Players need to dispel the belief that they are playing yet another entry in the Devil May Cry series. This is not Devil May Cry 5. Whether you wanted it or not, it's a complete reboot, top to bottom, and as such should be looked at as an entirely new series. So, from here on out, this review will need to treat the previous entries in the series are a completely separate IP, because aside from a few aspects, they essentially are. In order to form the best opinion as to what this new game is and how it plays, we need to put previous "Devil May Cry" titles out of our mind completely.
"If you want to leave - turn your back on me, I'm powerless to stop you. But you'll be making a grave mistake. Not just for yourself, but for mankind."
"For mankind? What makes you think I give a shit?"
As the game progresses, Dante goes through coming of age trials and develops bonds with both his twin brother, Vergil, and Kat, a psychic medium who slowly teaches Dante basic feelings like compassion and selflessness. Without giving too much away, by the time the game comes to a close, Dante becomes slightly more likable at his core and pretty much loses the obnoxious traits of the self-absorbed, stuck up brat he was introduced as, but his attitude and aggressive behavior only ever increases, to the point where by the game's end, I was tired of hearing him talk. He isn't a likable protagonist for a large portion of the game and makes it hard to even slightly care about the character.
The world of DmC is built around a terrifying prospect that hits a little too close to home at times. In this alternate version of Earth, demons secretly control society by keeping the general public complacent and docile through food and drink, purposely misleading news media, social activities to distract them, and security cameras watching just about everyone, everywhere. Behind all of it is the game's main antagonist, the demon king Mundus, who has the entire population wrapped around his finger. Unfortunately, while the idea sounds good for storytelling, it is poorly executed and limited in scope. To top it off, aside from stating right at the beginning that his goal is to control the world through debt, Mundus' ambitions don't seem to really have a purpose aside from the fact that he is an egomaniac who thinks himself a god. Aside from his very short back story, he is a very two-dimensional villain with very little personality. The audience is essentially supposed to hate him for a few petty reasons that have been seen in all forms of art and media time and time and time again. In fact, at one point during the game, Dante himself is hard pressed to find reasons to hate Mundus aside from the fact that he murdered his mother (which you think would be enough), and that he is evil. He is a bland and forgettable villain ruling a forgettable world in what is shaping up to be a bland and forgettable story.
Not all of the characters here are necessarily bad though. Vergil, Dante's brother, shows up early on and explains almost as though he were describing to a toddler (which may have very well been how he first saw Dante) that the two of them are nephilim, a race born from a demon and an angel, in this case their demon father Sparda and angel mother Eva. Throughout the game, Vergil is shown to be almost the stark opposite of Dante - bold, stoic, collect, calm, and logical. Because of this, the dynamic between him and Dante is actually interesting to watch and even carries with it some mildly humorous conversations. By the game's end, the dynamic duo had very clearly become a glimmer of light in the suffocating fog of cliches and just plain bad writing. As for Kat, the girl I mentioned earlier, as much as I'd love to talk about her character, I find it hard to do so because of the glaring lack of any development on her part. Aside from a few small talks in which we get a very vague idea of who she is, she is sadly more or less is only there to fill the role of being a plot device for Dante's development.
Despite all of these shortcomings, DmC surprisingly makes up for what it lacks in storytelling with it's game play. Now this surprised me a bit, because when it comes to most games, most of the time I find the game play is just about on par with the game's story in terms of how interesting or fun it is. But here, they are complete opposites. While it's true the hack n' slash, shoot em' up mechanics you'll find here are definitely nothing new, they manage to do all of the right things. Combos are easier to pull off than other games in the genre usually make them, but that doesn't take away from the experience at all. There are plenty of ways to fight the enemies here, and plenty of enemies to fight, too. Being able to clean a crowd of demons with all weapons in your inventory in one combo is insanely satisfying, and the transition in selection between each weapon mid-fight renders perfectly without missing a beat. While it's not the greatest in it's genre, it's definitely some of the most fun I've had in a while. From Osiris the scythe to Arbiter the battle axe, to Ebony and Ivory the pistols and Revenant the shotgun, there are eight different weapons to choose from, and a plethora of different attacks and abilities associated to each one.
Although the hack n' slash game play here is the star, simple puzzles and a ton of unlockables are scattered throughout the game, including time trials and secret rooms that can help you unlock more power ups as you go about your adventure. And let's not forget the missions themselves. Most of the game's twenty missions take place in Limbo, which surprisingly managed to overcome its burden of quickly becoming repetitive early on. The visuals were interesting at first, and the broken, twisted, floating world began to feel tiring just after a few missions of the same level structure repeating itself. However, it's almost as though the game realized this, and by level eight or nine, the game started getting a lot more creative - the then floating chunks of rock floating in empty space had been replaced with digital and musical worlds, among others. No longer swinging between bricks and stones, Dante now had to utilize pixels and audio equalizers as pathways in Limbo. It was a change up that I was incredibly welcoming of.
All in all, the characters are banal, boorish, and unpleasant, and although the story had a neat prospect, it devolved into a groan inducing trope-fest with foreseeable twists and riddled with hilariously cringe inducing encounters and conversations. What it boils down to is that it's painfully obvious that DmC is a juvenile escapade with a laundry list of problems, but still manages to entice the player with creative level designs, stunning visuals, and fun, addicting hack n' slash action.
6.5/10 *
Verdict: RENT
(Note: This review of DmC: Devil May Cry was based off of an Xbox 360 version of the game played on Devil Hunter mode over the course of a week. The game was completed in about seven hours. DmC is available now on PS3, 360, and PC.)
(Thanks for giving my first review for this blog a look. I hope in the coming days and weeks to provide more reviews with as good quality as possible. I aim to write reviews with good intent and an opinion as unbiased as possible. I know I picked a pretty controversial game to start out with, but we all have to start somewhere! If you liked this review, let me know what you think!)
*After originally having given this game a score of 7/10, after pondering for a while, I have decided to revert back to my original score of 6.5.
*After originally having given this game a score of 7/10, after pondering for a while, I have decided to revert back to my original score of 6.5.
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