Warning, this review has some mild spoilers.
I'm going to be honest with you right now, the very first time I saw the original teaser trailer for DmC, Ninja Theory's take on Capcom's niche but cult hit franchise "Devil may cry" I was less than impressed by the new direction they were taking one of my much beloved franchises, I hated Dante's new look which has been described on more than one occasion as looking like "a dirty Emo junky" a stark contrast when compared to the original Dante "a stylish, trench coat sporting, silver haired, wise cracking hero" although after Ninja Theory altered his design a little he did look a lot better. Another thing that had put me off of DmC early on was the fact that Ninja Theory seemed all to eager to bash the original games, the original creator Hideki Kamiya, as well as insult the original series fanbase. Needless to say, this didn't exactly rub me up the right way, but never the less I was still eager to get hands on with the game and find out for myself weather or not DmC: Devil may cry held up when compared to the original franchise, or deserved to be left Devil may crying at the bottom of a bargain bin.
Now seeing as the Original Devil may cry game released way back in 2001, it's a little unfair of me to try and attempt to compare the two gameplay wise, and also seeing as DmC: Devil may cry was supposed to be more along the lines of an origin story, it therefore has closer ties to Devil may cry 3: Dante's awakening which coincidently is one of my favourite action games of all time. Now DmC is supposed to be separate from that of the original franchise cannon, regardless of what the ending to the game may suggest, but I feel some comparison needs to be drawn in one form or another so I'll go about doing a little of such in this review.
So first up, Story.
Without going into to too much detail, or trying not to at least, Ninja Theory's DmC: Devil may cry puts us in the slightly scruffy, not so well refined, but still highly capable boots of a newer, younger Dante than we have played as before, but unlike in past games where our hero was the offspring of a human (Eva) and a Demon (Sparda) making him a powerful hybrid of the two, he is now a Nephilim, the offspring of an Angel and a Demon. However Nephilim in this game are considered strictly taboo as their species posses the power to traverse between both the Demon world and the Angel world, wield the power of both Angels and Demons, and can bring about the death of a Demon king. Due to the Nephilims potential threat their species were wiped out long ago, however Sparda (blood brother of the Demon King Mundus) eventually falls in love with an Angel known as Eva who goes on to bore them 2 twins named Dante and Vergil, this however causes an irrevocable rift between Sparta and Mundus, the later of which who then goes on a bloody and murderous rampage to yet again purge the world of the Nephilim abomination, his only potential threat posed by the very existence of the two Nephilim children, and to also punish their parents. Needless to say Mundus doesn't succeed here and Dante and his brother Vergil are separated then put in places safe from Mundus's gaze.
Dante is first introduced to us in Run–D.M.C., sorry I mean DmC: Devil may cry as a young man with nothing to loose, partying all night, one night stands and the occasional deep pan pizza is his way of life right now, well apart from occasionally getting dragged into Limbo (a plain that exists between the human and Demon world) where he is forced to fight and survive all manner of monstrosities, not to mention the environment itself in order to escape. This is all happening while the main Villain Mundus, a powerful Demon King who has gained hold over the human world by masquerading as a human himself, and bringing humanity under his thumb through debt, manipulating politics, and fast food, all while relentlessly scouring the city in order to bring about Dante's untimely demise. Except on one fateful day after partying hard Dante is approached by a mysterious girl named Cat, who wants to introduce him to her "Boss" head of an organisation known as the Order.
So as you can probably tell the basic plot in DmC: Devil may cry is arguably pretty good on paper, unfortunately though the games story suffers from some poor scripting, hammy voice acting, more F-bombs than you'd need to make even a sailor blush, and also some arguably disappointing moments of characterisation. The good I suppose is the fact that even this level of infantile story telling didn't end up killing the game for me, the story might be hanging on a thread for dear life but Devil may cry was never very story centric anyway. The idea of having all of humanity already under the thumb of Demons all the while being non the wiser was a smart move and I give Team Ninja credit for that one, but sadly that is just about as smart as the game tries to be with such a premise. Going off of the events that transpire at the end of DmC I would be very interested in seeing exactly where Team Ninja could potentially take the franchise now, but saying that you could probably get a decent answer to this question by going and playing Devil may cry 3: Dante's awakening, which almost seems like it could have been tailor made to be DmC's sequel par a few plot/story differences.
