Devil May Cry Review

The New Dante

We are taught never to judge a book by its cover, but sadly that's what "Devil May Cry's" fanbase has been doing to the new reboot in the DMC series. You'll hear whiny fanboys complain "It's not Dante," or "This game has been ruined." To tell you the truth, I kind of felt this way too until I actually started to play the game and, well, to those who shared my old sentiment I bring this message: Shut up and sit down to play this amazing game!

Dante is back in Ninja Theory's reboot of the "Devil May Cry" franchise, and while he looks a bit different he's still the same badass we've come to know and love. This game retains all of the old "DMC" traditions while adding some new ones to the mix.

"DMC" is a new take on the series starring Dante as a demon-slaying badass who is repeatedly dragged into the world of Limbo by monsters out to kill him. He soon meets up with a medium named Kat, who is part of the Order run by Dante's long lost brother Vergil. Together, they seek revenge on the demon king Mundus for murdering their mother and banishing their father.

The storytelling here is top notch due to the fact that every cutscene is motion captured and read live. It all helps immerse you in this new retelling of Dante's origin. The dialogue, while well written at times, can be just a joke. Dante meets one of Mundus's generals and they proceeds to have a "F@ck you" competition with each other. Not exactly the best work of the year, but it does get across the point that this is a younger and more brash Dante. Still, it could have been worked on a bit more. Don't worry, there are still a lot of classic "DMC" lines so it's all good, fanboys.

Kat joins the roster of DMC women

The gameplay has been reworked a bit while still keeping the foundation the previous games have laid. Dante has access to his trusty sword Rebellion and his duel pistols Ebony and Ivory along with new weapons he'll pick up along the way. The control scheme has been reworked, so switching between demon and angel weapons is just a simple hold of the trigger and release. This adds so many layers to the combat the I felt was always lacking in the previous games.

Aerial Combat has been re-vamped 

The combat is amazing, making you feel like a total badass when you switch weapons and lay down unholy death on these demons. The style-point system is back as well and adds a bit of replayability when you're trying to go for the highest combo score out on the leaderboards. The thing with the style system is now it seems way too easy to get the coveted SSS rank that you would have to strive for in past games. In fact, it's like this for the combat in general. In the past games, I would have to moderate myself in attacking then dodging, but now I can just hack away and get praised for it. To counteract this, "DMC" has seven - yes seven - difficulties.

The visuals of the game are gorgeous. While almost greyed out in the human world, once you hit Limbo the visuals come to life. Limbo has a wide assortment of bright colors to show off the lunacy of the world. Bits of the city are torn apart as the demons continue on their quest to stop Dante. As you walk through the levels, you'll also notice the floor rotting with grime, webs and blood making you want to get out of their as soon as you can. It's something that has to be seen. Limbo is like art. Mind you, art made by the mind of a mad man.

Kickin' ass in Limbo

The bosses themselves add  to the visual aspect by being sick, twisted creatures of demon lore. Just wait until you see the succubus and try not to be disgusted.

The soundtrack reflects the visuals as well, ranging from hard-hitting tracks from the band Combichrist to electro-dubstep from the trio known as Noisia. All the tracks work well with what's happening, adding a sense of urgency and just plain badassery.




Dante may be starting over, but he sure did hit the ground running. "DMC" has instilled new life in a franchise that hasn't been seen since the launch of this generation of consoles. While this game is a bit easy, and its dialog can be a bit juvinile and lackluster, the reworks to the game make it easy to look over that fact. That's why it's easy to give "DMC" an 8/10. Clearly Ninja Theory has hit the jackpot here.