Devil May Cry features one of the most recognisable game characters from the PS2 era of gaming, Dante. His striking white hair makes him instantly recognisable even if it is just as ‘that guy from that game’. When the reboot came out in 2013 there was fan outcry at the new look of Dante. With his short black hair making him unrecognisable from what he once was. Luckily, the game itself made up for the new appearance, with great level design and gameplay, it quickly garnered solid scores with critics and fans alike. And now it’s followed in the footsteps of many others before it with a re-release on current gen consoles. The ‘Definitive Edition’ comes with the improved visuals, frame rates, and all the DLC released originally in nice new package. But how relevant is it now? And is it worth picking up 2 years later?
Firstly, the hack and slash genre isn’t usually something I give my attention. It’s never tickled my fancy and I find myself not putting much time into the games I have tried. DMC might be the game to change my opinion, I enjoyed it, a lot. It all seems to click, the premise, storyline, level design, soundtrack, gameplay, visuals…..I like it all. Let’s delve a little deeper.
What Ninja Theory have done, is create a unrealistic situation, within a believable premise. Quite clearly, the whole demon angel battle is the thing of fantasy. But by putting it within a human struggle and using the age old conspiracy theory that there are others controlling the world leaders – in this case the Demon God Mundus, it creates a scenario that is in a strange way relatable. You are Dante, and at the beginning you don’t realise your importance, but you soon come to know that you are the only hope for mankind’s freedom – who’d have thought it?
Across around 8-9 hours of gameplay (on Easy difficulty) you battle through a nice range of enemy types, making you think about how you need to approach a battle, and needing to use different combat types to overcome different combinations of enemies keeps each battle fresh and new. But it is the thought that has gone into the wide range of level designs, and boss battles which make the game stand out on its own. You’ll go from a red brick city, to a few levels down the line finding yourself fighting within a truly crazy TV show themed level, with bright neon colours and a giant TV host head to defeat at the end. And that’s nothing compared to the night club/disco level. Some serious imagination has gone into it, and it’s refreshing to see. It would have been easy to go down the dark dingy route with the presence of the demons, but splashing colour around and bold design choices make the game a fun ride.
The entry requirements make it very accessible aswell. There is plenty of choice for hack and slash veterans looking to rack up huge combos and scores with different weapons, a button combos. But for someone like myself who is fairly new, there is still a great amount of satisfaction to have hitting buttons and pulling off simple combinations. Simple platforming and getting around the levels is also well thought out, linking together various movement methods to make going between fights interesting.
There is plenty of game here aswell, the main story can be replayed a number of times on different difficulty levels, and with ‘remixed’ versions of the enemies. You also get the DLC Bloody Palace – a survival mode against waves of enemies, and Vergil’s Downfall – additional campaign missions taking place straight after the main story finishes, but this time taking control of Vergil instead of Dante, and while his move set isn’t as deep as his brother’s, there is enough there to make the 3-4 hours’ worth playing through.
I played the reboot of Devil May Cry when it first came out of Xbox 360 and enjoyed it very much, and nothing has changed now. If you have played through before on the older consoles, this might not be worth picking up again. But if you haven’t given it a go before, I implore you to try it out. A refreshing change to my usual gaming habits, and up there with one of (surprisingly) favourite games in recent years.
**Thank you to XCN for the opportunity to review this game**