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| Has Dante changed for the better? |
I remember the day, the first time we
saw what the new Dante looked like. Oh the outrage from fans who
predicted how utterly disgraceful this reboot of Devil May Cry would
be. Dante has short black hair, he's a foul mouthed thug, and yes,
while all of this is true, it is not quite as simple as that. Believe
me, I was one of those people who were quick to criticize the new
style but for those with an open mind, you may find yourself
completely surprised by this game.
Story.
I
felt the dread when I first started to play this game when it came to
the plot. Dante was exactly as I thought he would be. He felt like he
was developed by children. He swore every chance he got, he was a
sexual deviant, he was the furthest thing from the original Dante
that I could imagine. You see, the original Devil May Cry games knew
they were silly and over the top. It was tongue in cheek. It was cool
because they were aware of how absurd it was. It's clear that DmC
however is mocking the style of the original game and plays it
completely serious and ironically coming across as totally childish.
Well
that was my first impression. Thankfully DmC is not like I thought at
first. It's a refreshing story with new and interesting characters.
Perfect it is not, predictable characters and plot changes are
everywhere but that being said they are well designed characters.
Dante does not continue his infantile attitude throughout the game,
or at least it's toned down greatly as the story goes on and the
rewriting of the mythos of Devil May Cry is actually very good. I
could not say it's better than some of the best that Devil May Cry
has to offer in terms of plot but it's still one of the strongest.
Probably
the most interesting element is that of limbo, a twisted version of
the real world where demons inhabit and rule the real world from
inside limbo. All of the fighting in the game gets done when Dante is
dragged into limbo and is guided by the spectral presence of people
within the real world. Another change in the reboot is that Dante and
Vergil are no longer just demon's but half Angel, half Demon called
Nephilim. An unholy union which is despised by the demons.
Gameplay.
Having
played every Devil May Cry game so far, I was worried about how they
would ruin the gameplay compared to the peak of DMC4. Dropping the
framerate to 30fps from 60fps. Oh I could see the jerky motions and
unreliable combos now. I did not have much faith for the new DmC and
based on the information we were given, I think I was right to be
worried about it.
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| You can still play with your enemies by pulling them into your aerial dance of death. |
Thankfully
the negative information betrayed the fact that DmC really feels like
Devil May Cry at it's core. There have been some changes, some for
the better, some for the worst. First thing's first. Combos are
fluid, I feel like I am completely in control of Dante's moveset.
Most of the moves from Rebellion you remember have returned. Stinger,
High Time, hell, he even has Roulette from Nero in DMC4. Some of the
buttons have been simplified, High Time is now just attached to it's
own button and Stinger requires a double tap forward and the attack
button but it's basically just how you remember the game.
There
are basically two major elements to the combat which have changed.
Firstly you have angelic and demonic weapons and an angelic and
demonic grappling hook. Both features change the gameplay greatly.
The grappling hooks help with both combat and platforming. The
demonic grappling hook can be used to drag demon's and platforms
towards you and the angelic can pull you to platforms and demon's.
While in combat this allows you to chain absurdly high combos, much
like Nero's demonic arm in DMC4. The demonic hook can also be used to
remove the shields from some of the more pesky enemies in the game.
The
second element is the angelic and demonic weapons. Each are
connected to a trigger on the controller in which you enter either
angelic or demonic mode, changing your melee weapon into one of their
type. Angelic weapons are fast and deal in crowd control and
large juggles. Demonic weapons are slow, heavy hitting weapons which
serve as a great way to crush bigger enemies or break past shields.
Both of these new forms of gameplay add a great deal of depth to the
gameplay.
Limbo
adds a great bit of platforming outside of the combat, pulling
platforms and yourself, gliding through levels, it's one of the first
action games that comes to mind with really fun platforming elements.
However, not all is good in the gameplay. The problem with DmC is
that it's frankly too easy to avoid death. Most enemies put up zero
challenge and others mess with the pacing by playing the waiting
game, ruining the flow of the normally fast gameplay. There are
plenty of highter skill levels but so far, I’ve not hit any major
wall of difficulty. I'm sure that once Son of Sparda and onwards have
been unlocked, it'll be a nail biting challenge but being you have to
finish the game before you can take that challenge, those planning a
single playthrough might be disappointed by the frankly, pathetic AI.
Music.
The
music of DmC is by far the worst aspect of the game to me. Even prior
Devil May Cry games had superior music and you felt the rhythm in the
music to help the pace of combat. In DmC it falls flat. You can tell
that the choice of music was one that tried to invoke the style of
the original DMC games but with more modern sounding tropes but
ultimately it's not very fun to listen to. Not that it's all bad,
some of the tracks ring a good level of emotion for the game. Just don't expect anything world changing here.
Visual.
The
visuals of DmC is arguably another spotty area of the game.
Graphically it's an okay game. There are some muddy textures during
some points in the games due to Ninja Theory's reliance on the Unreal
3 engine but otherwise the graphics are completely suitable. The
area's that you'll visit in the game are very interesting. Not to
mention the fact that seeing them from limbo gives a nice extra take
on where you are. The problem mostly is within the colouring or
rather, lack of.
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| Prepare to see a lot of red and it's not blood. |
You
will see lot's of browns and reds during your demonic romp through
limbo but it never really has much flair. Even the deep colours feel
dull and uninspired. Nothing like as bad as what we see from the
modern shooter and quite frankly the original DMC was not much better
but even so. It's not very good. There are a couple of times during
the game where artistically I wish they had used the style throughout
the whole game. Ghostly wisping colour, escaping the characters.
Final Thoughts.
DmC
is the poster boy for not judging a book by it's cover in the game
world. Everything we were shown about the game made most loathe the
idea of it. We were so sure that there was no way this game could
possibly hold a candle to the original series. Not only does it hold
a candle, it ranks up with some of the best in the series. Do I
prefer it to the original series? No. I still think Dante is not as
interesting or as fun as the original and the style is not one that I
prefer but I would like to see a sequel. DmC is by no means a bad
game. It's a great one.
