Devil May Cry Repetition

Author's Rating:

Pros: graphics, usual crisp DMC gameplay

Cons: repetition of environments and boss battles

The Bottom Line: 
DMC 4 is worth it for fans of the series. Now we have to wait till the series takes the next step.

Author's Review
The Devil May Cry series makes its jump to next-gen consoles with its fourth installment. I'm sure Capcom will make a lot of money off this one, and to some degree they have earned it. However, the DMC franchise now stands at the same type of crossroads the Resident Evil series did after the release of RE: Code Veronica. In other words, okay good work, Capcom, you've made your money off this formula. Now it's time to reinvent it.

DMC's well-known anti-hero Dante returns, but he's not the demon hunter you'll be spending the most time playing. Indeed, the main star here is called Nero, who looks much like Dante. He carries a sword like Dante, as well as a gun that's rather weak and mostly useful to slow down enemies. His call to fame is his demon arm that can do a variety of things, including snatching demons from a distance and grab on to distant ledges.

Nero is the most wise-cracking and unpredictable member of the Order of the Sword. He is involved in a weird love circle within the Order, as he loves a lovely girl named Kyrie, whose brother is the Order's chief military man. As the cliche would have it, he doesn't like Nero very much. This is not surprising. Nero fires more sarcastic, wise-cracking lines than Dr. House when he's craving for Vicodin. Seeing as how Dante shares that same personality trait, scenes involving the two are a sarcasm marathon.

When the game begins, the leader of the Order is giving some kind of mass when he is brutally murdered by Dante before anyone can react. The game aims to make us wonder whether Dante has corrupted his purpose, but his motives for doing so don't remain a mystery for too long. Besides, Nero takes off to take on Dante, but when demons invade the kingdom, he has to take care of that problem as well. Still, it only becomes serious for him when Kyrie is captured.

Nero's quest to restore peace within the kingdom takes him to several beautiful places and you'll be amazed at the level of detail for each of the environments, environments that you'll get to reexplore as Dante. Where to go is not too hard to figure out once you begin to observe the Resident Evil zapping system rule: any door that won't open for you will automatically open for the other character. The boss battle are also quite entertaining and challenging. That being said, the game violates a good rule of thumb to keep gamers entertained: while you can get away with making the gamer go through the same environments as two different characters, it is not wise to force him/her to do the same for boss battles. Most bosses you'll face three times in the game, which is overkill to say the least. Capcom had made the same mistake in the first DMC. I was hoping they had learned. "That thing again?" is not the reaction Capcom should be seeking.

As mentioned, the game looks great. Hats must be off to Capcom for the terrific quality of the cut scenes. The environments are fabulous as well. The game features boss battles fought through interesting new angles and perspectives. However, bringing back the RE-style pre-rendered environments also means returning the lingering camera problems. They are much rarer than in previous installments of the series, but every once in a while, you'll stumble across a tortured camera angle that'll leave you vulnerable to the attacks of an enemy you can't see yet.

The sound design can be described as typical of a DMC game. We get the survival-horror scary music as we wander in dark, empty palaces and we switch to the rock theme when battles come up. The voice acting is well done. From a dialog standpoint, DMC is the Sin City of video games. The dialog is an over-the-top affair the actors do a good job of selling without making it sound like a caricature.

Veterans will feel right at home with the controls, which haven't changed much since the very first DMC. Nero's Devil Bringer is a really nice touch, as it enables you to launch neat-looking and highly satisfying combos. And while you'll miss when you switch to Dante, you'll appreciate the variety of attacks available depending on which characters you play with.

DMC 4 on its own is a terrific game. My only problem with it is that it's getting recurrent. This game hardly brings anything new to the series. It does have the positive of not being as unfairly difficult as DMC 3, but I struggled with the systematic repetition of boss battles. If you're a DMC fan, you've probably bought this game already and if not, it's worth your money. However, the series is at a point where it could use the kind of facelift Resident Evil got with RE 4, which won Game of The Year and reached an unparalleled level of greatness. Hey Capcom, it's DMC's turn now.