Dante Still Has It (Detailed Review)
Story 8/10
The evil demon King Mundus controls everything through manipulation, debt, and deceit. Who can stop him? Half angel and half demon. Nephilim is what they call them. Dante and Virgil are back and better than ever. DmC takes place in the early stages of Dante's exploits as a demon killer. The story however, takes place in the insane world of Limbo City. The game events begin with our friend Dante keeping two beautiful woman company in his trailer. Typical Dante right? Anyways soon after his night of fun he is attacked by a hunter demon and is dragged into the world of Limbo. After meeting Kat, and eventually fighting his way out of Limbo as cool and smooth as only Dante can, Kat takes Dante back to her boss. Dante learns that Kat's boss is also his brother Virgil. Virgil explains that Mundus is controlling Limbo and basically controlling the world. He wants Dante to team up with him and take Mundus down. Of course we all know how stubborn Dante can be at times so Virgil has to do a little convincing. Virgil shows Dante about their past and also what happened to both of their parents at the hands of Munds. After "being shown the light" Dante agrees to help Virgil in this epic quest.
Gameplay 9/10
The foundation of DmC has always been its flashy gameplay. This reboot is absolutely no different. Combat is just as good as it always has been. There are plenty of combos, weapons, and sick ways to dispose of those pesky demons (and there are tons of different ones). Dante fights with his Rebellion. The Rebellion is the basic sword he uses while he is in "human form." This along with his trusty Ebony & Ivory are his basic set of weapons. There are three other modes you can use to unleash hell on your foes as well. First is the "demon form" the demon form gives you access to your demon weapons such as the Arbiter or Eryx. These weapons allow you to attack slower than usual but deal much more damage. You also have your "angel form" which gives you access to Aquila and my personal favorite the Osiris. The angel form is more of a crowd control form and anybody who's played DmC before knows things can get a little hectic sometimes, so that definitely comes in handy. Finally you have your Devil Trigger. This is the ultimate form for Dante. Basically you become extremely powerful and all enemies become vulnerable to your attacks because they have no defensive capabilities at all. Of course Dante also keeps an arsenal of guns with him as well. This installment is no different. In addition to his trademark Ebony & Ivory, Dante is equipped with the Revenant and Kablooey. The Revenant is shotgun. The Revenant comes in handy in close range. Whip it out and blow a demon's face away. The Kablooey fires sticky grenades with a remote detonator. These are awesome for disrupting enemy's attacks.
Combos and your style play a huge role in your success in DmC. You are graded at the end of each combat sequence as well as at the end of each chapter. Performing different combos will increase your score after combat. This isn't a hassle at all because the gameplay is so fun and rewarding it encourages you to explore different ways to increase your score. For example you can grab enemies towards you or pull yourself towards enemies in the air to extend combos. The air combat is extremely engaging and brings another level of play to the combat system. There are hundreds of combos you can play around with to achieve that coveted SSS ranking. If you are like me and initially had a hard time getting SSS and had to live in the C and B ranking range for a while then you are in luck. There is a training mode that you can use that will give you endless amount of enemies to slice and dice in any way you want until you begin to get used to how to increase your rating. Your earn points you can use to buy more combos for your weapons and guns as well. Unfortunately there isn't a lock on feature this time around so trying to focus on a single enemy can sometimes be frustrating but doesn't' hamper the overall experience to much. Ninja Theory has done a great job revamping the combat system in this reboot. Plenty of different ways to fight and different styles make for a very entertaining experience.
Graphics & Sound 9/10
DmC looks great. There is a unique art style that Ninja Theory uses. Limbo is very colorful. Everything is detail and looks very crisp. Textures are great and so are character models. As soon as you lay your eyes on Limbo you will be surprised of how beautiful and unique the environments are. I didn't have any frame rate issues at all during my playthrough. Unfortunately my game did freeze three times while I was playing. I highly encourage installing the game to the HDD if you have the space. Sounds are also top notch as well. Voice acting is great. Music and sound effects do their job immersing you into the game. The visuals and sounds in DmC will not disappoint you so be ready for a treat in this department.
Replayability 8/10
The main quest is a short 8-10 hour playthrough but the replayability does not simply come from beating the story once. DmC highly encourages multiple playthroughs to give the full experience from the title. The 7 difficulty settings are extremely fun to playthrough. Heaven or Hell is a unique mode to playthrough especially. Everybody dies in one hit including you. Hell and Hell is the hardest mode of all. There are things to collect such as keys and lost souls. These keys allow you to unlock levels in which you complete certain objectives such as time trials and enemies in order to unlock health boost or devil trigger boost. Even though the story is only 8-10 hours Ninja Theory has done an excellent job increasing the replayability by adding unique difficulty modes as well as secret doors to find and complete.
Final Verdict 8/10
Pros
+Robust Combat System
+Difficulty Modes
+Art Style
Cons
-No Lock On
-Freezing
Closing Comments
Ninja Theory has done a superb job in rebooting such a popular series but at the same time not taking away from the franchise what made it so great in the first place. With such a gorgeous world, fun, fluid combat system, good story, and so many different difficulty settings to hack and slash your way through, DmC will surely satisfy any DmC fans.