Review for DMC (Revised)

Review time. Actually, this time it's going to be a revised review. When I originally reviewed DMC, I allowed my inner fan girl of the original series cloud my view of this reboot. With the release of the new DLC Vergil's Downfall, I decided to give the game another chance before jumping in to Vergil's story. I'm actually really glad I did.

So. Let's give this review another go. This first part is filled with spoilers. You have been warned.

You are the new and younger anti-heroish Dante. He doesn't give much of a rats ass about anything but drinking, sex and the occasional slaying of demons. Dante is being hunted by Mundus. A demon king who rules most of humanity and the world through debt.
Dante and Vergil (Although Vergil somehow remains off of Mundus's supernatural radar), are the product of a union between Mundus right hand demon man, Sparta and an Angel Eva, this makes the twin brothers both a bit angelic and a bit demonic.  Mundus views Dante's Nephilim status  as a "loose end" and a threat. He would be right on both counts.

Dante's trouble begins when he is sucked in to Limbo by a Hunter demon. Here we meet Kat. A psychic/witch who is able to astral project herself in to limbo in order to help Dante. After his lovely vacation in Limbo, Kat introduces him to "The Order", a hand full of freedom fighters wanting to take back the human race from Mundus.

Dante reluctantly agrees to help the cause. As Dante learns more of Mundus and his methods for controlling humanity, he finds himself caring about the cause. He also has a bit of a thing for Kat, which helps this need to help the humans.



I would cover more of the story here, but really every Devil May Cry game has the same story. Hack and slash through hoards of demons, all while saving the world from some super bad guy. I will admit, the story in Devil May Cry 3 is a little different from the others given who you have to fight at the end. But for all those fan boys and girls of the series bitching about the storyline here. Shut the fuck up. The story isn't great, but it's believable. Take the game for what it is people. It's a reboot with updated graphics. The lack of story doesn't make the game any less fun.
And need I remind fans of the shit bomb that was Devil may cry 2? Now there was a truly awful DMC game. Although Dante did get extremely better looking in this game. Still doesn't make it any less of a pile of shit though.

Alright. let's get to the likes of this game. This time around the list is a bit longer.


If you find easy, normal and hard modes far too easy. Well Ninja Theory has given you four extra challenging modes that will kick your ass. There is Son of Sparta mode. Dante must Die. Heaven and Hell. Hell and hell. Maybe I'm just not hardcore enough, but I don't even want to try anything past Son of Sparta mode. I'm afraid my tv and controller wouldn't survive my wrath anything beyond SoS. I do like all the difficulty choices we are given.

The combat is fluid, fast paced and fun. The different weapons you receive throughout the game adds to the replace value. Each weapon has it's own special talent. Each weapon allows you to go  back through missions and collect items you may have missed or could not previously retrieve. Using skill points gives your weapons new attacks. If you are going for an SSS rating in each mission, these new attacks will help with pulling off fancy combos. Word to those of you who plan on playing this game. Focus skill points on Abilities, Rebellion, Aquila and Arbiter. Guns are pretty pointless in this game, but we'll get to that later.

This game does have replay value. In a second play through, Dante will retain all of the weapons and abilities previously collected. By a second play through you should know what you are doing, so not having to recollect all these damn things is a relief. Plus it makes fighting earlier enemies a bit easier. It's also easier to pull off combos earlier in the game (not that it's difficult to begin with).

Actual big boss battles are really fun and rather original. I find myself playing through boss battle missions more often than not. My personal favorites are the Bob Barbas and The Last Dance fights. Boss battles take some degree of planning and strategy. These battles totally make the game worth playing.

There is always some item to search for in this game. Keys, Lost souls and doors. You can always go back through missions to find everything you missed. As much as I loath gold doors, I do enjoy actually being able to unlock them. Plus, you don't have to play them right away. As long as you've opened the door, you can always go through the main menu and play it later. Since I'm kind of an achievement whore, I'll end up trying to get through all doors, as well as collect everything. This also takes some strategy as well. Not every Lost soul you come across is easy to access. So there is a lot of trial and error here, not to mention frustrating at times. Nevertheless, it's an easy way to get sidetracked from the original story line.

Some of the dialogue is okay. One particular conversation made me laugh like an idiot.

Dante: I'm a better fighter
Vergil: I'm smarter
Dante: I'm better looking
a short side conversation about the mission here.
Vergil: I have a bigger dick.

I don't know why that made me laugh so hard, but it did.

Dante starts out a foul mouthed douche, but I do like his growth as a character near the end. He ends up actually caring about the cause, and wants to save humanity. I dig growth in a character. 

