DmC: Devil May Cry Review (Spoilers)
Warning: The following review contains spoilers. Reader's discretion is advised.
DmC: Devil May Cry is an action-adventure, hack and slash game developed by Ninja Theory and published by Capcom for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Microsoft PC. DmC is the fifth game to be developed under the Devil May Cry banner and is a reboot of the popular franchise, taking away everything we've come to known and – well, most folks never got past Dante's hair.
Ninja Theory is an independent video game developer based in Cambridge, England. Founded in March of 2000. They were originally known by Just Add Monsters before their name change, and was put in charge of the new Devil May Cry game by Capcom.
As always, the game stars Dante, a rebel youth demon hunter who lost both his parents to demons when he was just a boy. This time around his human half has been replaced with a new angel half, making him what is referred to as “Nephilim.” Half demon, half angel. A being capable of wielding both demonic and angelic abilities to kick your ass. He learns that he has a twin brother named Vergil, and together with a Spirit Medium named Kat, they have to overthrow the demon king Mundus that controls the whole world through debt. Now, obviously before I can get to the game I have to address the changes done to the characters now.
I have no problem with the new Dante design. Don't get me wrong, I love the silver hair wonder as much as the next guy, but the new design works just fine for the game and he gets the white hair by the end anyway. He looks worse with it. The new Dante may not be as laid back as the old one, but he's still a cocky kid who doesn't take bulltrout from anybody and doesn't shy away from breaking some skulls. Despite taking out the human half, he actually feels more human than his past incarnations. You see his anger directed at the demons, and you see his relationship with his brother and Kat grow as the game progresses and he is just all around more well rounded.
Vergil is still just as sophisticated as his older self, only he's more of a people person. The old Vergil came across as a man who only tolerated your existence in order to get what he wanted. The new Vergil comes across more as a man who'd talk over tea and attend art galleries. He's more charming and able to turn people to his cause and get them to fight. While the former may be perceived as “cooler” the latter is just more practical. You're less likely to have people rebel against you when you have them convinced that you're the good guy.
Seeing Dante and Vergil work together was a nice change of pace. Their banter is hilarious and they really do feel like real brothers, which makes it all the more tragic when they eventually find themselves on opposite sides. Vergil's motivations are more clear and you can even understand his side of things. That's something I honestly never been able to say during a Devil May Cry game.
Mundus looks like Lex Luthor. I'm sorry, but he does. He's bald, he has the suit, and he operates from a tower. He's Lex Luthor. In appearance, anyway. Personality wise, Mundus is every bit as ruthless as I would come to expect from him and quick to anger. You don't see him do much until near the end of the game where he takes matters into his own hands, but he was the same way in the original. Only this time he has more of a presence, since he's solely responsible for everything that's going on in the world. Instead of trying to conquer the Earth, he already rules it.
Unlike his old self who didn't shy away from killing minions when they failed, this Mundus shows some signs of actually caring for his underlings. He was upset when he felt his succubus was killed and became super pissed when his unborn child was murdered. I can understand why losing his son would upset him, but the attachment to the succubus was never really explained. Mundus is the weakest of the three as far as development goes, he's more meant to be the “big bad” the heroes overcome and not much else. His demon form is still cool to look at, even if it might seem more generic when compared to his original design.
Oh my god, I can control the camera! Okay, just needed to get that out of my system. To start, the gameplay this time around is just a lot more smoother. You can easily switch between weapons and aren't just limited to two at a time, the combination of demonic and angelic abilities are well implemented and just as easy to switch between. The platforming is fine for the most part, but Dante's double jump just looks awkward. The guns are as useless as they've always been and you're better off saving them for weaker enemies.
All your usual hack and slash goodness is still here, as well as the stylist meter which grades how good you are depending on combo execution and the less damage you take. The Devil Trigger is a lot more of a spectacle, too. Changing the colors of the screen and making Dante look like more of his old self and rewards you for slaying enemies while airborne. That said, the rest of the demons, abilities, and boss fights feel more watered down than the older games. Like they were trying to ground it in more realism. I can't determine whether or not that's a good or a bad thing, but if you didn't like the “anime physics” that were common in the older games, you may warm up to this one more.
The premise is largely the same: Sparda meets Eva, they fall in love, the love is forbidden, they have twin boys, the parents are killed, the boys get separated. Only this time, the world is controlled by demons and live among humans in disguise. They have the ability to pull Dante into Limbo which shows the demons as they truly are, and anyone on the outside can only see what the demons want them to see. The concept is a good one, but it could have been executed better. Going in, I thought Limbo was going to be this big mind smurf where you didn't know if you were facing real demons or slaughtering innocent humans made to look like them. That would have played into painting Dante as a terrorist since people would have been seeing him slaughtering innocents he thought were demons. Instead, no one can see him while he's in Limbo except for Kat, and all the humans are aware of is the damage caused by his fights and the news media telling them he's a terrorist.
The voice acting is solid. There's really no one in the game who feel like they're phoning it in keeping it on par with the quality that began back in Devil May Cry 3. What does affect the voice acting, though, is the writing. At times the writing just feels forced and no amount of great voice acting can reconcile it. Interactions between Dante, Vergil, Kat, Phineas, and Bob Barbas are genuine enough. But the rest? I'm sorry, a big demon screaming at the top of her lungs, cursing, threatening to piss on you, and calling your mother a whore just isn't threatening. The only demon who's the least bit intimidating is Mundus. The rest may as well be clowns.
Conclusion: The overall presentation is well executed and left me wanting more. Sadly, I may never get to see more since the game sold less than its predecessor, Devil May Cry 4. But here's hoping. If you can look pass the changes done to Dante's character, then you may find yourself pleasantly surprised by what DmC has to offer. Just like the Tomb Raider reboot, it still holds the essence of the franchise while offering something new and having more fleshed out characters I hope to see again.
Get it.
