N3D Review - DmC: Devil May Cry

Hello TeamLiquid! It's Monday, and that means a new post from the N3rd Dimension! Today's post is a full-scale review of Capcom's new reboot: DmC. Hope you enjoy!

The Game: DmC: Devil May Cry is a third-person hack and slash game for the XBox 360, PS3, and PC. The Devil May Cry franchise is a longstanding Capcom mainstay starring the half-demon Dante, a self-described “cool dude” whose favorite pastimes are eating pizza, listening to metal, and massacring demon scum. Or, at least they were until Capcom decided to reboot the series and create new, Westernized Dante with a more realistic personality and far less ridiculous hair. Enter DmC: a reimagining of the Devil May Cry universe and of it’s protagonist, Dante the Demonslayer. The creation of the “new Devil May Cry“ was entrusted to developer Ninja Theory, the studio behind action titles Heavenly Sword and Enslaved: Journey to the West. With a new look, attitude, and backstory, but with familiar score-centered demon-eviscerating gameplay, does the rebooted DmC outshine its over-the-top ancestors? Or is it eclipsed by its ridiculous but occasionally mediocre predecessors?

Gameplay: The one thing Ninja Theory didn’t want to change in DmC was the gameplay that made Devil Made Cry beloved by hack and slash fans. They succeeded by developing a new and compelling brawler that still felt like the original series. Progression in DmC is a linear series of missions in which Dante roams around a relatively small area defeating hordes of enemies, crushing large bosses, and watching story-advancing cutscenes. As Dante explores, basic platforming (essentially just series of timed jumps) is required to reach the level’s finale and to find hidden regions which contain battles or bonuses. Throughout the game, you unlock abilities and weapons that allow access to more concealed rooms, so to get every secret bonus you must replay missions. The game features some masterfully designed levels, including a time-warped car chase and a boss fight within a Fox-style newscast (seriously).

Of note to both the platforming and fighting aspects of DmC are the Angel/Devil modes. While platforming, these “states” provide Dante with the Angel Lift and Demon Pull abilities, granting him the ability to lift himself towards certain objects and pull other objects to him. Other than looking totally badass, sequences of these lifts and pulls make for some of the trickier platforming moments, especially when combo’d with the jumping mechanics. The powers are even flexible enough to circumvent the game’s intentions, as clever use unlocks areas in unexpected ways. During combat, the Angel/Demon modes transform your weapons and fighting style. Normally you wield your trusty sword, but there are four additional form-specific weapons (two per form), one of which can be equipped at a time on each mode. By switching among the Angel, Normal, and Demon aspects, you shift from fighting quickly at range to slowly for massive damage to a balance of both. You can also use the lift and pull while in combat, making Dante and his foes fly about the battlefield between hits. Moreover, every weapon has its place in the fight (even if the weapons themselves are relatively uninspired – no more guitar fighting) since certain enemies can only be defeated by certain weapons. Dante often is confronted by a variety of enemies, forcing the player to perform the right attacks at the right times. The final tool in your arsenal is a familiar one to franchise fans: the Demon Trigger. This skill exposes Dante’s demonic nature, tossing enemies in the air for easy combos and providing health regeneration. With all of the powers at your disposal, taking on a room of demons becomes a flashy and intricate dance of death. The most annoying thing about the combat was the camera movement and auto-targeting. While the chosen targets were usually correct, there were times that I wanted to run away but found myself turned towards my foes. The bosses also lacked subtlety with their telegraphed attacks and glowing red weak-points (and one of the more important bosses in the game was one of the worst offenders)

At the end of each mission, the games scores your performance based on your ability to execute combos flawlessly, find the stage’s secrets, use few to no items, and complete the level as quickly as possible. This is one feature that improves the game’s replayability: getting the highest score requires practice and planning. Another feature that compels additional playthroughs is the difficulty settings, the range of which is another Devil May Cry hallmark. I played on the ”standard highest” difficulty, Nephalim, which I didn’t find to be particularly challenging. However, the difficulty increases dramatically with each additional setting, eventually reaching the “holy fucking shit insane” level in Hell or Hell mode, where enemies have normal health, above-average intelligence, and kill you in one hit. Madness, I say. Yet the completionist or hardcore DmC fan will find plenty of value in these standard franchise trials.

