Devil May Cry 2

"Devil May Cry 2, the black sheep of the DMC series"

It all comes down to how you view Devil May Cry 2; as an action game, or as a DMC game.

DMC2 was a good action game. It nailed the run and gun formula down perfectly. But that's only viewing it as an action game. DMC2 as a DMC game is the worst game ever. Talk about a disappointment. It took everything that was established (not talking about story) and through it out the window. It raped everything that made DMC1 great. It's an insult to the series. It's a good action game but a terrible Devil May Cry game.

Let's go in depth on what we should be thankful for. After all, it brought some things to the table.

-On the fly weapon switching. Wonderful innovation.

-Trickster was introduced. Though it wasn't nearly as spectacular as it is in DMC3. It did more or less create the style button, even if you were stuck with one style.

-Gunslinger was introduced. Twosome time and Rainstorm appeared as well as Fireworks and few others that didn't make it into the game. Given the moves were pretty much on the useless side, they still paved the way for their superior use in DMC3.

-Swordmaster also made a brief appearance. Very brief. One move brief. Aerial Rave made an appearance here. Given it was just two kicks before a down slash, it was still an air combo. DMC3 blew this innovation right out of the water.

-Trish made this game somewhat enjoyable. She played exactly, and I mean exactly like Dante did in DMC1. And when I say exactly I mean that the game play with her was identical to the game play found in DMC1. Her combos worked the same way, her abilities were the same. Unfortunately, she lacked variety from a weapons standpoint, and she was extremely powerful while DTed.

Let's now go in depth on what we should despise about it. Cause, as a DMC game, it ruined everything that made the first one great.

-The sword combos = joke to the max. There were a grad total of 4 basic combos for the sword. All accomplished by pressing either forward or away upon completing a certain swing on the main combo. You can't mix or really blend moves into each other this time around.

-Hightime launched the enemies way to high into the air to do any dazzling combos with them. Not to mention if there are other enemies around you can't juggle the enemy in the air with your guns. But if there's only one enemy (the one you hightimed) you can juggle them until they're dead, just like in the other DMC games. But in DMC2 you have to be up against one enemy to do it. Restrictions to moves = lame.

-Special bullets that magically lift just about any enemy off the ground. WTF is that about? Talk about lame. Shooting enemies and picking them up off the ground with the bullets. Instant failure.

-Stinger!!!! WTF is that about? Stinger was the most useful thing in both DMC1 and DMC3. It's an attack that hits enemies hard and allows you to travel great distances to continue combos or to get to the enemy before the style meter drops. In DMC2, Dante takes a step, not a dash or glide, he takes a single step forward and thrusts his sword forward. Useless to the max. A great move reduced to utter garbage.

-The loss of the charged shots. Sometimes when you are in a bind or need to hit a boss extra hard the charged shots were a nice boost. Where are they in DMC2? Oh that's right they couldn't put them in for story reasons. If you could do charged shots then the way Dante takes out Despair wouldn't be as cool as it is. They should have been in there. After all, it were super charged shots that killed major villains in the other two games, not a regular charged shot.

-Round Trip and Million stab are lame. Million Stab can only be used DTed and it's over powered as anything. Round Trip, also DT only, it just circles Dante's body. It's pointless as hell and can only be used with the aerial heart equipped.

-Lack of weapon originality. Hello!!!! Only three swords each with the same power and combos. Each just as useless in this game as the next. Where's the spear, or the chucks, or the twin swords, or the whip, or the axe, or the gauntlets, or the hammer, etc. DMC1 didn't have a lot of weapon variety but like I said, DMC2 rapes everything that DMC1 established.

-The DT system to destroy all DT systems!!!!!!!!! Yeah right! WTF is with the useless amulet system? There was only one spot where super speed had to be used. And one spot where flight had to be used. After that you just use whatever you feel like. The elements were useless. They say that specific elements work better against specific enemies. BS to the extreme. Any time I play I just use the same damn element throughout the game. It doesn't offer anything special using others. It was cool to see the basic combos change in DT form but they were just as useful as they are when not DTed. Not to mention the demonic machine guns annihilate everything. EVERYTHING!!!!!!! Why couldn't the DT abilities, attributes, and elements be based on the weapon you had equipped? Oh that's right, they only have three of the same sword for you to choose from.

