DmC: Dante returns

OK just for a change I'm going to do a review of a video game, so I've gone for the revamp of one of my favourite series of games, Devil May Cry, the reboot of the series is called DmC Devil May Cry, which features the demon hunter, Dante, as a younger man, who in the past has always spouted that goth like white hairdo, but this time round he's got dark hair (funny eh).  Anyway let's get on with it....

So a bit about the plot (don't worry this won't be that long!) as the story is set in Limbo city, a modern day city which is secretly controlled by powerful demons, where the demons live in a parallel version called Limbo.  Dante lives in the city, but he's not the demon hunter we know him to be at this stage, but at this point he leads a sleazy life, having picked up two girls in nightclub the night before and taking them back to his trailer to have sex with them.  The next morning Dante is awoken by a knock on his trailer door, and he opens it to find a girl, Kat, who is a psychic who warns him that the "demon hunter" is after him.  With Kat's help, who puts into Dante limbo, through her psychic powers, Dante retrieves his guns and his sword and defeats the Hunter.  After this Kat takes Dante to meet her boss, a man named Vergil, who runs a rouge group called "The Order".  Vergil tells Dante that he is very important to them and with his help he can bring down the demons.  Vergil then takes Dante to an old abandoned mansion where he says he will learn of his family, and Dante discovers his repressed memories (as the demons have brainwashed Dante the other population of Limbo city) of his father, Sparda, and his mother, Eva, and it is revealed that Vergil is Dante's brother.  Dante also learns that his father was a demon, and his two children could eventually grow up to destroy the demon king, Mundus.  Mundus afraid of this reality attacks Sparda's family, killing Eva, and banishing Sparda.  After learning these truths Dante agrees to help Vergil in bringing down Mundus and ending his regime, and this is where the real fun begins....

DmC Devil May Cry is a great reboot of the series, and it sees Dante as younger man, who is still cocky in nature, and starts off the game leading his sleazy drinking and womanising lifestyle, but as the game progresses he grows and matures as a man, and accepting his responsibilities.  Dante also has dark brown hair instead of famous goth like white hair that we have seen in the previous games, and there is a funny moment in the game early on when he fights the demon hunter in Limbo, a white wig lands on his head, and he looks and smiles saying "not in a million years!" throwing the wig off.

But if Devil May Cry has always been about one thing, and that is the gameplay, which is top notch here, and the control system is great and very ease to use.  In the usual standard of the game, Dante starts off with a set level of skills and health, and weapons, his sword and his two guns, Ebony and Ivory, but as the game progress he picks new guns and swords.  In addition to this Dante can also learn new combos and moves for his weapons and there is a large variety of them, as Dante picks up points for pulling off different combos, and as he does he gains more upgrades to unlock new moves. 

Also Dante has a new feature in his combat system as he has a Demon and Angel aspect, and he picks up different weapons, which can be attributed to either the demon and angel settings, this also corresponds to some of the baddies in the game, as some of them can be attacked by one or the other, whereas others are impervious to one and not the other.  In the demon and angel states, Dante can also use them to navigate platforms, as in angel mode, he can use a whip to pull himself towards ledges and blocks, whereas with the demon mode he can use his whip to pull enemies toward to pull attacks.  And of course there is the old demon trigger, which allows Dante to go into demon state, where he can pull off more powerful attacks on the demons, and he can also regenerate his health bar in doing so.  Difficulty wise, DmC is actually not too bad, as it has just about the right level of difficulty, its easier than Devil May Cry 3 for sure, which was ridiculously tough, but here you could say it ranges from easy to medium level, and Dante will die a few times during combat, but the game is very managable to complete.   

Graphics wise in keeping with the terrific visuals from the previous games, DmC looks superb here with some stunning environments, and a rather creative colour scheme for the Limbo world.  Perhaps at times the colour scheme can get a bit too frantic in its movement, especially in the level where Dante fights against Lilith, Munud's mistress, and we see bright orange to dark blue, with weird sine wave patterns fluctuating wildly in the background, as well the boss scene where he fights the news demon broadcaster BoB Barbas.  The character models are also superb, with Dante almost at times looking lifelike in certain moments of the game, and the demons are all really quite imaginitively bizzare in design.  Voice acting wise the game is also excellent as the actors, although I don't know who any of them are all put in fine performances.

In terms of the game's flaws, it doesn't have too many, but there are one or two niggles, firstly Dante's demon trigger state is quite annoying, as when he goes into the demon mode, enemies fly up into the air, which makes it difficult for him to attack them as he has to keep jumping into the air to do it, and it limits the amount strikes that Dante can manage.  The demon trigger also could last a bit longer than it does, as again with the limited time he has, he can't successfully pulled that many hits.  Also visually while the game looks amazing, the background visuals as I already mentioned, can get a bit flashy and distracting and they aren't for anyone with photosensitive epilepsy for sure.  However they aren't too bad and they are nowhere near as bad as Max Payne 3 was far worse for flash and blurry graphics.  Also on the odd occassion the camera angles can get a little annoying but thankfully not too often, but every now and the camera angle forces you to move Dante in another direction, rather than freely keeping moving forward with camera going straight ahead.  I also had a niggle about the amount of demon souls Dante obtains when he kills baddies or completes secret missions as they seem a bit too small, and it can take a long time for you to pick up enough to buy new items.

And this brings me onto another flaw which is aimed at the series in general, and that is the inflation factor in the cost of buying new items, as when say you buy one large vital star (to restore Dante's health) the price goes up automatically for when you buy it again next time.  It just seems unfair that it happens, as you could use 800 points for one devil trigger recharge, and about 1500 to buy it the next time!  And one final point is the profanity in the game, while not excessive, sees the continuing trend in modern games, where they feel they have to add in more swearing to make the games that bit more gritty and realistic, but as its a fantasy based series, then it feels like its not too necessary, as its only within the last 5-10 years they have started doing this, so while the b or the s word is fine, the f word all the time seems just a bit unecessary (or perhaps I'm just being old fashioned! ;-)).  

However putting that all aside DmC is a really good and entertaining game, which sees the series brought back in style, and there is alot to commend it, with its varied combat system, upgrades and stunning visuals.  And if you are a fan of hack and slash games or the previous installments, then this is well worth checking out.

And with that I shall leave it there.