DmC: Devil May Cry Review

There is an awful lot of hate surrounding Devil May Cry on the internet, pre-release, and series' fans have criticised Capcom's decision to bring in third party developer, Ninja Theory, for this reboot of the popular franchise. These psychic gamers have already decided that DmC's combat doesn't stand up to the previous games, that new Dante is a jerk and, astonishingly, concluded the fact that he doesn't have white hair is a game destroyer. Well, I'm here to tell you that DmC is a great game (spoiled the end of my review there) and is an excellent and worthy entry into the established franchise.

Sorry if I offended anyone there... I have no problem with people giving their opinions online and sharing why they think the game is going to be disappointing and what their concerns are; it's those gamers that claim to be fans of the franchise but have already decided that the game sucks I'm referring to. It's clear that Ninja Theory have worked hard and worked very close with Capcom to ensure this reboot remains demonstrably true to the Devil May Cry 'feel'.

DmC is a reboot of the Devil May Cry franchise, wiping the slate clean and starting from scratch. This first (re)entry tells the origin story of the new Dante, the cocky and headstrong hero of the tale. Those concerns that new Dante is a jerk are sort of right. He is a teenage orphan blessed with powers he does not understand and an ability to see beyond the mortal world. Long story short, he's kind of messed up and finding the only way to cope is to stick one finger up at society and go his own way. At least he is at the start of the game, because like any good origin tale the character evolves as the story progresses and the person left standing at the end is very different from the nihilistic know-it-all from the beginning.

Don't expect Shakespeare though, because while the plot of this tale serves its purpose it is not exactly inspired stuff, being a fairly predictable demon-killing romp that is unlikely to surprise with its attempted twists and turns. The development of Dante as a character is far more engaging than the circumstances that surround it. However, despite the plot being somewhat pedestrian it is made enjoyable by an interesting and well-acted cast of characters, some new and some reimaginings of previous Devil May Cry protagonists and antagonists.

Capcom gave this project to Ninja Theory because they needed some fresh input into the series and didn't want to be hindered by their own investment into the franchise. However, both companies have worked extremely closely over the course of the project and a dedicated Capcom team has been regularly collaborating with the UK developer. This was to ensure that while fresh and new, the delivered product would be recognisable and maintain the core qualities of a Devil May Cry game. Both companies can be proud of their achievements as they have managed just that, a brand new take on an established franchise and a great game to boot.

The visual flair of DmC is particularly impressive, with frame rates holding steady against an onslaught of on-screen activity. The game is artistically strong, with bright colours and fast action coming together in a striking way. Dante spends much of the game in Limbo, a twisted reflection of mundane reality. The environments in Limbo are a dark parody of reality and the world will twist, contort and break around itself in an effort to delay, trap or even kill Dante. This constant change and evolution of the game world is a visual treat and impacts heavily on the gameplay.

In terms of sound, DmC's constant gunfire, solid hit connections and heavily aggressive techno music really conveys a sense of action and franticness. However, it is very, very loud and prolonged playing at high volumes is likely to lead to headaches and extremely unimpressed girlfriends (sorry babe!). It does match the intensity of the action though, so is very much in keeping with the game's style. As mentioned already, characters are well acted so despite plot being somewhat lacking it is at least conveyed by believable and likeable characters.

At the heart of DmC's gameplay is its fast paced and frantic combo-based combat and associated scoring system. Here, Ninja Theory have really hit the nail on the head and done the series proud. Combat in DmC is suitably challenging and throws a lot at you at once, always threatening to overwhelm. To succeed, you have to keep a clear head amongst the chaos and concentrate on hitting those sweet, points-giving combos.

Score building is central to the whole premise of DmC and in order to compete on the leaderboards you will be in for a lot of hard work. Score on each level is dictated by style points gained during combat, maximisation of which requires achieving strings of unbroken and varied combo attacks with a variety of weapons. Multipliers are important and are applied for both stage completion time and exploration, with deductions applied for deaths and item usage.

To help in his ass-kicking quest, Dante is endowed with a number of supernatural weapons. You'll start the game with his sword, Rebellion, and will acquire his dual pistols, Ebony and Ivory, within minutes of beginning. These weapons will remain at the core of Dante's loadout throughout the game, but the key to successful combos is to juggle between weapon types. Fairly early on Dante will unlock the Angelic Osiris scythe and the Demonic Arbiter axe and add these to his inventory.

There are even more weapons to unlock along the way, with Angelic weapons focusing on delivering wide damage and keeping high numbers of enemies at bay, while Demonic weapons are focused on delivering punishing amounts of damage onto a single opponent. Dante will also unlock the ability to snare enemies and objects and either pull them towards him or launch himself towards them; an ability which also comes in handy to propel Dante through the environments during the games frequent platforming sequences.

With such a wide variety of weapons to switch between, its impressive that the control scheme is largely intuitive. Face buttons will control your attacks with Rebellion and Dante's firearms, but holding down the left and right triggers will switch to either Angelic or Demonic mode and make use of the active weapon there. Most weapons use similar button combinations for their combat attacks, so remembering everything isn't too difficult and the skill comes down to implementation rather than memory.

Progressions though the game unlocks orbs, which Dante can spend on upgrading his own acrobatic abilities or unlocking new combos and power increases for his existing weapons. A single playthrough of the game will leave much still remaining to be upgraded, so replay is required in order to maximise Dante's offensive and defensive capabilities.

The game begins with three open difficulty levels to choose from and is challenging even at the middle of those. The difficulty curve throughout the game is constant and you are frequently introduced to new enemy types and have to adjust your tactics in response. While you are also unlocking new tools and abilities to enable you to combat more powerful foes, difficulty does gradually increase and from the halfway point onwards things do get tricker on anything but the lowest of difficult levels.

Of course, like previous Devil May Cry titles replay value is extremely high. Completing the game for the first time unlocks the 'Son of Sparda' difficulty level, which not only increases the difficulty but totally changes the enemy waves you will encounter during play, meaning those end-level baddies will start appearing almost immediately in the first few levels. After Son of Sparda come three further modes of increasingly higher difficulty that culminate in 'Hell and Hell' mode, in which Dante dies in one hit but enemies remain as strong as ever.

Luckily, on a new game playthrough you get to keep your fully upgraded weapons and abilities which give you a small chance, but at these higher levels the game can be punishingly difficult. Each of the total seven different difficulty modes has it's own collection of leaderboards in which you can compare your level completion scores with your friends list or against the globe, so competitive types and completionists have probably enough game here to last them all the way through the rest of 2013.

There is a hell of a lot of game to DmC: Devil May Cry. It's a brutal and punishing beast of a game to master, with highly enjoyable combo-based combat, a well presented world and excellent cast of characters. It tells a fairly unremarkable story, but succeeds in creating an interesting and dynamic take on the Dante character ready to bring him back for a second future outing. However, the most impressive feat is the sheer level of replayability the game offers; a lengthy campaign can easily take 7-10 hours to complete on first play through and with seven different levels of difficulty and leaderboards galore, this is a game that demands you keep playing and playing. Thanks to excellent and enjoyable gameplay, you probably will.