OK, so now we're at the "combat" arguably the most important aspect of any Devil may cry game. So... How does it hold up?.
Combat in DmC: Devil may cry is honestly pretty good but I would be hesitant in saying it is as good as the likes of DMC 3 or 4, you see in the older DMC games playing as Dante made you feel like a total badass, but I never really got that same feeling from playing as Dante in DmC: Devil may cry, another thing that didn't help was that the Devil trigger was a little disappointing, it gives you a decent power boost but is over far to soon, also because the transformation shockwave throws enemies into the air for you to take out using aerial combos it ended up obscuring enemies from the line of sight at times. That being said DmC: Devil may cry's combat has actually put me in somewhat of a rather difficult position, you see while the game does arguably has some of the deepest combat mechanics the series has had yet, such as allowing for players to alternate between any and all ranged weapons and/or melee weapons on the fly, allowing for such tactics as using light combo attacks with the Osiris (Angel Scythe) then near the end of the combo switching weapons and following up with say, a finishing combination heavy attack with the Arbiter (Demon Axe) it is a pretty neat addition that I would like to see in more future action games. However DmC does kind of fall short in other areas, such as forcing you to have to switch weapons to deal with certain enemy threats, it probably sounded like a good idea early on but in practice I felt it ended up getting in the way of the flow of combat and just really caused unnecessary complications, most enemies in DmC aren't too difficult to manage but once a Angel or Demon enemy appears it impacts your play style drastically, maybe this aspect of enemy combat does add to the challenge but personally I could have done without it.
I wasn't really much of a fan of the redesign for Rebellion (Dante's Sword), Ebony and Ivory (Dante's dual pistols) either, but the new Rebellion made for an interesting alternative to the original mostly because of it being more multi-purpose in its uses, that being said other than say one or two enemies Ebony and Ivory were utterly useless, which is a little unfortunate. Also the style counter is another thing I wasn't too happy Ninja Theory changed, it is a lot more forgiving in DmC: Devil may cry than I think it has ever been before. Getting hit will no longer reset your style counter like it did in previous games but instead will only lower your style, making it pretty easy to achieve SSS rankings on most levels during your first play through, then again using the new Rebellion to drag enemies towards you much like you could with Nero's "Devil bringer" in DMC 4, is a welcome inclusion to Dante's skill set, the skill even lets you go as far as latching hold of enemies and dragging yourself over to them, this does however creates a bit of an exploit. It is all too easy with most enemies to launch one into the air, pummel them to death then latch hold of another, and pull them up into the air, or alternatively latch hold and drag yourself over to an enemy already in flight and pummel them to death as well, rinse & repeat till you have nothing left but the heavys on the ground and a good use for you Demon axe, assuming you ever stopped using it.
Some of the Boss fights in DmC: devil may cry were a little lacklustre, especially when compared to the classics like Cerberus, Griffon, DMC 3's Vergil, Beowulf the Lightbeast, Nevan and the original Devil may cry's Mundus. However the final boss fight certainly made up for some disappointing bosses that preceded him.
To be fair the combat in DmC was most likely made more accessible to allow for newer gamers to play and feel like a pro without actually having to master the combat mechanics like you would in previous games, aka learning how not to get their head knocked off. Anyway if you really want a challenge there are a good few difficulty settings available that will help you scratch that challenge itch, it might not fix every issue you have with the game but it should help fans who want to play DmC but are also missing that challenge the original franchise posed.
And now we come to the "platforming"
The platforming side of DmC: Devil may cry, is a certain aspect that has been rather lacking in the series past iterations. So, is the inclusion here for better or worse? Well I actually kinda liked it myself, I mean yes it's linear, yes it's only ever really their so we can get a good look at the twisted beauty that is Limbo (Very pretty place mind) and yes the choppy visuals that comes with platforming in 30 fps does kinda get in the way of split second button presses, leading to Dante missing the opportunity to grapple onto a piece of floating debris , then falling 50 storeys and receiving a pavement facial. But in the end the platforming does what it should do, it gets you from A to B with relatively minimum fuss intended, that's more than can be said for platforming in the original games *cringes* so no, platforming in DmC is not perfect but it works well enough in most cases at least.
