Interesting Designs and Great Soundtrack
In previous Devil May Cry games, fans may have noticed that the setting and designs are gritty and tend to get dull at times since it mostly takes place in dungeons, underground mines, or old castles. That all changes in DMC, as for every mission that you play you’ll see a change of environment. Since DMC takes place in modern times with an alternate reality, Ninja Theory did an amazing job in experimenting with its level designs. Some areas will make Dante float through the air, while others will have Dante walking upside down. Also, there are places in the game where it will make use of different colors and make it look like a disco bar, equipped with techno music and a wrecked city where Dante will swing and hop around like Spider-Man. Unlike in previous Devil May Cry games, where heavy metal music was used, DMC improves it by adding techno. Every once in a while, music will change depending on the battlefield.
Tons of Replayability
One thing that makes DMC a better game is the replayability that it has after finishing the game. Despite the game being somewhat short, DMC will give you a reason to come back and play. This time, a Secret Mission will be available for everyone to play as long as they found the keys that will unlock the mysterious doors in every mission. For every door that you unlock, a Secret Mission will be there where it will test your speed in executing objectives under a certain amount of time. Think of these Secret Mission as time trials. For every secret mission that you finish, you will get an item as a reward that will help Dante in maxing out his Devil trigger and Health Bar.
Another thing that you can do after finishing the game is locating all collectibles. If your goal is to get the SSS rank in every mission, you must collect all keys, free souls by finding and killing them and open the secret doors. When all of the extra things are found in every level and you finish the mission quickly with a triple SSS combo score, you can expect to get SSS mission where it will be shown to the leaderboards. Coming shortly after launch, there will be a Bloody Palace mode as well where your skills will be put into test as you will kill horde of enemies throughout 100 levels. For Devil May Cry fans, these are the challenges and extras you’re looking for.
NOT
Synchronization of Combos
Even though I said DMC has a lot of nice stylish combos, it took time to get used to. One thing that I’ve noticed in DMC is that the synchronization of combos feels tacky and it may take a lot of practice. For every weapon, it’s only limited to four or five combos and the buttons you will have to press feel uninspired. You will notice each weapon’s combos perform exactly the same with little effects embedded to it to make it look unique. Veteran Devil May Cry fans will immediately notice this, but give it time to get used to it and you will feel comfortable throughout the rest of the game. The complexity of combos that fans loved will not be in this game though, for newcomers, they will certainly feel more welcomed.
VERDICT
Rebooting a well-loved franchise is a big risk to take since fans will either love or hate it due to the drastic changes. In the case of Ninja Theory’s DMC: Devil May Cry, I must say that they did a phenomenal job in recreating Dante’s origin story, the setting and the characters, though they missed one important spot: the execution of combos. Despite having stylish and flashy combos for Dante to perform, fans will have to get used to simplistic combo mechanics, though it’s not a bad thing after all since it caters to a wider audience and not just the hardcore fans. Overall, DMC: Devil May Cry is a superb game that is worthy of its on sequel.
[Editor’s Note: DMC Devil May Cry was reviewed on the Xbox 360 platform. The game was provide to us by the publisher for review purposes.]
