What started as development for Resident Evil 4 becomes a monster of its own.
Loosely based on Dante’s, “Divine Comedy”, Devil May Cry began as Capcom’s first stab at Resident Evil 4 for the PlayStation 2 and actually ended up just simply being, “too cool” for the Resident Evil universe.
I’m not sure how many dual beretta wielding, emo haired hunks there were in the Divine Comedy but even in the likely case that there were zero – DMC makes up for that in a hurry.
You play as Dante, a seemingly regular badass dude just chilling out when one night some lady wearing next to nothing drives through your business on a motorcycle. You can tell how cool of a guy Dante is because immediately after the accident he nonchalantly asks motorcycle babe what’s going on instead of calculating property damage costs or criticizing her wreckless driving. Once more, when she decides to attack him he remains ice cold fending her off and just casually explaining that he’s an immortal demon hunter on a quest to avenge his brother and mother’s killer.
From there things get strange fast. You two just decide to head to some island in the middle of fuck-all no where. Trish (yea, her name is Trish) immediately does some crazy ass back flips up a mountainside and says,”Alright well I’ll see you up there” – leaving you to crawl through this dungeon castle on your own. Fighting possessed marionettes, weird demon hounds, gigantic tarantulas , blobs of evil, some electrical bastard bats and other creepy crawlers.
The gameplay is hard. To be completely honest, the game really is a trial by fire. You are given no tutorial, no hints, you just have to figure it out as you go. The game crushed me quickly several times. After three or so deaths in a row the game shows pity on you and offers an Automatic Easymode. Auto Mode will automatically aim your guns and sword/melee attacks for you. It is considerably easier and I’d recommend it for first time play throughs because the difficulty could easily ruin the game for less ambitious players. Including myself. (I’m getting old and am not spending six months mastering controls to beat games anymore. Give me the easiest route to enjoy the story.)
But regardless of what option you choose once you do get the hang of the hack n’ slash controls and get more familiar with the weapons the game provides the gameplay is smooth as hell and extremely addictive. Another wonderful thing Capcom did with DMC is breaking the story into chapters that grade your performance. The entire game consists of 23 Chapters, all of which can be replayed at anytime making the replayability of a story game like this significantly higher than most.
The atmosphere is fantastic, you feel isolated yet capable in this giant gothic castle. The story twists and turns all over the place and the soundtrack is as epic as the boss fights. A must play for old school gamers that might have missed it.
Overall: 90% (GOLD)