OK, so before wrapping up I just want to take a brief moment and talk about how "I" feel DmC: Devil may cry does in actual matching up to the original games.
It must be said that as a character I didn't much like the new Dante, however with that being said he certainly grew on me the more I played and I honestly did end up liking him in the end, certainly not as much as I like the original Dante but enough for me to not mind seeing him in a DmC sequel. For me a key factor that made the original Dante likable was his character flaws, flaws that were brought about by his tragic past and his conflict with being part Demon (the creatures that he shares a deep connection to but must kill daily in order to save human lives) and his human side, he is part human but never truly being able to fit in with normal society led him to become a loner, and a smart mouthed rogue, who drops one liners as much as new Dante drops the F-bomb. I honestly felt that the original Dante being part human made him more relatable but the new Dante certainly has relatable human character flaws, and to be fair he's only had one game to flesh out his character where as the original Dante has had 3 or 4 or at least.
While this reboot might not strike a chord with everyone I think it is fair to say that as a game it does well to stand on it's own merits, maybe if DmC: Devil may cry was made instead to be an all new IP then it probably would have been more well received. If you have yet to have played DmC: Devil may cry then by all means give it a try, it's definitely not DmC as we "the fans" know it but it is well worth playing as an enjoyable action game, and heck it still beats Devil may cry 2 *cringe*.
Well thanks for reading my user review, if you have anything to add or disagree with my points then as always please feel free to leave a comment.
Toyama discuss is Slitterhead going to be an action-adventure game and expresses horror while aiming at a wide range of entertainment, also if the trailer on The Game Awards was running on in-game engine or not.
Translated from Japanese to Arabic to English. I'm going to take anything here with a massive grain of salt.
It's not meant to be silent Hill. Their last game was an action game (Gravity Rush) and they want to do a new series rather than try to make another slow paced horror game like silent Hill or Siren. They've already made lots of those games.
They literally said they were "going back to their roots" and cited "Silent Hill" left and right in this project. They never cited Gravity Rush as an inspiration, you can't really blame people for being disappointed. It's like citing the most delicious burger you ever ate as an inspiration for a ham sandwich. It can still be good, but it's not remotely like your inspiration.
@TricksterArrow considering nothing was shown that could be considered gameplay the experience of actually playing the game could be very different than the vibe given from the trailer.
I dunno, like Toyama's definition on "won't focus on psychological horror" could mean going from his usual next tier WTF is going on horror to just normal mind fuck levels.
Chirag Pattni discusses the poor state in which Capcom started the generation. As well has how Capcom have returned to form with recent game releases.
there are at least six Resident Evil tags in this article and for me that's not a sign of a comeback is more a sign of lacking creativity from Capcom, is still a mere shadow from its glory days, they still have a lot of work to do to say a comeback.
4 is 15 years old
6 is about 8 years old
and 8 doesn't exist
that's half of the tags
Hideaki Itsuno almost resigned from Capcom following the release of DmC: Devil May Cry.
I don’t blame him after how bad that game was and how poorly it sold (almost killing the series) I wouldn’t want to be at the company that greenlit that abomination.
The other article won’t let me respond anymore but quit saying it sold the worse and almost killed the series because that isn’t true. I don’t use wiki’s that anybody can put whatever they want the stats I posted were from capcom themselves from just back in August. I’m pretty sure they themselves know better than the wiki you tried to link.
Capcom wanted the original release to sell 2 million. Which was lower than DMC4 sales. When they were not on track for that 2 million they lowered it to 1.2 million. The numbers only went up when they re-released it on everything else and even then DMCHD collection performed relatively better. Get over it. Donte is dead and the real Dante lives. Troll harder and elsewhere kid.
To further add to what Segata said the wiki takes the sales data FROM Capcom, silly boy you can rage all you want but the fact is only a loud minority liked DmC, the game is a faillure and a black mark on the series the fact that we got DMC5 instead of DmC 2 should make that obvious.
