Just bashing the living hell out of something gives a person a strange kind of pleasure, Devil May Cry 4 is the game where you can turn to when you want to go insane and start a rampage of kills. Players who have previously played the series would know the feeling when you just want to kill yourself when you keep on dying and even though you try your best not to get hit, when you actually do, you end losing a huge chunk of your life. This installment isn't exactly like that. Playing through the first two modes of the game won't spell suicidal, however, playing through the unlocked modes could make you cry. Devil May Cry 4 is the first game of the series to have been released in the seventh generation of gaming so naturally it had a hype to live up to and deliver that next gen experience. The game does not disappoint, in fact offering some very stylish and fun action. But to achieve that level of satisfaction, some problems do come in the way.
Previous experience counts to understand the basis of the storyline of the game, although the 20 minute installation at the beginning will provide a very valuable insight on the series to new players. Fans will remember the cocky and arrogant protagonist Dante with his over the top attitude although this time round the Devil Hunter isn't the star of the show. That honor falls on the young Nero, this may create some unease initially as fans won't be familiar with the character but this isn't a drawback. Fortunately Nero is a great new addition who has a mean steak of himself when it comes to demon killing. The story takes place in modern times where an Order worships Dante's father the legendary dark knight father as their God. Amidst them is Nero who does not respect their acts though. After Dante interrupts proceedings and kills the leader of the Order, Nero is tasked to bring him back, on his journey the Order's real purposes come to light and the events of the story begin to unfold. In true Japanese gaming style the story features several brightly colored monsters and long cutscenes. It may take a while to get used to but the story is compelling and truly starts when Dante's part comes to fruition.
Game Play is an interesting aspect, while before players had the whole of their time to hone and perfect Dante's skills. This time round it is split in two halves, for the majority of the time the player takes control of Nero. His pride and joy to success is his hand, the Devil Bringer. This is a superb asset as you will definitely use it the most, using it gives the player new variety of moves to use and help attain higher level of style. Also usable are his other weapons the sword Red Queen and his gun Blue rose. The Red Queen has its own combos to use or if the automatic mode is used Nero will do them himself, the blue rose is mainly used to slow down the enemy or take down lesser opponents. Nero will gain Yamato which will enable him to have a much higher level of power equivalent of Dante's devil version. Dante himself has his own set of moves and actually offers more variety than Nero. Like before he has his fighting styles, players can use which one benefits them the most according their playing method. But the devil bringer really is a great advantage and losing it will make using Dante harder than before and some getting used to could take a while. Nero though doesn't get any additional weapons after defeating an enemy while Dante does which means you'll have access to a whole new set of combos.
Hack and Slash games always has a player dish out a lot of damage on their enemies but a lot of damage is also taken. To help you through those tough times, and there will be a lot of them if you're playing in the harder modes, you will be rewarded with Red orbs and Proud souls. Red orbs can be found anywhere and earning them is necessary to get a good rank at the end of completing your mission. These orbs are used to buy items for the player, these vary from increasing your life bar to replenishing it. You can also increase your degree of trigger. The Proud Souls are used to increase the move set you have, players should be on the look out to purchase as many of these they can as they are of great use. Scattered around the game are secret missions, perhaps even more so than the game these missions are harder. Only few of them are straightforward while the rest need to be done more than once.Puzzles are available as well but these are usually very straightforward which continue with the same pattern throughout the game. The series has always offered fun boss fights, again there are great ones added and quite a lot of them. But you have to fight these guys about three times in the game so identifying their techniques the first time round will get you easily through the rest which leads to eventual boredom of those characters. There's a fairly huge sense of backtracking involved. Dante's play-through is pretty much covering Nero's tracks, as with the boss fights the environments are covered four to five times. It is very easy to lose your way and going through these areas another couple of times.
Seventh generation means the graphics are the best in the series, even though they are far from the best graphics available in gaming. Environments unfortunately mostly consist of castles which means that those places are shrouded in darkness but the outdoor areas where the sun shines offer some great scenery with lush fields of flowers and grass in a few missions. Sound is magnificent which is expertly provided in the fighting sequences with Rock music contributing to your brutalizing an enemy. In the moments when you are walking around in dark corridors the eerie silence makes you aware of dangers lurking in the corners. Voice acting isn't overall great by the cast but Dante and Nero shine where they are featured, some of the rest sound boring and overdrawn. Online leaderboards, challenging achievements on both platforms, and a host of unlockables including an action-only survival mode will keep stalwart fans coming back for more.
The game doesn't have much weakness's other than way too much repetition but that flaw means that the game just falls narrowly short of being one of the truly great games of this generation. However, if you're look for some fast paced over the top action or simply feeling to rip something to shreds then Devil May Cry 4 is your game to play.
Devil May Cry 4 launched 15 years ago today, bringing with it new character Nero. Has it stood the test of time?
Never liked it and I think I got it day 1.
Cheap Capcom design of half a game that you have to walk through twice.
5 isn't much different in that department. Encounter the same boss three times with three different characters? Endless warehouses or alien-like tunnels that all look the same.
I'm actually with you there, but DMC has that terrible writing. Alex Garland isn't it?
Grab your katana, and slice your way through this list featuring the best hack and slash games the PlayStation 3 had to offer.
Dante's inferno... an excellent GoW inspired game. So sad the sequels will never be.
I recall enjoying it well enough at the time, but it wasn't a patch on God of War 3 which came out around the same time I think.
I own it and fired it up on my PS3 about 6 months ago and time hadn't been particularly kind to it although it still very much nailed the atmosphere and it is a cool as he'll setting and universe.
Dante's Inferno needs the GOW treatment. No cut camera, with a real hellish depiction of the 9 circles and a story as dark and as serious would be amazing.
Still pretty amazing there was a PSP version that was actually pretty good. I remember playing it 10 years ago. I had the PS3 version when it first came out and loved it.
Yup, I remember being blown away with Heavenly Sword. I remember holding out hope that they would go back and add trophy support as a incentive to go back and replay the game, but I don't think they ever did?
I couldn't beat the final boss though! Spent several days trying but eventually gave up, lol. Still enjoyed it though.
heavenly sword was such a short, but amazing game. that game should be prime material to be made into a download only remaster.
I really enjoyed Castlevania, but struggled to get into it again reattempting it a few years back. I still think it does another of things well; story, presentation, level varietily and art style at least. Gameplay maybe has not stood test of time unfortunately which makes it a chore to get through.
Heres ten great games we still want to see ported to the Nintendo Switch.
Its a good review, however I seen a lot of grammar and spelling problems.