Devil May Cry

"Hey, the devil's crying... Let's all point and laugh!"

Intro
It was the weekend before my birthday. My parents said they'd give me a gift and some money in card as they usually do. I had pretty much already planned where roughly $50 of that money was going; Straight to Devil May Cry on PS2. On the way to get the game, though, I just kept thinking to myself, ''You know, it would look really cliche if I gave this game a 10. Bah, maybe I'll give it an 8 or a 9.'' At first, I was ready to give this game a 4. I initially hated the learning curve and almost wasn't willing to even give this game a chance. I was ready to flat out reject it as being anything close to remotely good. After getting further and further, I found it harder to give this a failing grade and easier to give it a 10. Finally, I decided that me giving this game anything lower than 10 just wasn't fair. That would be saying that it wasn't as good as Onimusha (which was my favorite PS2 game for a while). In fact, it by far blows Onimusha way out of the water.

Devil Hunters, Inc.
In Devil May Cry, you play as a young man named Dante. Dante is the son of a dark knight called Sparda who once saved the world from an evil far worse than a collaboration between Lil' Bowwwow and Lil' Romeo. He defeated an evil demon called Mundus, sending him back to the underworld. Years later, a woman named Trish arrives at Dante's agency called Devil May Cry and (after a bunch of pointless violence... YEAH!) persuades Dante to follow her to a strange island where much trouble is going down. On the island is a huge castle infested with all sorts of monsters. Now, Dante must rise to the challenge and defeat all the inhabitants therein and seal evil once and for all... or at least for a few years.

Gameplay
Skimming the surface just a bit here, the basics aren't hard to get down. It's what's been added to the basics that so damned hard! Does this game play like Resident Evil? That's probably the first question you'll hear from some people (like my friends) who don't know much about the game or have't played it. All I can say is... No. Throw out most (not all, but most) of what is applied in Resident Evil in this game. You run around in a 3D environment, jumping and attacking. You get two kinds of weapons: short-range and long-range. As you guessed, the swords and gauntlets are the short-range weapons, while your guns and projectile-based weapons are your long-range. You have both long and short-range weapons equipped. The best thing about the long-range weapons has to be that you have unlimited ammo in this game. So, you're not caught running around looking for boxes of ammo and trying to avoid enemies around every corner. Just like Onimusha, you'll want to engage in battle more often than run.

Now, time to go a bit more in-depth. The battle system (so to speak) in this game is spectacular! It adds so much to the action factor of this game! Pushing the attack button once brings out a single attack. However, pushing it repeatedly prompts Dante to do some combos. Heh, those are only basic combos. You can also get special attacks to go with particular weapons. With this, you can essentially invent your own combos and beat the crap out of enemies with them. On top of that, you can factor in your long-range weapons to your combos and make them even more deadly. A good example would be one I did when I was still learning how to play the game: I did an attack where Dante rose up into the air with his sword (bringing the enemy with him), while in the air I pumped tons of bullets into the enemy, then came down with a slash and as we landed I lunged forward and blew the enemy back. That, too, is technically a basic combo. There's almost no end to what you can do. You are even graded on how long you can keep a combo going. The rankings are as follows from least to greatest: Dull, Cool, Bravo, Awesome, and Stylish! Getting a stylish isn't always the best way to do things, but it's nice to have once in a while.

Devil Trigger Mode
You'll notice after you obtain the sword Alaster that there is a few symbols below your life. Those symbols represent your Devil Trigger points. What is Devil Trigger? Well, Dante is part demon, so he can unleash the demon within him to whoop some ass on an unsuspecting demon creature thing... Yeah... Anyway, when you have enough Devil Trigger points, you can then turn Devil Trigger Mode on. This will increase Dante's performance in terms of strength, speed, and defense and will also gradually restore his life while it is turned on. Devil Trigger points will be slowly deducted while this is happening. The only way to get them back (short of using items) is to land attacks on enemies, whether they are blocked or not. Once it's full again, you can re-enter Devil Trigger and whoop some more tail.

Buying and Upgrading
Throughout the game, you get countless items called Red Orbs. Collecting red orbs has a small function in breaking down cursed gates at some rare points of the game, but it serves a much better function as currency in this game. In between levels and at those strange Time God statues you can use Red Orbs to buy new items that you can use on your quest or even to buy new attacks to make your combos even deadlier. Red Orbs can be found just laying around or even obtained through killing enemies (which is the most common methods of obtaining). You can even get them from completing missions Your game will practically revolve around these. You may even spend a bit of time trying to build up some Red Orbs so you can afford the finer things in life. I'm sure you'll grow tired of the same attacks after a while and will need a little spice to your combos or you may need some Blue Orbs (increase life max.) or Purple Orbs (increase Devil Trigger max.).