@Ak91 lol no it doesn’t what I posted was from capcom and so the poster below can see what I’m talking about ill post them again. 4 sold 3 mil,DmC sold 2.4 mil,3 sold 2.3 mil,1 sold 2.16 mil,2 sold 1.7 mil and the hd collection sold 1.1 mil.
@segata how is sharing my opinion that DmC isn’t bad like the hardcore gate keeping DMC fans try to make it out to be trolling? There’s a reason you see a lot of people on the web wanting a sequel to DmC and there’s a reason it sold well and is one of the highest rated DMC games there is. Trolling is saying hurr durr the DMC series sucks and only DmC is good which I’ve never said. Now I’ve said the series only has one masterpiece with DMC 3 while 1 and 4 are just ok and 2 is straight bad and I’m sorry but that’s not trolling. You don’t share my opinion that’s fine but don’t resort to the trolling accusation because you don’t agree with someone that’s just childish and not a good look.
DMC is the worst selling Devil May Cry game. That is a fact.
DMC is the worst Devil May Cry game; but it still is a good action game.
Yeah, so, the game was actually a pretty good action game bro. Not as good as DMC 1,3 and 4, but a good action game.
In no way, shape or form was it a "bad game", it just wasn't really a DMC game.
Now a bad game would be DMC 2. That one was just a disaster
It wasn't a bad game by any stretch of the imagination.
It was a stylistic reboot that did it's own thing, nodding towards the tone and mechanics of the original.
That's usually how reboots work. It was a solidly made game through and through, thus any opinion of the game is just that - opinion; based on whether you enjoyed the new take on the series.
The game reviewed rather quite well. Fans of the original series just didn't like the take on the reboot. I actually enjoyed the game for what it was. Solid story, good combat/gameplay. But, I was also never a very big DMC fan so I didn't get caught up in the the remake controversies.
This isn’t true this was on resetera and its worded like that to make it sound like DmC made him want to quit and that’s not what happened.
Outsourced development to external team was an insult to internal team, more so if they think they can do that.
I never liked DmC, i tried to like it, but i couldn't. It just didn't appeal to me.
But strangely i liked dmc. I finished it.
Now i am interested in DmC5. It feels so realish/americanish like dmc compared to DMC 1-4 Which felt more fantasy-ish/manga-ish.
Meh. All these cry baby purists can suck a fat one. Devil may cry 5 is the definitive one but DMC rocked and got phenomenal reviews. You guys should just be happy the DMC future isn’t just pachinko.
Yep. I loved it too. dmc has more "mature" atmosphere than DMC, like American TV series. It's more suited to the setting and characters in Devil May Cry universe. The DMC 1-4 was more like a US comic book written by Japanese mangaka.
I haven't played it yet, but it seems DMCV has that "mature" American TV series atmosphere.
Thanks for the Review, sounds like what I expect it to be.
still haven't played it but in my opinion all I saw looks really good and totaly my style.
I did not have the time yet to go buy the game and start it up, but I know I will have a great time when doing so!
Btw the first Trailer looked HORRIBLE! I'm so glad they changed it, away from punk and towards dubstep, thats pretty awesome
And I really dig his new look!
fair review The game pretty solid I enjoyed it a lot.
I think it's a good review, even though I don't agree with most of your points.
Of course some of your analysis is opinion and I respect that. For example I enjoy the combat of this DmC more than the other DMC for a lot of reasons (but since are just my personal opinion, I will skip to list them! :D).
The only thing I really think is incorrect is your statement about the 30fps.
It's not because of the 30fps that the game may look choppy or has some response delays, it's because is not a rock solid 30fps and of course the FPS that isn't stable may cause problems to the gameplay too.
In the end I think this game deserve an higher score, but I must admit your review is very well written, a lot better than the most of the "pro" review I usually read. Compliments!
Really liked your review.
Don't know if you remember but I had a few conversations with you before the game released, I don't want to rehash old sh*t but I was surprised to see an 8 and after reading your review it sounds like you had some fun while playing.
That's all I ever wanted from this game, and I agree with everything you say here. Have you played the Vergil dlc?