Devil May Cry But I'm Giddy With Delight! (Updated!)
Written: Oct 18 '01 (Updated Oct 23 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Exudes cool from every pore. Fun as heck.
Cons: Could possibly wind up destroying your controller and your thumb. Predictable and incomplete story.
The Bottom Line: This is a really fun and entertaining action game. Hardcore gamers might find it too easy and short however. But it's still a good, solid, entertaining game for the PS2.
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| kenshin27's Full Review: Devil May Cry for PlayStation 2 |
I bought this game last Thursday after hearing good things about it from just about every online PS2 source that I frequent. Didn't have much time to really focus on it till the weekend. I'm typically not a Resident Evil type of game fan but I really enjoy this game.
Quick intro
In DMC you play Dante, half devil, half human son of Sparda, a powerful devil knight who took pity upon mankind two thousand years ago and single-handedly thwarted the Devil Ruler's plot to take over the human world. Twenty years ago, Dante lost his mother and brother to devilish forces and since then he has been working as a freelance mercenary with a particular interest in hunting down devils. He doesn't know exactly who killed his mother and brother but he figures if he kills enough of them, eventually he'll find the culprit.
One day, a mysterious woman Trish, barges into his office and invites him to go to Mallet Island, gateway to the devil world. How can he resist? And thus begins the adventure....
The Man
Dressed in stylish, form-fitting red and black, Dante is the coolest single character to come out of a video game in quite some time. I mean c'mon, you can't help but grin at his double-fisted pistol style (I'm a _huge_ Chow Yun Fat fan) along with that big honkin' sword, Alastor, strapped to his back. Come to think of it, the outfits for both him and Trish are very Matrix-y. And of course he has the cool sounding tagline too, a guttural "Let's rock, baby." And boy can he take some damage as well. Within the first 2 cut scenes, he already gets impaled twice with very large swords. He _is_ da man!
The Gameplay
DMC is a relatively simple game to control, even more so I guess if you've played the Resident Evil series before. I've never been a big fan of Resident Evil so this was my first time really delving into this style of gameplay. Movement with the analog stick is very smooth although to me, Dante looks a little weird when he's running (which is basically all the time). Looks a little like he's running slo-mo but that's just probably me. The game relies on fixed camera angles which can take a while to get used to and which I find rather annoying at times. For example, I'll be pushing forward to walk forward and then when I enter another part of the board which is viewed from the opposite camera angle, logically I feel that I have to now be pushing down to keep going in the same direction that I was originally going. However, it's actually not necessary to do so since the game will keep taking you in the direction that you were headed until you want to go in another direction. I'm not particularly fond of the whole concept but the feeling goes away after awhile.
The triangle button is the jump button and it is a very useful button. Dante can double-jump off just about anything (including monsters) to reach higher elevations and sword attacks coming down from a jump causes more damage. Eventually if you buy the Air Hike ability for Alastor, you can even double-jump off of thin air. You can even blast away with your guns for as long as you can keep shooting while in mid-air.
The circle button is your physical attack button and causes Dante to slice or pummel the heck out of anything within range. There does seem to be special moves and combos available and the game keeps a tab on how many you do. The five levels are Dull, Cool, Bravo, Absolute, and Stylish.
The square and x buttons both function as interaction buttons. For looking at things, confirming selections, and such.
Holding down the R1 button causes Dante to draw and aim with his pistols (Ebony & Ivory). You use the square or the x button to fire while holding the R1 button down.
Dodging and somersaulting rounds out the basic moves that Dante can do. For these, you hold down the R1 button and then press the triangle button while moving to the right or left (dodge) or up or down (somersault).
Attacking is _very_ easy since Dante aims at the closest target automatically. With the guns, you shoot as fast as you can mash the button so if you've got lightning fingers, there's nothing as satisfying as literally pumping your opponents full of lead. For physical attacks, as long as you're facing your opponent and it's within range, Dante will do his thing unless the opponent blocks or parries. And of course, there's the ever popular juggling maneuver. Using a move called High Time basically causes Dante to execute an uppercut swing with his sword which will pop the opponent into the air if it connects. From there you can let 'em rip with your guns (which keeps the opponent in the air) or whack at 'em a couple of times with your sword when you get tired of that. It's a heck of a lot of fun to do.
There's also an Easy Automatic Mode that is unlocked after the first level. What this basically does is free you from having to worry about combos since it'll do whatever attack it deems appropriate when you hit the circle button. It also makes shooting a lot easier because you can now just hold down the square button instead of having to do R1+x repeatedly. It appears to me that the monsters also get a lot easier to beat when you're in this mode. Once you choose to switch over to this mode however, you can not switch back to normal mode. You will also have the option to use this mode when you start a new game.
Dante can also power up into a more effective, devilish form when his Devil Trigger bar is full. This bar exists only when you're wielding either Alastor (lightning sword) or Ifrit (fire gauntlets) as your hand-to-hand weapons and is slowly filled up when you are fighting. This form only lasts for a couple of seconds however but can be extended through purple orbs. Depending on what item you're equipped with when you transform, Dante will become either a Thunder Devil (Alastor) where he can fly and shoot streaks of lightning at opponents (very powerful) while in the air, or a Fire Devil (Ifrit) where he has very powerful physical attacks and jump capabilities.
