Devil May Cry has been under a lot of scrutiny by the public since the game was originally announced under development by the team that brought you Enslaved and Heavenly
Sword. So does this reboot hack and slash adventure turn things around?
It’s been sometime since we last played a Devil May Cry game and with this reboot, I was somewhat sceptic about the whole idea and how the game would look and play. With my scepticism aside, I settled down with Dante and here are my thoughts.
Dante is the son of Sparda and is been hunted by the demon lord Mundus who is perpetrated by in the real world Kyle Ryder. There are two different worlds in this adventure: the real world where everything is normal but is run by the corrupted Kyle Ryder, and a world that is not all that it seems known as Limbo City. Most of your time you will be in Limbo where you must face your demons. Limbo is a place full of dark murky areas and also where the world will start to fall on you – there are stark differences between this environment and the normal world. In the real world people are drinking a soft drink called “Virility” which changes them completely; if your dentist tells you not to drink fizzy drinks because it can damage your teeth, then Virility can damage your sense of life all together.
Dante is coming to terms with what it means to be the son of a Demon father and Angel mother. His split personality enables him to call upon special abilities from both sides which alter the way he moves and fights. He is not human at all rather half demon and half angel, he is given angelic and demon weapons at his disposal. The weapons available in the game you will already know if you have played the demo, but you also have some new toys to play with.
The story is written and presented brilliantly and keeps the flow going throughout the game. In one particular scene the story is presented on a wall with graphite images, while the narrator talks you through it. The enemies in the game seem somewhat copy and pasted and it feels like you’ve already faced them before in previous levels. In some areas the enemies have kind of been upgraded, yet still they look the same as before. As you progress through the different areas, you will notice white writing appear on the floor and even the walls as the corrupt world of Limbo takes over.
The combat in the game is fluent and still has the originality from the previous games, which will keep both the old and new fans happy. At the top right corner you will notice that you’re scored during the combat and to really max the points, you must keep a combo going. At the end of each level you will see your final score and will also be placed on a leaderboard. To get a better score you can replay the levels again once you gain all of Dante’s abilities and upgrades.
Devil May Cry still has its flaws and are readily visible in the game; the camera angles can be frustrating at times, for instance when Dante jumps off a wall in mid-air he will miss the platform that he was meant to land on and fall down. If you over jump a platform you will just fall off and lose a small portion of your health. The soundtrack is really upbeat throughout the game with hard rock but can soon get rather annoying.
Ninja Theory have created a real masterpiece here which has made this reboot to the franchise unique. Devil May Cry may have its flaws but it is still one fantastic game and really shows off the Unreal Engine 3 in style.