Missions
The game is divided into missions. Each mission has an objective that may require you to do other small objectives to complete. Such examples would include getting a particular item. It sounds easy enough, but there's always roadblocks in the form of monsters all over the place. You might be pleased to know that there aren't really any puzzles at all in this game. Depending on how you perform in each mission, you will be given a grade (ranking from D-A; least to greatest... At least I assume D is the worst considering F would denote that you failed the mission). Depending on what grade you got, you will be rewarded with some extra Red Orbs. YAAAY! Positive reinforcement reeks of awesomeness! Or... so says B.F. Skinner.

Harsh Learning Curve
This game has quite a harsh learning curve. Now, this is not exactly the Final Fantasy Tactics curve (that took me about two to three days to actually get down), but it is still hard nonetheless. I think it's mainly adjusting to the idea of having to keep on your toes while delivering punishing (you hear that Skinner, PUNISHING!) blows to your enemies. Feh, or you could just get cheap an use the long-range weapons a hell of a lot. This can generate a downside in the form of frustration. The game is pretty frustrating when you first play it, so much that I almost hated the game. HA!

Controls
Are you expecting what's referred to as ''typical survival/horror control?'' Nope, doesn't exist here. In this, it's push the direction- head in that direction. None of that ''push up=go forward'' crap! The response isn't that bad, either, and this game makes you use the analog stick. There is a slight complexity to the game, but nothing worth losing sleep over. All in all, the controls are quite lenient.

Graphics
The graphics are stunning! They don't use pre-rendered environments either! YAAY! The game uses such rich tones of colors on the character designs. I also liked the animation. It moved so incredibly fluid. I literally dropped my jaw just watching Dante walk up stairs. I also have to give kudos to a great enemy and boss design. They all fit very well with the theme of the game. Every enemy looks pretty damn evil, vicious, and wicked! Even the basic enemies of the game look evil. There also seems to be a good atmosphere built here. The game uses great lighting to help build that atmosphere. Some areas are just as dark as they should be and others are as bright as they should be. I've not seen any place that was too dark or too light. You actually got the sense that you were in a dingy, old castle.

Sounds
Mystifying soundtrack. It also builds the atmosphere greatly. Not only did it add mystery, but also senses of terror, despair, and anxiety when need be. Many people complain about the voice acting in this game. I'll say the voice acting is sufficient. That is, it's not Tenchu: Stealth Assassins (don't get me wrong on Tenchu; Excellent game, terrible voice acting). Then again, it's not quite Oscar worthy either. I wasn't looking for Oscar voice acting though. I think they had about the right sound for each character. Dante sounded confident, Mundus sounded quite sinister. The sound effects added generously to the action factor of the game. Hearing those slashes, gunshots, and all the brutal sounds of battle just seems to reinforce the violent content. Okay, I'm starting to sound overly conservative now. Ahh, but I won't deny the action in this game!

Final Word
PS2's games just keep getting better and better! A lot of people complained when the launch titles came out an got rid of their PS2's because of it. That means you miss out on this game! Playing this has made my shelling out the $300+ for my PS2 WELL worth it.

What's the best part about this game? The action! My lord, the action! I thought Onimusha was action-packed. This game makes Onimusha look like Disneyland. This game builds two great atmospheres and blends them very well. You get a sense of both action and the dark feeling of the environment. That is not to say this game is really anything scary. The graphics, the lighting the soundtrack, the sound effects... They all play major parts of a big whole to make one of the greatest games Capcom has ever conceived. Do I feel that I should've bought Soul Reaver 2 instead of this with my birthday money as my friend suggested? Hell no! Not to downplay SR2, but this game is worth every penny I dropped into it. Would a 10 then be too cliche in this situation? Am I doing this because a 10 is ''to be expected?'' Absolutely not! Is it cliche to give something a 10 if that's truly how I feel? I honestly can't stress it more than that. I could not repress the feelings of this being a 10-worthy game for the life of me. Such a thing would be like forcing myself to give Action 52 anything above a 1.

FINAL JUDGMENT
Graphics: Really shows PS2's power 10/10
Sounds: Build a great atmosphere 9/10
Controls: Work well 8/10
Plot/Storyline: Starts out kind of funny, but better than I expected all in all 7/10
Gameplay: Fun, addictive, action-packed... I could go on, but that would just be filler to this review. 10/10
All Together: 10/10

Perks
*Fun as all hell
*Good challenge factor
*Great graphics and sounds
*The combos...!
*Well done atmosphere

Downers
*High frustration factor

Recommendations
Action fans or anyone looking for a good challenge should give this a try. Survival/horror fans might like it. Maybe not as much as something like Silent Hill 2, but I think they could appreciate it.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 12/11/01, Updated 12/11/01