned PSN maintenance that went on for two days... I had an Amazon code to get 20% more red orbs and didn't want to start until I had input it. Grr.
Anyway, quite liked it. Combat was great... not too crazy about the enemies that can only be damaged by angel or demon weapons, but oh well. And yeah, the bosses and the ending were kinda weak. But man, the cutscenes... the story itself was ho-hum, but the voicework and the digital character acting were amazing.
Still, the one thing the game really needs to be complete is Bloody Palace mode, because DMC has always been primarily about the combat, and BP distills the combat into its purest form. I know it's being released as free DLC, but I just hope it's soon. I'm already disappointed that I'll have to wait a month to play Vergil.
They really fucked up the gameplay compared to the good old games. Now it so simple to score SS it's not even a challenge. DMC3 and 4 got it right with different styles. The combolist was way longer, and way cooler than it is in this game.
Anyway, the game is decent enough to try out... If you could not handle the difficulty of DMC3, but liked the setting, this game is for you :p
1 Like @Cbordi I really liked DMC 3, but the only difficulty I found (until the harder modes) was learning the controls. The offensive mechanics were nearly flawless, but the dodge controls were flaky at best. I constantly found myself rolling under the boss's feet regardless of where I was aiming. My biggest problem with this new DMC is the lack of a lock-on feature, which is just as big a flaw (in my opinion) as the questionably responsive dodge mechanics in DMC3.
If you play this game on higher difficulties, then the enemy mechanics change drastically. I haven't even made it to hell and hell mode, but it looks insane.
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DmC: Devil May Cry
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- Publisher(s): Capcom
- Developer(s): Ninja Theory
- Genre: Action
- Release:
- ESRB: M
DmC: Devil May Cry Navigation