Presentation: In spite of the controversy surrounding DmC‘s visual reimagination, this remake’s presentation is one of its strongest features (only bested by the combat). Dante, sporting dark spiky hair, his signature red jacket, and a pissed-off teenage look, is nothing artistically innovative, but his current design is certainly no worse than his former absurdity. Vergil is tweaked towards realism with a similar lack of imagination; the only part of his look that became genuinely worse is the stupid goddamn hat he wears. The environments and bad guys, on the other hand, are where the presentation of this game truly shines. The demon-world Limbo, where the playable sections of the game occur, is a living incarnation of loathing, a hellish mirror of our own world. This concept was brilliantly executed by the Ninja Theory artists, who produced a deranged and sadistic landscape which splits, shifts, and stretches in an effort to lead Dante to his death. It’s haunting and surreal, and even the slightly cheesy “writing on the walls” and growling threats of Limbo itself look and sound marvelous. Highlights include an inverted, gravity-defying warehouse, a demonic prison in a river’s reflection, and the dance club from hell.

Similarly, minions and bosses are gorgeous for slavering, murderous grotesqueries. From weak ghouls to masked demon samurai, the hellish hordes of DmC look spectacular, though there are not many archetypes overall. Importantly, enemy attacks are noticeable regardless of how many enemies are on the screen. While said telegraphing makes some fights very easy, I’d rather be able to see every attack coming and react than have no idea what was going on and die constantly. The bosses are the peak of the enemy art design. Fighting a massive slug-like Succubus with four arms and eyes that vomits mind-controlling soda? Yes, please. I love fighting monsters that strange. Gargantuan devil-baby attached to his mother through an external umbilical cord? …okay, that’s weird (more on this later), but at least interesting. The Fox News-style boss I mentioned earlier is at the top of the heap, with an arena that appears as if it’s inside the stomach of a news show and a literal “talking head” to attack.

The sounds of the game have their ups and downs, though this is more a matter of preference than anything. Beating the crap out of Limbo’s demons is pleasing to the ear: every sword strike, axe smash, and shotgun blast sounds like they’re delivering a satisfying amount of damage. Conversely, the screams and revving chainsaws of the fiends always beget an adrenaline rush. The soundtrack is not my cup of tea, but I can’t be bothered with screaming or metal. It does the job of psyching you up for battle, so it’s awesome in that respect. I’d just prefer something different. Finally, the voice acting was solid. Both Dante and Vergil sounded suitably cool, exhibiting airs of “fuck you” and “you’re beneath me,” respectively. Most importantly, no character’s intonation sounded off or silly.

Single Player: The story of DmC is unimpressive. Whenever it tries to be serious, edgy, dark, or subversive, it ends up looking stupid. At the beginning, Dante is recruited to be part of Vergil’s terrorist/underground resistance movement which fights against the demonic overlords that secretly control the human race by way of soda and conservative news. This oversteps the bounds of “subversive” so much that it just ends up tired, repetitive, and obvious. It really couldn’t be more apparent that the devil’s news channel is intended to be Fox News or that the head anchor is a satanic parody of Bill O’Reilly. Even people who believe that Fox News is pure dag-nasty evil would find it silly. The game also sports a brief and unexpected sex scene, which is attempting to convey the demon king’s wantonly sinful nature, his disrespect for human concepts of love, his lust for power, etc. What it does is confuse and amuse the player; the former because there’s no reason, precedent, or explanation for the scene and the latter because 1) the thrusting is the most machine-like animation in the game and 2) both characters seem to be fully clothed the whole time. At the height of its DmC‘s distastefulness is the scene where the demon-king’s consort, pregnant with his spawn (that you’ve already fought), is captured by Dante and Vergil. When attempting to reclaim the captured heroine by trading for the devil’s bride, Vergil shoots the woman in the uterus and head, in that order. Listen, Ninja Theory, I understand that you’re attempting to take an edgy approach to themes like “what is the price of freedom” and “who are the real demons” but what the actual fuck!? Considering the overall tone of the series and the rest of the poor attempts at seriousness, this really disturbing scene is just gross. Get it together guys: if you want to make a honest attempt at unsettling content, do so in a franchise that isn’t famous for its irreverence. It just makes you look like assholes.

