DmC: Devil May Cry Review
Game Emblems
The Good
Amazing reboot, solid history, strong characters but sadly short. Still a "must have".
With assured storytelling, great combat, and imaginative design, DmC: Devil May Cry is a more-than-worthy reboot for a classic franchise.
The Good
- Tight, enthralling, and deep combat
- Big variety of weapons and enemies
- Imaginative demon designs
- Convincing voice acting
- Reboots the series without compromising its soul.
The Bad
- Boss battles aren't nearly as fun as regular combat
- Ending doesn't live up to the rest of the story.
There's a point in DmC: Devil May Cry where everything just falls into place, a point where--after being mollycoddled through hours of gentle combat--you're finally let off the leash. And at that point, chaos ensues. The gates of hell are opened, once-timid demons become tremendous horrors, and Dante transforms into a fighter of glowing theatrics and tense technical wizardry. Immense, over-the-top combos flow from the fingertips, unleashing all manner of visually enticing carnage with a precise, fluid feel. So entertaining is the combat, in fact, that it's easy to overlook what a wonderful achievement DmC is as a whole.
But to do so would do the game a great disservice. The story, for instance, is light-years ahead of previous games in the series. Where they were schlocky, B-movie tales of adolescent fantasy, DmC has a sense of restraint, and maturity. Not that it's entirely evident from the off. A slew of half-naked bodies and raucous rock music make for a less-than-enticing introduction to the new, modern-day Dante's world, where he lives the playboy lifestyle of booze, nonstop parties, and sleazy sex. It's only with the arrival of the hardened psychic Kat and the emergence of a frightening demon horde that Dante, and the story, begins to grow up.
What follows is a tale of evil, world domination, and love that weaves in touches of conspiracy theory and religious dogma to great effect. There's no denying that there's still a drop of Devil May Cry lunacy to it all, particularly in Dante's cheesy quips, but underneath that over-the-top exterior lies heart. There are real moments of drama and excitement that are coupled with some well-realised characters that walk a fine line between good and evil. It helps that they're backed by a terrific voice cast--especially the truly frightening villain Mundis--that delivers even the maddest of dialogue with the utmost sincerity.
DmC's greater focus on storytelling comes at expense of some freedom, but the game is no worse off for it. Gone is the tedious backtracking and repetition of Devil May Cry 4, replaced with an adventure that--for the most part--propels you forward at a breakneck pace. One moment you're escaping a blood-red city that's folding and crumbling around you, and the next you're infiltrating the offices of a famed TV network where the earthly world and that of Limbo have collided in an explosion of vicious demons and ghastly black ooze that drips from every wall.
Such is the variety in your adventure that it does an admirable job of glossing over the linear nature of the story. It helps, of course, that the action is exciting too. Dante is a man with some impressive physical skills that are augmented by an equally impressive range of deadly weaponry. Initially that weaponry takes the form of Rebellion, a sword with a medium speed and attack range that serves as the bedrock for combos.
With just a few taps it's easy to perform simple combos that cut a sharp path through enemies and launch them into the air where you can deal more damage before they explode into a wonderfully satisfying mess of gory blobs. It's not long before you reach the limits of what you can do with a single weapon, though, which makes the time it takes to gather new ones a tad grating. Still, once the game finally lets you loose with a bigger arsenal, the combat takes a rewarding turn. What opens up before you is a vast set of moves that can be smoothly chained together for some technically impressive and oh-so-gorgeous-looking combos.
The combat is done in a way that cleverly plays to the strengths of each weapon, and that of your opponents' weapons. For instance, lighter, angelic weapons like the Osiris scythe are geared towards juggling enemies in the air and dealing spinning swipes that take out large groups all at once. Heavier, demonic weapons like the Arbiter axe focus on all-out strength, pummelling demons into the ground with a hefty brute force, albeit at the expense of attack speed. Combine the two, and you can knock out enemies with the swifter, lighter weapon before neatly finishing them off with a deadly demonic blow.
As you gain more-advanced weapons and abilities, the combos that are open to you become more complex. Chains that let you pull yourself towards enemies, or pull them towards you, result in some explosive combos that see Dante zipping elegantly between enemies, dealing out brutal punishment between each throw of a chain. Then there are Dante's guns, Ebony and Ivory, which are ideal for dishing out short, sharp bursts of bullets and filling in the gaps between other attacks. Combine your moves, and the combat turns into a harmonious ballet of sword slicing, swinging, and all-out carnage that's not only impressive to look at, but delightful to perform too.
By
Mark Walton, Senior Staff Writer - Reviews
Writer, riff maker, purveyor of fine foods. Mark currently spends his days trying to overcome his small (large) obsession with high-top trainers and mobile games. He's known to respond well to Long Island Iced Tea, falafels, and karaoke, but not necessarily in that order.
36 comments
Just beat one boss, combat is great, nice graphics on my old PC but less red would be better, don't like the free-style camera for this series indeed. Will play more tonight.
new character appearance is pretty g ay. looks like some disney channel pop star. combat feels like every other 3rd person action hack n slash. if you got nothing else at the moment it's worth playing.
This is bullshit graphics....i don't like this..actual my fb game DMC4......Graphics is red red red...............bullshit....
