Review: DmC: Devil May Cry

Bringing the Party Back

          
        A collective mass of internet hate was thrown at the newly announced Devil May Cry reboot back in 2010 that led many to believe if developer Ninja Theory were capable of taking the reins of the highly popular and (mostly) critically acclaimed series from Capcom. Although it is a different take on the series, DmC: Devil May Cry is just as fun and wonderfully ridiculous as the games that come before it. 

        DmC starts with Dante waking up one morning after a night of partying and hooking up to a knock on his door coming from a girl he doesn't know telling him that he's been followed and that he's being pulled into an alternate realm known as Limbo. As soon as all of this is explained to him, the pier he lives on begins to distort into a crazy, hellish version of itself as a huge demon rises from the sea. It gives chase as Dante fights through hordes of smaller demons with his trusty sword and guns. 

        This fantastically bizarre world of Limbo is where the majority of the game takes place. Buildings contort and rearrange themselves as enormous words like "Stop Him" and "Come Closer" appear on walls. Everything within the real world takes on a demonic form inside of Limbo and it is all represented fantastically through highly detailed and colorful visuals that spring to life even in the more realistic world of this reboot. 

        Dante fights through this strange world with his iconic sword, Rebellion, and his guns, Ebony and Ivory, along with other weapons like the demon axe, Arbiter, and the angelic scythe, Osiris. Dante can swap between different weapons by switiching into Demon form or Angel form. Demon form gives Dante access to slower, more powerful weapons meant for smashing larger enemies while Angel form gives him faster, range-focused weapons designed for defense and crowd control. Each form also gives Dante a grappling tool that can pull objects and enemies towards him or vice-versa.          
     
        The wide variety of weapons, attacks, and enemies allows for stringing together huge numbers of different combos and applying many diverse strategies. My favorite combo involved bringing in an enemy with Dante's spinning blades, unleashing a series of sword attacks that end with a large knock-back, pulling it back towards me with the grapple tool and pummeling repeatedly it into the ground with huge gauntlets. The controls are responsive enough to quickly chain together large combos that make use of all of Dante's weapons in order to achieve an SSS rank.

        The Devil May Cry series prides itself on its difficulty, and this game is no exception. Offering seven different difficulty modes, DmC creates a new and more challenging experience with each mode. By switching up enemy appearances and numbers as well as even decreasing Dante's maximum health to just one hit, this creates one of the most unique experiences in terms of challenge.

        As much praise as there is to be had for this reboot, it isn't without its faults. It's biggest problems are its pacing and boss battles. The game does an excellent job at building the story from its weird, early beginnings to total madness near the end, but the events fall back into the familiarity seen at the beginning during the last few missions instead of really taking off into insanity. The boss battles are also devoid of any skill and mostly involve bum rushing a weak spot. Along with these problems, are a sometimes spastic camera and occasionally unreliable targeting system. However, these problems are overshadowed by what makes the game great.

        Those who complained that Dante's new look and the franchise's reboot would spell the end of Devil May Cry don't have anything to worry about. I had so much fun playing this game, that I am eager to see what happens next in the series. Hopefully, in the future, Ninja Theory can take what they have learned in making this game and make a sequel that is far more outlandish than its predecessor.


Final Verdict: 9/10