-DDT is cool as hell. But this is the thing that breaks the game. When DDT comes in to play you become Death on the Battlefield. You know a game is bad when you use something that can kill the final boss in under 15 seconds just by mashing one button. Extreme, overpowered, cool, and game breaking sums up the DDT. If they were smart, it would have used like the Sparda DT in DMC1. In other words, used only for the final boss fight. But did they do that? No. They let you use it during the course of the whole game thus, making an easy game even easier.

-Enemy variety was soooooo bad. There were nearly three, sometimes more, different varieties for four batches of the enemies. And the bosses were equally bad. I mean come on, demonic tanks, a demonic helicopter, and and a demonic building? What a bad joke.

-Bosses had no personality. Only two bosses actually spoke to Dante. Arius and Trismagia. Not cool. Given you had plenty of boss variety compared to DMC1. But in the case of this game, it's definitely quality over quantity. It's a shame because there were some cool bosses, two or three, that could have been great if they had personalities.

-The story had sooo much potential. But ultimately missed the mark. Missed it by about a hundred feet. What a shame. What a crying shame. Some of the cut scenes were cool. DMC1 fell short in this area because the cut scenes were more story driven. DMC2 falls short because it focuses on making Dante out to be cool with action. DMC3 doesn't just beat these two games in this department. It rapes them. DMC2 should have had awesome cut scenes like it's sequel.

-Two disks? What's the point? Oh that's right, they felt they would make it neat to let you play as two separate characters to see different angles of the poorly integrated story. They wasted time by programming a second game. Playing as Lucia would have been fine and dandy if she were an unlockable like Trish. But nooooooo they had to go and give her a crappy adventure of her own. All that time spent programming her side of the game would have been better spent making Dante's game better. Think about it for sec. No really, think about it. DMC2 could have been contender in the DMC series if they didn't focus on a damn useless Lucia game. It could have at least come close to being like DMC1.

-Bloody Palace was a good idea, but incredibly poorly integrated. You should have earned something by completing so many floors. Not to mention that it goes on pretty much forever, with enemies constantly flooding the arena on the final floor. Plus 100 floors with rewards would have been more reasonable.

-The unlockables were crap. Too many costumes. Lucia should have been an unlockable character. Sparda should have been an unlockable character (he was in 1 and 3). Trish should remain an unlockable, though her DT power would have to be toned down, big time.

-The ranking system sucked in this game. Getting all S Ranks in this game is no easy task. It was fairly simple in DMC1 and acceptably challenging in DMC3. But this game's system is practically close to impossible. It takes forever to get the ratings during combat to appear. It also is ridiculous how long it takes to get the combo ranks to change. The camera is really bad in this game. It's easy for an off screen enemy to tag you, ruining your chance to get that S Rank. What am I saying, what chance? The grading system was broken in this game, plain and simple.

Bringing the review to a closing.

What hurts DMC2 the most is that it was originally another game. Capcom made a hefty amount of money on DMC1 and they wanted to release a sequel to continue the success of this new franchise. So what they did was run to a team that was making their own action game and told them to turn it into the sequel to DMC. What did they do? They called it DMC2 and threw in Dante and his weapons and a few of his abilities, all of which were implemented poorly or improperly. The DMC2 that we've all played isn't even DMC2. It's something else that is just called DMC2. It's like Dante appearing in VJ or SMT:N. He's making a cameo in someone elses game. Why isn't it a DMC game? Well, other than the reason I just stated about it starting out as another game entirely, it plays nothing like DMC1 or DMC3.

It only has a few things in common with the rest of the series:
-Dante's in the game
-The story which mentions Sparda
-Ebony and Ivory, Rebellion, Shotgun
-The ability to DT

There is only one game play saving grace. And that is Trish.

Reasoning behind the grade.

As an action game DMC2 isn't a terrible game. Viewing it only as an action game is what saves it. I would have given it a 7. Looking at it as a Devil May Cry game only would damn it to a 2. But since it is a DMC game and DMC games are action games I gotta find some middle ground. Thus the 5.

Worth a rental if you're bored and want to see where Capcom went wrong with this game.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 05/05/05