Hello, meet the game that prevents me from liking God of War because it's too slow, holds your hands too much, and doesn't have the common decency to be self aware of how utterly ridiculous it is. DMC3 does none of this. I've always had an odd history with the franchise, and in hindsight, I kind of feel that DMC3 is the only really good one. DCM1 is charming in a special needs kind of way and has aged horribly with bad camera design, cheap enemies, and one of the worst control schemes for an action game I can think of off the top of my head. DCM2 is boring and unbalanced with Dante feeling like a second fiddly to Lucia and his gameplay is ridiculously easy since the guns are overpowered as all hell. DCM4 has some great gameplay, but the plot is more ridiculous than usual, the game basically makes you replay every stage and boss fight twice and frankly, Nero is more fun to play as since his Devil Arm adds something to the gameplay but he's such a whiny bitch it's hard to deal with him. Dante is the better character but his new style switching mechanic breaks the game for him if you even remotely know what you're doing. The less said about DmC the better.
For those unfamiliar with the franchise, Devil May Cry is set in a world where demons once tried to take over the human world, but one of their strongest generals, Sparda, woke up to justice and single handily defeated the invasion and the demon god Mundus. Afterwards, he sealed the two worlds apart using his demon sword and a magical amulet. He then fell in love with a human woman and eventually sired twin boys, Dante and Vergil, before mysteriously dying off. Demons still trapped in the human world or finding dubious ways to circumvent the barrier eventually found Sparda's offspring and attacked them, resulting in the death of their mother. The boys are still tormented by this with Dante becoming more wild and reckless and wishing to hunt demons, while Vergil grew cold and calculating wishing to embrace his full demon. The series in general usually involves someone trying to get a hold of Sparda's artifacts to open up a hole to the demon world.
DMC3 is a prequel to DCM1, and deals with a late teen/early twenty something Dante as he gets ready to start his demon hunting business. In series tradition, a stranger named Arkham appears at his shop and mentions that a demon invasion is underway as the path to the demon world is about to be unlocked by Dante's estranged brother Vergil. Dante fights off the demons accompany Arkham and follows him to the tower to face his brother. On the way, Dante meets a feisty human demon hunter named Lady who is hunting down Arkham to fulfill her grudge against the man. The game takes place in a tower that plays a lot of lip service to Dante's Inferno, with enemies based around the seven deadly sins and other amusing nods. Vergil's ultimate goal is to retrieve his father's sword from the demon realm so he can awaken his full demonic power. The plot has it's nice dramatic moment like Dante and Vergil's first duel on the top of the tower, but the game has no problems poking fun at how ridiculous everything is. There is a sequence in the beginning when Dante meets Lady for the first time and she fires a rocket at him. The game proceeds to do a frame for frame recreation of the famous Matrix bullet time sequence, before Dante instead jumps on top of the rocket and rides it like a surfboard across the room. The game is filled with tongue and cheek nods to it's own ridiculousness which helps move it away from the rather grim second game.
Okay, so the plot is pretty formulaic and basic, but let's face it, we're not here for the story. We're here for the hardcore, action gameplay. At this point DMC3 truly shines as the game builds on what actually worked in DMC1, while mostly ignoring DMC2's contributions. Dante can collect demonic weapons and various firearms to help him on his journey and gameplay largely revolves around being ridiculously good at crowd control and juggling enemies in the air. You'll need to get good at it too as the game is pretty difficult with competent enemy A.I. that works pretty well together in groups and some seriously nasty enemy types and bosses. Cerberus and the twin armors alone are the bane for many first time players and the game's first "boss" actually turns out to be a regular enemy later on. Many gamers whined about the game's notorious Story and Gameplay segregation, as Dante can shrug off fatal attacks from the enemy like nobody's business in the cutscenes but can be taken down in three hits by the most basic of enemies. Yet for me, the challenge of the game is getting good enough to make you recreate the crazy action sequences Dante does in the story portions which is pretty easy to do with the newer game mechanics.
Like DMC1, Dante can purchase various skills associated with the weapons he collects, what's new is the game's Style system, which allows the player to alter Dante's gameplay focus. At the start of a mission, the player can choose one of four styles: Swordmaster, Gunslinger, Trickster, and Royal Guard. Swordmaster helps expand Dante's move-set with the various melee weapons you obtain over the course of the game. Gunslinger does the same with fire-arms. These often add special moves like using enemies to skateboard around the arena, special attacks that help launch opponents into the air, or being able to disengage the auto-lock on Dante's twin pistols so he can hit different targets with each gun. Trickster expands his mobility, giving you access to dashing moves, enhanced wall jumps and an improved double jump. Royal Guard is the most unique as it gives Dante the ability to actually block and build up energy for devastating counterattacks. Eventually you'll unlock two more styles: Quicksilver and Doppleganger. The first one uses your Devil Trigger to slow down time, the other one summons a copy of Dante that mimics the players actions. The director's cut also allows Vergil to be playable and use his Dark Slayer style which is an enhanced Trickster style that focuses on flash step/teleport spam. You can only use one style on a mission but the mechanic opens up a lot of replayability, especially against the game's wonderful selection boss battles.
DMC3 hits that nice sweet spot of having a serviceable story that does a decent job of being both dramatic and very tongue in cheek, it has one of the best casts in the series, some killer music and the best gameplay which offers plenty of replay value. The special edition even let's you play as fan favorite Vergil, who has a very minor story mode, but his own unique play-style and weapon selection adds even more value to the game. If you're looking for a high octane action game to die over and over with, this may be your game, and I personally consider it to be one of the best action games on the market and a title that ultimately ruined my ability to appreciate the rest of the series and in some case, the genre itself.
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