Unfortunately, there are a limited number of different monster types (around 10 I believe). I was hoping for more really. And there's only 4 sub-bosses that fight 3 times each. These guys can be pretty darn tough even if you know their weaknesses and the flip-flopping camera angles can _really_ become a pain when fighting them since some of the bosses are rather large or tend to roam quite a bit during battle.
Besides fighting, the only other thing you really do is explore and find things to help you explore. There are a lot of objects lying around that you can destroy which may reveal useful orbs or items. Divinity Statues are located here and there within the castle/prison/cathedral that the game is situated in where you can buy items and power ups that will heal you or raise your abilities and the like. You purchase things by gathering Red Orbs that you get from either killing monsters or picking up from the ground.
The game is split up into 23 missions. A lot of the missions do seem rather short though and they all practically follow the same gameplan: find a mystical item that you can then use to open the door to the next level. And that's pretty much it. The only 2 levels that deviate from this formula is the Legendary Battle with Mundus (the arch-villain) and the final level where you fly a biplane through underground tunnels to escape the island that's crumbling down around your ears. Not particularly innovative but I guess they weren't relying on this to be a strong point to begin with. When you finish a mission, you have the option to save and buy items/power-ups before moving on. One good thing is that you can save your game at any time, no need to look for save stations and such like in most video RPGs. However, when you load a saved game, you're brought back to the beginning of the mission that you were on, not the exact same place that you saved at. You are also graded according to how fast you got through the mission. Faster times will earn you a higher grade of course which means more bonus red orbs.
There are also 12 secret missions throughout the game that you can try to accomplish which from what I've heard just gives you more items and orbs.
But even then the fighting is more than enough to keep anyone occupied for quite a while. It's just so much fun. =) A bit mindless at times, yes, but so cool especially when you're trying to figure out what neat moves there are. And a lot of times it's no easy cakewalk especially when there are multiple opponents.
Furthermore, throughout the game, you can pick up yellow orbs that give you extra life. When you die, you use up one of these lives and get brought back in the previous to last place you were at when you died. Once all your lives are gone, then you can load from a saved game which puts you back to the beginning of your mission.
Eye candy
The graphics for this game is generally superb although it does seem to vary in places. Backgrounds are incredibly detailed and smooth with very good use of lighting effects overall. Little things are even taken into account: rippling pools of water turn out great and a steady flow of bullet cartridges eject and ping about on the ground when you're blasting away. You will see Dante's shadow every now and then depending on the lighting position but unfortunately it doesn't look very good. Not very anti-aliased and convincing. But, there's just a ton of cool stuff to look at while you're playing. No slowdown experienced yet and minimal jaggies as well. Dante himself (and Trish) don't look particularly ground-breaking as far as 3D models go but I guess they gave up some details for smoother movement and gameplay. The monsters do look very nice however. The overall mood is a little dark and creepy but I guess considering the story it's to be expected.
The cut scenes aren't anything to write home about simply because they pretty much use the same 3D model from when you're actually playing ('cept maybe larger). I mean it doesn't look bad, but it's not great. It would've been nice if they took a page from most RPGs and rendered the characters in the cut scenes so that they look a lot smoother and more life-like.
Audio satisfaction
Capcom did a great job with sound effects for this game. From the splishing sound through pools of water, the clacking from walking on stone, to the subdued crush of moving across carpet, each sound is quite authentic and works very well. Combat sounds are also pretty decent from the solid impact thuds when using Ifrit to the harsh roar of the grenade launcher. And some of the monsters generate sounds (the Sins maniacal and breathy laughter) that are just downright creepy. Especially if you keep hearing them even after you think you've wiped out everything in the area.
The music overall is quite effective and fits the mood of the game. There doesn't seem to be a lot of variety though. Generally gothic and chilling which switches to a more adrenalin-pumping rush when in the midst of combat. Not the best I've heard, but good enough.
Last thoughts
I completed the game while using the Easy Automatic mode in 9:08:52. That's not a particularly long time but that's most likely because of the easier mode. Of course, I missed all the secret missions as well since I didn't even know there was any until the end.
The storyline was pretty much forgettable. I don't want to ruin it for anybody (not that there's much to ruin) so I won't go into detail (what little there is) here but it was a bit disappointing and rather predictable.
But, I had a lot of fun while playing this game and will go through it again without the Easy Auto mode just to see how much harder it can be and to see what other secrets can be unearthed throughout the game.
Of course, as the game warns in the opening shot, it's chock full of gore and violence. And they're not kidding. Blood literally sprays when you slash or shoot a monster. So definitely not a kiddie game. But for everyone else, it should truly be an entertaining game.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
kenshin27
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Member: Ben C
Location: NJ
Reviews written: 34
Trusted by: 17 members
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