For $8 Vergil's Downfall delivers a solid experience, but leaves you wanting more from the recent pariah.
Things arent going well for Vergil. After being defeated by his twin brother Dante for wanting to take Munduss throne, he is left morality wounded. Vergil finds himself at the grave of his mother and, due to the severity of his injury, he collapses, unknowingly plunging himself into purgatory. This is where Vergils Downfall takes place, where Vergil must battle his own demons in an attempt for a second chance at life.
After being forced into purgatory, Vergil follows an unknown path created from what he believes to be his dead angel mother Eve. As his travels through this is horrific world, Vergil relives profound moments in his life and reflects on how he effected the lives of those he once loved. Vergils Downfall centers on these profound moments with the people Vergil once cared about and how they see him as he takes revenge on his perceived betrayals by their hands. The narrative is told majority through poorly rendered comic styled cutsences that showcase some striking color contrast, but with a weak narrative its easily forgotten. This path leads the abandoned brother down a dark place that makes him change into a more sadistic form that resembles his original version in Devil May Cry 3.
The highlight of this piece of downloadable content is playing as Vergil. Unlike his brother, Vergil uses a style known as Darkslayer, a fighting style that revolves around short-range teleporting combined with quick slashes. Unlike Dante, who carried an array of weapons that allowed for a wider range of combos, Vergil is limited to his only weapon, the katana Yamato. Despite this limitation Vergil is still half angel and demon, or nephilim, and can use Yamato to channel swift angelic and strong demonic attacks through his blade. When combined with Vergils summoned swords or doppelganger devil triggers a large pool of combo options open up as these new abilities begin to unlock and power-up. Like Dante, as Vergil you can upgrade his present abilities and gain new powers by completing missions and eliminating enemies. Some fans may even be able to copy certain attacks from Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition.
Vergil will find himself traveling through destroyed segments of the real world. The environment resembles closely to Limbo and the inhabitants havent changed much, with the exception of two new enemies. Players will style use the angelic pull and demonic grab to alter the environment but unlike Dante Vergil teleports himself towards these pieces of earth or teleports to them whenever he chooses, its truly amazing. What is disappointing though is the lack of boss battles and inventive events. I also encountered one game breaking bug that triggers when I skipped a cutscence featuring Vergil angrily throwing a bus at his brother, hopefully this will be fixed in a upcoming patch.
Vergils Downfall lacks a lot of things that made Dantes adventure wonderful such as boss fights and weapons. However, its clear that the point of this DLC is to bridge the story for the next one, or if Ninja Theory decides to make another piece of story based DLC. Vergil is a joy to play with and offers something new for those who grow tired of controlling Dante, and for $8 it does deliver a solid experience, but leaves you wanting more from the recent pariah.
Adam Siddiqui
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