Devil May Cry 2

"A sequel that takes few steps to improve the genre."

Everyone has been highly anticipating the sequel to Capcom's big action/adventure title since it came out on the PS2. The first game featured cool moves, a pretty decent storyline, and awesome boss battles. Now, word on the street is, the original development team that made the first game are no longer making the game. So here's this new team trying to pick up where the first game left off. Is it the game that everyone has been waiting for? Game of the year, perhaps? We'll see.

Graphics - ( 9/10 ) - The graphics are pretty sweet. The background can range from an old city from a dark and uninviting factory. The animations look good too. The only problem is that some of the backgrounds look really lame ( ala Shinobi ). Compared to graphics like Rygar, this game's got nothin'. Nevertheless, the graphics are neat and good compared to other PS2 titles. However, the character models look really good. I can't complain on that.

Story - ( 3/10 ) - I'm not giving any points on pity. There is basicaly no story. In the beginning, you arrive while Lucia, the second playable character, is fighting off vultures. Dante pops up and say like 2 words. Then there's about about 5 other words in the cutscene before the cinema ends. Don't think this is a one-time, becuase mostly all of the cinemas are like this! When you're about to fight a boss, he'll just show off and grunt before you fight. Bosses have no personality. The cinemas are very short, also. In the manual, it attempts to give you insight on what the heck is going on. They only confuse you even more. There's something about demons and people that worshiped them, bla bla. Nothing fresh, so don't expect a story here.

Sound - ( 6/10 ) - The music varies from each stage. Although, you'll probably never hear these tunes seeing as some annoying rock music comes up everytime you're about to fight. I don't know if they thought the rock music would get you into the mood or what, but it didn't work. It's just annoying. When you're not hearing that rock music, the sound is pretty lowkey. Most of the stages have some holy music playing in the background. Nothing spectacular in forms of music.

Gameplay - ( 8/10 ) - I guess this is what this game would be all about. You can pull off some pretty sweet moves in this game. This can range from double jumping, changing into a demon, flying, shooting while in mid-air, and more. When you perform a sword strike on the foe, it looks pretty slow and mauled. Also, it's very difficult to pull of juggles or combos in this game. The guns are pretty cool, too. The handguns are your basic guns, then you'll move on to stronger weapons such as a shotgun. As I stated earlier, the boss battles have no real personality. So would you expect someone with no personality to be a strategic mastermind? I didn't think so. Bosses are so blind in this game. For instance, there was the boss that comes from the building. After you kill his first form, he splits his head from his body. Now, you can either shoot like mad from in front of him and possibly die or you can jump behind him and get cheap hits. He doesn't even have a defense from behind! The bosses are below - average. I give 'em points for at least looking good. So the gameplay decent to say the least. However, many would prefer the more faster paced gameplay of games like DMC1 and Shinobi.

Fun Factor - ( 8/10 ) - I won't lie. This game is fun. It's fun blasting away at uhh.. walking cages with a shotgun. You'll like rolling behind foes and shooting them at blank point range. The sword strikes may be slow, but at least they're fun to look at. My only gripe is the formula used in games like Shinobi. What I mean is .. you'd enter these areas where this red field would emerge. You have to kill every enemy in the area for the field to dissolve. This is very tedious, as it happens a lot throughout the game. In fact, now that I bring up Shinobi.. this game is a lot like it. ( C'mon. Those tanks look EXACTLY like the ones in Shinobi. And the Helicopter that chases you? That too. )

Overall - ( 8/10 ) This game gets points for being fun and having good graphics but let's face it.. graphics don't make the game. This game is really lose points in hopes of a story and how bland the overall experience is. You'll probably end this game in about 3 days so I suggest renting it before buying.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/31/03, Updated 01/31/03