Devil May Cry Hands-On

Tired of steering Resident Evil characters as if you were driving a tank? Capcom's Devil May Cry takes many of the basic survival-horror concepts from Resident Evil--camera angles and a creepy atmosphere, just to name a couple--and gives it a slightly more action-oriented slant, going as far as totally redesigning the standard survival-horror control scheme. The game, designed by the creator of Resident Evil series, Shinji Mikami, tells the tale of Dante, a descendant of a legendary swordsman and demon hunter. Dante sets out against the demon world in search of revenge.

Dante is armed with a sword and various firearms. The fast action on your attacks allows for all sorts of cool stuff, such as using the sword to pop your enemy up into the air and juggling your foe with a few well-timed gun blasts. You can handle different sword attacks by pushing a different direction on your controller while attacking.

As previously mentioned, Devil May Cry doesn't control like Resident Evil, Dino Crisis, or any number of other RE clones on the market. Instead, DMC takes a more 3D-platformer approach to control. Simply point the analog stick in the direction you want to move, and Dante starts moving. It's unknown how, if at all, camera angle changes will interfere with the effectiveness of this control scheme, but it's definitely a welcome change that gives DMC a completely different feel.

Aside from his guns and sword attacks, Dante has some internal demons of his own. As such, he will occasionally transform into different superhuman beings throughout the game. Dante's sword is at the root of these transformations, which will give Dante new powers, such as the ability to hover and other, more devastating attacks. Plus, he will have more overall power.

Graphically, DMC looks pretty outstanding. Most of the monsters found in the demo were eerie marionette-like creatures, and they looked great, particularly on the animation side of things. DMC's environments are large and well-designed, and they lend a heavy, gothic feel to the proceedings.

While there isn't much solid information on Devil May Cry yet, we do know that the game is currently scheduled to release later this year, though a playable demo will be included with the July release of Capcom's Resident Evil Code: Veronica X for the PlayStation 2.