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DMC
(Devil May Cry)
Dante is back, but not as you remember.
You
play as the half angel, half demon, lean mean fighting machine Dante,
the only being on earth that can kill Mundus the Demon King. But why the
hell should you care? Well that SOB killed your mother and imprisoned
your Dad! So screw that, he is going down.
With a fantastic cinematic opening, full of babes, guns and alcohol we
get to know what has changed in the all-out, no holds bar reboot. Dante
isn’t exactly how we remember him. He’s been completely updated, gone is
the white hair red coat, the Japanese Manga feel; replaced by a
stylistic modern day look and an updated fashion sense. Dante is bad
arse, he doesn’t care about anyone except for himself, I mean, why would
he? He doesn’t know his parents, he doesn’t have friends it’s just him
and his handguns ‘Ebony and Ivory’.
Dante, the one liner so called hero, lives for himself until his world
is literally turned upside down by a mysterious girl known only as “Kat”
who tells you of Mundus the demon king and the terrible things he did to
your family. Mundus controls the city by fuelling the population with a
Coke type drink that is spiked by a drug that makes anyone that drinks
it docile and just like Coke that means everyone but Dante is borderline
comatose. Kat guides you in to a realm known as Limbo, where demons roam
free and go unnoticed in the human world. You need to a hunt down Mundus
and slaughter anything that gets in your way.
The
graphics in DMC are something of spectacular, just like most games that
come out at the end of a consoles life, but Developer ‘Ninja Theory’ has
truly raised the bar. Character skins are almost Hollywood animation
quality, the games dynamic lighting and smooth pixels really impress the
eye. Pair this with the stylistic world of Limbo and you get a game that
looks better than anything on the market.
Fluid cut scenes let you immerse yourself more into the story rather
than going to load screens. This has worked well with titles like
Uncharted for the PS3 and it is no different here! Dialogue in video
games usually comes off as wooden and feels like the voiceovers are
delivered by manikins. They make Hayden Christensen look like a good
actor. DMC flattens the competition and consists of a movie quality
script, and great acting from Aussie new comer Tim Phillips. He shines
as Dante, he makes cut scenes feel like they were made by a Hollywood
director rather than a bunch of fat dudes behind a computer. Dante is
cocky, witty and funny.
Arcade gameplay is always likable. It allows for anyone to just pick up
and play DMC. The levels are long enough to allow a quick, yet fun
session when you only have enough time for when the wife is in the
shower. Yet, allow for longer sessions when you want to get every
achievement in the book. While playing these styles of games it starts
to become clear that the fighting just becomes repetitive it's an
all-out button mashing marathon! Most enemies are similar in skills
making them for simple cannon fodder. That’s where the arcade pickup and
play style becomes useful, it might just be me, I get over the same
gameplay when it doesn’t change. While the game does offer a boss battle
in most missions they are just few and in-between.
Each mission while packed with over the top enemies also has a select
number of hidden items and secret locations. These can be tough to find
them all. This added to the longer style of game playing but keep in
mind some actually can’t be achieved unless you have completely finished
the game and gotten all the power ups
Combos are one of the best things this game has going for it. DMC has
the hack and slash game play down to a tee. You can jump from demon to
demon with the numerous weapons at your disposal. DMC offers a slick
ranking system that is based on how well you cut down your enemies
meaning if you just use one weapon against your enemies you’ll get the
lowest ranking of ‘Dirty’. Master the combos and rack up your combo
points using multiple weapons and you can get all the way up to ultimate
level of SSSadistic.
These combo points and rankings will stack up and
by the time you reach the end of the level you’ll receive an overall
ranking. This makes each level a lot more of a challenge if you are like
me and must have the best. The fluid fighting system means you can take
on an army of demons or just one. The controller is used perfectly and
lets you use all the weapons at your disposal by pressing down either
triggers rather than jumping in and out of options screens, and by golly
are there some nice weapons here.
Unlike similar games like God Of War, DMC doesn't use "Quick time
events" which have become slow and dated it actually lets you fight the
boss using all the skills at your disposal! Something I loved. I always
feel when having Quick Time events the game screws the player over and
takes the controller away and makes the AI
take over while you just sit back and watch a cut scene with the
occasional button mash. I don’t want that rubbish, I wanna kick the
bosses arse not watch the game do it after I press one button!
FINAL LEVEL
Overall DMC is a great reboot, probably the best reboot that I can think
of in game industry. I would compare it to the Batman Begins of the
video game world. If you are after a great hack and slash or just some
filler until the God of War comes out this is the game! DMC is a hell of
a lot of fun. |