1 Like
This game is damn good. I don't think it's as good as DMC3, but it's damn near it.
1 Like
I used to play only demo and i watched some DMC gameplays and i really liked it. Its graphics is very nice and fights are impressive. I waited with buying it until it's got cheaper. And finally! I just bought it. I'm sure i won't regret!
PS :)
Like I said before, this game is very good. I only forget to mention about few things :) First of all the great optimization of this game. It runs smoothly on my NOT FROM OUT OF SPACE PC. Storyline is very interesting, combat is great and character development is also cool. You can dole your skill points almost whenever you want and however you want and if you don't like it, you can always change it. Only thing that actually disturbs me, is a large part of soundtrack... I'm quite young but even that, I think I'm just unable to understand the phenomenon of dubstep or whatever Noisia is..
1 Like
I've been playing Devil May Cry since the original DMC came out 12 years ago and without a doubt--this is by far my favorite entry in the series... I liked a lot the new character design, the story is great from start to finish and the combat is superb; it actually made me sweat and hurt my hands. Incredibly immersive if you ask me. I just finished it in one day--I literally couldn't stop, pretty addictive. Highly recommended.
Compared to the original DMC 1, this one is a lot better, cause c'mon first DMC was really awkward, but for that time it was enjoyable. Still I wouldn't say that this reboot is better than DMC4, still like it a lot, but my favorite stilll remains DMC4.
3 Like
I'm a quarter of the way through this game and I am loving the game play, I think it's amazing, however the change in the characters attitude compared to the original DMC games irks me a little bit. It doesn't bother me that his look has changed but the character that Dante has become doesn't seem as awesome as the original character. The original had class and even though he was cocky he showed that he had more than a reason to be. This new Dante however just seems like an arrogant, pretty boy who is trying a bit too hard to be cool and I'm finding it kinda annoying. Also the whole lifestyle involving sex, drinking and parting 24/7 that the character has at the start of the game cheapens the image of Dante, in my opinion, as it feels like a cliche. The whole partying, sex craving bad boy turning his life around to fight for something meaningful has been done to death and I think that the reason the original Dante was so likeable is because he had none of that in his back story and I feel he was an original character. I am aware that the new Dante is still young and immature in this game and that they are possibly going to mold the character through the new series to match the original character. I really hope that is what the game designers have planned for the series but at the moment I cannot see how the transition will occur. Other than that I am really enjoying the game and encourage everyone to give it ago with an open mind.
1 Like
This game is very good. I can't truly understand the hatred around this release. Maybe if I was DMC fanboy I would also hate this game only because of Dante's new look, but hey.. I'm not DmC fanboy and maybe that little detail makes huge difference between me and all of this mourning haters. Dantes look was always pretty L(g)A(y)ME to me and it still is, so that change doesn't make any difference. The gameplay though is fun and slicing everything that stands on my way can give a lot of pleasure. I recommend this game to everyone who is NOT DMC FAN BOY/GIRL :)
1 Like
It's SO much better than I expected. Deserves all the badges it got. Might even prefer this to the original. Who would've thought?.. Unless the ending ruins everything, that is. Will see.
Gamespot CAN YOU PLEASE MAKE BETTER PC GAME reviews. What is sad in your entire review the word PC has not even been mentioned once. Great Review
@nnyarach It's clear that you in fact did not read the review, since the last two paragraph's of the second page are exclusively ABOUT the PC version.
@FuzzyRaccoon @nnyarach Still doesnt change the fact that the ps3 version got a worse score for having issues but the pc version is better yet the score is the same? Some logic. Its clear that the pc review was basically an afterthought so they can say that they reviewed it.
Probably fine, but yeah the hair colour still gets to me. He could at least have been blonde >_<
@AlexFili In Devil Trigger mode his hair is white, and his red trench coat is back. And I haven't finished the whole game, but I've heard that his hair turns whiter as the game progresses. But I know what it's like to get a little petulant about changes on a franchise you love.
and btw b4 review of dmc was a god of war promo...hell yeah,what a bunch of great game that franchise has.i really doubt this new one will not live up to their past glory
lol...great review but the pc version is hands down the best platform to buy this on...correct me if im wrong...lol
btw i have a 360/ps3/a slamming pc
4 Like
Hi there!
English isn't my first language, so I hope you'll forgive my ignorance, but what in the hell does "assured storytelling" even mean?
@ihateds2 It's a little out of context as is, but "assured" is just another way of saying "sure", it's just in a different tense for the sentence. So he's saying that the storyline is solid, good.
1 Like
@flashn00bWell they did mention it in the review. So this comment isn't entirely accurate.
This comment has been deleted
@blastmaster2k2 Agreed. I really wasn't sure but I actually had a blast, and I've played other DMC games before, but really half-heartedly. And yet, this is the only iteration that made me want to up my score at the end of a mission. I never really cared before, but when the level ended and I saw the B score, I knew I could do better. I like that.
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DmC: Devil May Cry
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- Publisher(s): Capcom
- Developer(s): Ninja Theory
- Genre: Action
- Release: Jan 25, 2013 (US) »
- ESRB: M
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