I really don't care one way or another about Dante's new look. I wasn't particularly attached to his old look, so this change doesn't bother me as much as it does other die hard fans. As a reboot I expected some changes. Going in knowing this is a younger Dante I assumed he might not look as he did when he's older. Yes, us DMC fans are used to white haired, red coat Dante. But I really could care less.


The things I didn't like haven't changed much.

While I don't really care that Ninja Theory changed Dante's look, I really didn't care for his lack of wit. Ninja Theory tries, they really do, but in the older games Dante's wit was cheesy. It brought on a giggle. Here it was lucky if it brought on a smirk.

As I said before, in the beginning Dante is a douche. This really doesn't take away from the game, but it does become a little annoying after a while.

Kat is as interesting as a rock. I'm not really sure what Dante's draw to her is. Maybe it's because of her adorable puppy dog eyes. Maybe it's her innocence. Or maybe he just really likes bland chicks. If the last reason were true, then we wouldn't have had Trish in the first game. She had a tude, knew how to throw a punch and had wit. Kat just draws Limbo circles and asks Dante if he's okay after a fight. Not really love interest material there if you ask me.

This game is rather short. But it is on par with the other DMC games. Which run anywhere from 7-9 hours long. Still. I wish we had more content here.

I did like some of the dialogue, but as a whole the script could have used some work. Or at least work with the voice actors to at least make them sound as if there weren't actually reading from the script in front of them. No one sounds very natural in this game. Plus, some of the dialogue is just corny. I dig corny, but some of these lines just had me rolling my eyes.

The trophy glitches are rather annoying. As an achievement whore, it's rather annoying.

While I do love my Vergil in all of his awesome badness, I really don't understand why he's decided to go all power starved here. His reason for being big and bad in DMC 3 made sense. He craved power because he wasn't able to save his mother from dying. In this game he's just a douche who wants to rule his human "subjects" for the hell of it. Humans are beneath his kind and shouldn't be trusted to rule themselves. This was just really bad reasoning from any way I look at the situation. He wants to take down Mundus because he feels that Mundus rules the humans too harshly, but Vergil turns around and wants to do the exact same thing? WTF? I could understand wanting to be stronger to protect family more than wanting to rule the world with a iron fist.


This isn't a bad game, but it could have used some tweaks before being released to the masses. I wouldn't suggest spending the 60 dollars it is now. Wait till it comes down to at least 30 dollars. Better yet, rent it to be sure it's for you. Those of you who have heard of the DMC series. but have never bothered to play any of the other games, this is a good starting point for you. Die hard fans already are very vocal about this game. Change=bad. This die hard fan disagrees with the masses.

I give this game a 7/10. It's a good game, but I suggest renting it first before buying. But of course, I say this about almost every game.

Now on to Vergil's Downfall.

If you played DMC3 before even playing this game, you knew where Vergil was heading. In DMC he just hides his need for power behind a noble cause. As the game progresses you start to see the real man behind his facade.

Vergil's Downfall takes place right after the end event of DMC. Vergil is in Limbo and walking a fine line between sanity and insanity. Over the course of  8 missions, Vergil's descends in to a power driven madness of which there is no return.

I really can't say anything negative about this DLC. I highly recommend doing some training with Vergil after new abilities are discovered. Or even before you start in on the first mission.

Playing as Vergil is completely different from Dante. These two have completely different fighting styles. Where Dante has a variety of weapons, Vergil only has his Katana and Sword Illusion. The Katina is able to take on both demonic and angelic forms. Sword illusion is similar to Dante's guns, They'll help you break up an enemies attacks, but doesn't do much in the way of damage.

I am a fan of Vergil. Always have been and always will be. I always dig the bad guy and am curious as to how he or she became the way they did. Vergil's need for more power and his growing hatred for his brother are what drive this story. It's compelling and it made me want more Vergil based DLC.

I also like the fact that this DLC sets up nicely for DMC 2. Hopefully Ninja Theory is hard at work on that one, but I sadly have my doubts. Which makes me kind of sad. I really want to see how this whole brotherly drama plays out. Does it play out like it did in DMC 3? Or will Ninja Theory take it in a whole new direction? Damn. I really want the next chapter in this series already. Or another mission based DLC.


There is also the Bloody Palace DLC. It's fairly straight forward. Lots of enemies and don't die. It's fun and eats up a lot of time.

If anyone out there is interested in playing this series, I would start actually start out with this game. Then if you want to get in to the classic DMC, play Devil may cry 3 first. It's hard, but it would be within the event timeline here. Then Devil may cry. I suggest completely skipping over Devil may cry 2. It's utter shit and adds nothing to the series. You can play it if your a completest, but it would only be a waste of time. . Last but not least, Devil may cry 4.