Devil May Cry

Does everyone remember the old Resident Evil games where you had a fixed camera and everything you did was hindered by such fixed camera?

No? Good.

Lots of us have blocked out those games purely because they were so horrible to use. When you'd try to shoot, block, or run, you'd end up just getting confused, and essentially getting killed. It happened, people got mad, etc.

Well anyway, the team down at Capcom were developing a Resident Evil game, and thought the following things:
1. Lets make it an action game, and
2. Lets use our old engine.
Granted that the Resident Evil series could loosely be defined as an action game, I guess the first one could be considered an strange move. However, this will strike you as odd: Devil May Cry was going to be Resident Evil at one point and they switched off. I think for the better.



Devil May Cry pits you with Dante, a half-demon of some sort who is hired to handle a demonic problem. Sound lame? Yep. The whole game oozes of crappy plots, overdramatic voice acting, and paper-thin characters. Its obvious that the team developing this game didnt give a flying s*** about how the story was, and thats fine with me.

When you get down to it, imagine Devil May Cry as Resident Evil 2 with extreme action and over-the-top skills. The game oozes of movies like Versus where every move you make you just want to go "Hot d***". Simply put, the game is a blessing of style- everything that Dante does could be filed right in the "Cool" box. In fact, the game rewards how much you put into your moves- the better and more stylish, the more red orbs (Cash). For example, blowing 20 Blade-carrying marionettes with your shotgun is EFFECTIVE, but throwing them all into the air at once, shooting them with your shotgun, and finishing them off with the dual handguns will get you much more kudos.



If anyone tells you this game is short, ignore them. The game is short in comparison to Resident Evil 4, but you have to remember that this game is extremely, extremely hard. This is one of the few games where I had to take day-long breaks so I didnt break the controller over my knee.

This brings up something else interesting. While "Normal" mode is pretty difficult (The difficulty kinda ends when you get enough health), "Hard" mode is a real toughie. Bosses from "Normal" mode will be in common areas of Hard mode. I've heard there's an Harder-than-hard-mode mode, but I won't ever see it- I'm still stuck with my guy in Hard mode. Its just unforgiivng like that.

As for the graphics and sound, I can't give this game much credit. Both graphics and sound are PS2 quality, which means essentially that there are a lot of jags and a lot of complex textures trying to make up for it. The sound is pretty good, I love the soundtrack- but one would wish that the voiceovers were more detailed.


Overall, I give this game 1 mushroom. Its worth all the hype it gets, and the gameplay is an absolutely amazing experience. However, the game reeks over over-the-top crap movies, and also can sometimes be extremely frustrating. Pick this game up if you own a PS2- you won't be dissapointed.

4 star(s) out of 5

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