The latest installment of the Devil May Cry series follows Dante as he has never looked in the franchise before.
Dante finds himself in the middle of a war between the Angels and the Demons. Consequently he is constantly being dragged into Limbo. The son of Sparda, as Dante is often referred to, strings together combos using his sword, guns and more weapons as they are unlocked in different missions. Discovered weapons and abilities cycle between demonic and angelic capacities that reside within Dante.
The latest entry in the Devil May Cry hack and slash is by far the most stylish. Combat is aggressive yet very smooth. Dante is forced to quickly string together combinations of attacks using different weapons and abilities. Both the Demon and Angel sides to Dante will play a huge part in deciding which weapons to trigger and precisely when. There are also the frustrating demons that are immune to specific angelic or demonic abilities and weapons. Replayability for Devil May Cry is very high simply because the combat is so entertaining. It is always changing and shifting, depending on the weapon Dante favors at that exact moment.
The graphics compliment Dante’s abilities and make the world feel dark and gritty. Limbo itself is full of psychotic areas where shapes from the real world are accentuated and slanted, colors are distorted and shadows from the actual world can be seen skulking around. Some levels of Limbo will literally have the ground shift underneath you as you run through the area. It feels chaotic, abstract and disorienting – it is just as you would imagine a place like Limbo to feel. Each area follows this dark theme, leaving Dante standing out with his stylish battle combinations and lavish attitude.
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| Kat, your psychic guide |
Dante’s character is a typical partier who hits up the club every night and sleeps with tons of women. This is a different feel than the previous Dante encountered in the Devil May Cry series. This more unrestrained, outspoken Dante fits this gameplay style very well, however. He makes snide remarks towards the demons that get in his way, making his character more playful. It helps cast Dante as someone who enjoys slaying demons – something that as a player I definitely feel while controlling Dante. Slaying demons in Devil May Cry is an art – it involves using different weapons, hacking and slashing through the air and tying together combos smartly yet vigorously.
Missions are equipped with a number of items that can be found: copper, argent, gold and ivory keys – which serve to unlock their corresponding locked doors. Each of these locked doors opens up a trial mission that can be completed to earn a health cross or a trigger cross – increasing Dante’s overall health or devil trigger meter. Lost souls are also trapped in Limbo and freeing them grants red orbs, similar to currency since they can be spent on useful items such as health elixirs or golden orbs (granting resurrection). Replaying missions to find all of the lost souls, keys and secret doors definitely adds more hours into playing this game.
Devil May Cry is overall a very short game. There are a total of 20 missions, longer missions lasting about 20 minutes and shorter missions lasting under 10. My first playthrough was just under 9 hours to complete the game; however, this was on an easy difficulty compared to some of the insanely hard difficultly levels. After beating the game once you can unlock Son of Sparda mode: remixed enemy waves with increased health. After completing Son of Sparda mode, the rest of the game modes are unlocked, except Hell and Hell. Dante Must Die mode: the toughest enemies with insane attack waves. Heaven or Hell: remixed enemy waves but everything, including Dante, dies in one hit. Hell and Hell is unlocked when finished beating Heaven or Hell mode; it consists of remixed enemy waves but only Dante dies with one hit. This difficulty feels impossible – good luck to anyone striving to earn that achievement.
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| Juggling with guns |
Dante is granted a combat score based solely on the stylishness of battle. [D=dirty, C=cruel, B=brutal, A=anarchic, S=savage, SS=sadistic, SSS=sensational] Using the same combination or the same weapon to fight a demon will result in fewer and fewer points being granted. Switching up the style by, say, raking a demon into the air, hacking him with Rebellion until he starts to fall, stomping him into the ground using a charged Eryx, then endlessly slicing with Osyris’ cleaver move, will result in a higher combat score. Keep in mind: whenever Dante takes a hit the score drops significantly.
Stylish combat also serves to fill up Dante’s Devil Trigger – an ability learned later game that essentially stops time and grants multipliers for attacking enemies frozen in the air. Devil Trigger is a useful ability for hordes of annoying demons.
At the end of each mission, a score is granted based on overall style, how quickly the mission was finished, and completion percentage. Using items or dying reduces your mission score considerably. Scores are saved to the leaderboards under each difficulty the mission has been completed on. The leaderboards add to the high replayability of the game.
Overall, DmC Devil May Cry is an awesome addition to the hack and slash genre. It looks great, plays smoothly and has a story that keeps players enticed until the end. Replayability of previous missions is high and extreme difficulty levels keeps hardcore gamers entertained. Anyone interested in a new hack and slash needs to pick this one up.