Devil May Cry is synonymous with crazy action and DmC stays true to that. Dante is initially armed only with his trademark guns and sword, Ebony and Ivory and Rebellion respectively. At this early stage, Dante can only perform a couple combos and a launcher to get enemies off the ground and defenceless. Very quickly, his arsenal get filled out with a whippy grappling hooky thing, an ax and a scythe. These additions expand Dante’s moveset and destructive capacity exponentially. By pressing the left or right triggers, the ax or scythe is used. This allows for the quickness required to changed weapons mid combo to extend a chain. Longer chains award better ratings; from D to SSS. The the higher the rating after finishing off a wave of enemies will result in more exprience. Taking damage will drop the ranking so skillful dodging as well as juggling is needed to reap them most from each encoutner. Of course it becomes even crazies as more weapons are acquired which pad out the nigh infinite combo list but it never becomes unmanageable. Each weapon has a unique feel and purpose.
More impressive than the way enemies are doled out is the level design. Dante must battle the demon forces on their own turf, Limbo. Limbo does not adhere to the rules of human reality so levels take on an M.C. Escher quality of bizarre. Each level is packed to the gills with personality; reminiscent of Pyschonauts level design and they look damn good with Ninja Theory’s effective use of Unreal Engine 3. Platforming and dispatching waves of enemies is the standard progression for each level with a smattering of extra hidden collectables. These collectables are either hidden challenge rooms or globs of experience points. Even though the levels do often offer multiple routes to reach the same, they are pretty linear. Ninja Theory does do an exceptionally good job of hiding that by evenly spacing combat and platforming.
Behind the memorable levels and exciting combat action was the driving music. I only bring this up because bands like Combichrist and Noisia are things I usually stay away from. The wobble base and butt rock fit perfectly while playing as the don’t give a damn (devil may care) deviant Dante. It fit the tone and mood the around DmC Devil May Cry perfectly and was noticeable enough to elevate the exprience.
The game does offer good reason for a replay. From the outset, there are three difficulties but upon completing the game new options open up. As a novice to Devil May Cry and I played on the medium setting. This was plenty challenging but never were there sticky moments that required frustrating restarts. Once the game is finished, Son of Sparda difficulty mode become available. It is equivalent to hard but adds new enemy animations and more complex waves. Jumping right back into the action on this mode after finishing the game felt like the perfect degree of challenge. Additional modes that increase the difficulty again and even add one hit kills to enemies and Dante can be unlocked with repeated playthroughs. With how fun and smartly designed the combat is in DmC Devil May Cry, going back and playing through on the tougher difficulty is a ton more appealing with the additional modes.
Devil May Cry has never intrigued me until now. DmC Devil May Cry nailed the combat and made the over the top combos unintimidating to perform. The way the enemy waves are rolled out subconsciously teaches the skills to play better and consequently look cooler. On top of the excitement of just playing it, the game has crafted a memorable world that bends reality in only the way video games can. Ninja Theory and Capcom’s reboot of the series made very positive changes by bringing a realism to the characters and world though not without a few very minor flaws. There is no better time to get into the series than now with DmC Devil May Cry and those who don’t care about the angsty badass will find a totally crazy and well designed character action game.