This game is an experiment that didn't turn out for the better. Dirge of Cerberus gets 6 echoing apologies out of 10.

User Rating: 6 | Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII PS2
Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus is a change in the series' usual style. Instead of an RPG, DoC provides us with a 3rd person shooter that stars Vincent Valentine; the gun-toting, mutating secret character from Final Fantasy VII. Sadly Square's attempt at a shooter did not go over well. Dirge of Cerberus is average at best, and should only be played by those who love FFVII or those who just can't get enough of 3rd person shooters.
The graphics for Dirge of Cerberus are decent. The character designs are good and the cutscenes look like they came out of Advent Children. Aside from that however, the level designs are rather bland and the repetitive enemies are nice to look at in the beginning but the lack of variety really doesn't help the graphical experience. Most fans of the series will be disheartened by the level designs, as they hardly look similar to the places that they are supposed to represent. Overall, the graphics are serviceable but aside from the cutscenes, none of it will blow you away.
The sound in DoC is like most of the game; purely average. The techno soundtrack is fitting but completely unremarkable, and though this game is based off of Final Fantasy VII, none of the original soundtrack was used. The only songs of any interest are the two songs by the J-Rock group Gackt, which each appear once in the game. The sound effects in the game are rather bland and don't help the game at all. The only redeeming quality in the sound department for this game is the voice acting, which contains many familiar characters all of which are well portrayed.
The games story is only really entertaining if you are interested in Vincent, and if that's the case then you will care very little about the crisis of the world and will only really care about the flashbacks that reveal Vincent's cryptic past. The story doesn't fully come together until the very end which can be considered 'suspenseful' by some, but really it feels like the game is dragging out the most interesting aspect of the story so Vincent fans have no choice but to continue playing.
The gameplay is rather generic. You play from a 3rd person perspective and essentially blast or melee any of the ten generic enemies that you'll find throughout the game. The levels aren't very explorable and you are generally set on a certain path that you must follow. The gunplay is serviceable but feels like a dumbed down version of Ratchet and Clank (for those of you who are familiar with the series). The only aspect of the game that really stands out is the weapon custimization system which is fairly deep and fun to play with, but the best combinations are fairly obvious and probably what you will stick with. The game is pretty simple on the normal difficulty setting, and the only reason it's difficult on the hardest setting is because it puts you in situations that are just completely unfair. There was a particular instance when I was stuck on the bottom floor of a building littered with snipers that could easily kill me within three shots, and it was impossible for me to target them from my angle. The bosses are all incredibly easy and don't warrant much (if any) strategy. If you take the game for what it is, than it can be enjoyable, but it is by no means great.
Dirge of Cerberus was an experiment for Square and it has showed that they should not move back into the 'shooting' genre. The game isn't really bad; it doesn't truly do anything wrong, it's just not very good either. Dirge of Cerberus receives 6 echoing apologies out of 10.