On the other hand, all of the wacky, overblown moments of dialogue are wonderful and perfectly Devil May Cry. A healthy appreciation of the absurd is a requisite for playing these games, and DmC delivers on the campy ridiculousness just as well (if not better) than other installments in the series. Flying naked through a trailer while pulling on clothes and grabbing his sword is, for lack of a better term, classic Dante. This is the guy who kills diabolic intruders while kicking jukeboxes and eating pizza, remember? The constant puns, the conceited commentary, and the off-beat one upmanship are all par for the DmC course (Do I think Dante and Vergil would have an argument culminating in bragging about the sizes of their dicks? Yes, yes I do). Most of the dialogue that could be considered crappy and forced seemed to me like something that a normal person would say in the situations that the protagonists find themselves. Before one boss fight, Dante and the villain find themselves trading “Fuck you”s back and forth. Sure, one may look at that and say “bad writing,” but what would you do when staring down an evil demon slug? Probably say fuck you. Several times. There are many people that decry the poor writing in DmC and blame it on the reboot. Honestly though, nearly all of the “bad” lines fit completely with the series’ token zaniness and the rest… well… I’m still not sure they approach the worst lines of the original.

Fun Factor: I had a great time playing DmC. Despite the game’s lack of a compelling story (and occasional forays into the realm of absolutely offensive), DmC is a very enjoyable hack and slash. The game is at its most pleasing during the action sequences: finding your favorite set of weapons and combos is consistently entertaining. I also loved leaping through the strange and unpredictable environments, all of which were vibrant and colorful, despite being hellish and horrifying. In fact, I may have enjoyed the latter more, as the set pieces of DmC were a far cry from the dark streets and castles of the first three titles (I never played Devil May Cry 4… and I barely remember 2) Even on the hardest difficulty setting initially available, the game was easy. I only stalled during a few frustrating segments, and that’s only because I’m not very good at the game. Some have complained that the harder difficulty settings are easy by franchise standards, but I can’t speak to that aspect, since I’ve never attempted to play them. Yet the ease of the game didn’t detract from my enjoyment, as smacking around the infernal toadies was satisfying even without a huge challenge. On the other hand, the likelihood that I’ll revisit the game and its higher difficulties is fairly low, as the baddie beat-em-up could be repetitive on a second playthrough. Dante’s reboot struck me as nothing more than an interesting visual alteration since his personality, “cool factor,” and cheesiness seemed different in tone rather than content. I even appreciated Ninja Theory’s backhanded mockery of the remake’s naysayers, a scene which I won’t spoil, but found highly amusing. DmC may not be the best game you’ve ever played, particularly the lackluster plot, but the fighting, scenery, and wackiness that comprise the greater part of the game are tons of fun.

[b]Final Verdict:[b] DmC is a good game, but not a great one. It’s a wonderful action title and definitely one reminiscent of its predecessors. It’s a wonderful addition to the franchise overall, with a world far more interesting than those that came before it. Yet it has many of the same problems that all of the Devil May Cry games have: a weak story and little in the way of character development (plus the occasional camera mishap). The only things that is genuinely worse is the developer’s desire to approach serious and graphic subject matter in a game that’s inherently goofy and outrageous. If Ninja Theory wanted those themes to be appreciated, they should have performed a far more comprehensive reboot or created a new franchise, but what they were going for was definitely not Devil May Cry. Neither is the distinctly unsubtle social commentary, but that’s a far less egregious problem. Still, franchise veterans (with open minds) should enjoy this one just as much as the others, and newcomers can play this game to figure out if the prior installments would pique their interest.

You can read this review and others at the N3rd Dimension.

N3D Review - DmC: Devil May Cry

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