Game Review: DmC: Devil May Cry

Devin Pacini

DmC: Devil May Cry is a re-imagination of the Devil May Cry series. The story begins with Dante beginning to discover more about his past and his place in a war that has been fought long before he was ever born. Because it’s a re-imagination there are some similarities to the previous games but there are also a lot of changes. The most notable change, and most controversial among fans, is Dante’s appearance. However, looks aside do the changes impact the game? Will the story impact me more than the previous games’ story? Well the answer to those questions is a bit anticlimactic.

As far as the story goes it’s mostly similar. I wont waste time explaining it all but I will say that they do have a different spin on how and where you fight the enemies. I kind of liked the shifting between the real world and limbo actually. It allowed for the game to let crazy, and sometimes theatrical, things happen while explaining why the public wasn’t as concerned as they should be about it. Speaking about the public not caring enough, they do a great job explaining that one in general as well. Dante doesn’t care about these things so much though. He takes shifting into limbo as more of a minor inconvenience. You can’t blame him either. When you are a near unstoppable powerhouse fighting through hoards of monsters it’s hard to feel threatened about anything they try to throw at you. That being said the gameplay is still solid.

Although I never found myself stuck in a Devil May Cry game it’s always been one of the few games where I actually find myself dying. This game was no exception. I chose the normal difficulty (Devil Hunter) and only died twice in the time that I played it but the game did force me to get better at actually playing it. I had to get used to using not only Dante’s different weapons but skills as well to get through the massive amount of enemies he’s forced to fight. The game did a good job at reminding me that I can’t slack off in those respects when I actually died.. However, even though it’s possible to die the game isn’t cruel about it. All the battles were decently challenging and I never felt like I was ever in an easy or difficult situation. The mix of enemy types that compliment each other force you to prioritize kills and try to keep your combo running. Everything considered, I had a lot of fun playing the game.

That doesn’t mean it’s perfect sadly. I would love to have loved this game and forgiven it’s “new Dante” thing but I can’t entirely. Dante is back to being similar to how he was in Devil May Cry 3, aka snarky and sarcastic, but doesn’t quite sell it with the same kind of flair. It’s not so much the voice actor’s fault as it was the writers in my opinion. Most of the lines written, for everyone, don’t resonate quite as well as the previous games’ did. It also failed to prevent me from skipping parts of the game without realizing it. That’s more of the level designer’s fault however. I could probably go on with a couple more personal complaints (*cough cough the guns are useless cough cough*) but the general idea is that there are a lot of things they could have done differently.

That doesn’t make it a bad game though. It’s not perfect but it’s not bad. I’m not too thrilled with Dante’s new look but when I’m focused on the fighting I don’t notice or care about it as much. The story isn’t A grade material but arguably neither were the previous games’ either. For what it is, flaws and all, it does a good job at doing what a game should do. It’s entertaining and fun, if you gave it a try you’d probably agree with me. However, if you’re a devil then this game might make you cry.

4/5