The Devil May Cry series, after its four installment in Devil May Cry 4, was a big commercial success. However, the gameplay is still as punishing as ever, rewarding hardcore action players by throwing a million demons at the player and forcing him to survive with a little bit of health; all the while expecting him to do enough combos at the end of the level. This is the tried-and-tested formula for the Devil May Cry Series, but Capcom wanted to break into Western markets, as well as to cater towards the casual action gamer segment.

So in September 2010, at the Toyko Game Show (essentially a giant gaming convention), Capcom announced that they would be working with UK developer Ninja Theory to launch DmC: Devil May Cry, prompting outrage from die-hard fans that love the hardcare action that the series represent. Fans were screaming blue murder and threatening to boycott the new game. Ninja Theory receives death threats from fans and the reception was negative. Those poor blokes in the UK didn’t know what hit them, and they were responsible for pretty good titles such as Heavenly Sword and Enslaved: Odyssey to the West.

So like how Godzilla got “westernized” to the Hollywood market, DmC is essentially the Western remake of it. Unlike the export of Godzilla though, DmC is a success on its own terms, and I was so thankful to give it a chance to play it.

Rewinding a few years back on PS2 console, I remembered picking the very first Devil May Cry to play in the console, and remember struggling at the “OH-MY-GOD” difficulty of the game. The game demanded a quick response and a knack of chaining combos like planning the choreography of a salsa dance on the fly. I couldn’t invest the time to train myself to play it, and I ended up being one of those people who didn’t complete a Devil May Cry game when almost every gamer in school were talking about it.

This time round, with more skill and time in my hands, DmC’s gameplay is remarkably similar and yet different from the previous series. Dante still wields his sword and his dual guns in definitive style. There are a whole range of techniques to be unlocked at his disposal to slice, hack, chop or blast his devilish foes to non-existence. The controls are smart and intuitive and if the combos are too hard to be executed, Ninja Theory provides a training mode where a punchbag devil bounces against a white background for the player to practice chaining his combos. This is reminiscent of fighting games of practicing and chaining combos, which is great for a newbie to pick up and learn. Once, the combos have been mastered, the player is in for a treat to display flurries of sword strokes and gunshots to make killing demons an art-form, which is immensely satisfying to execute but also easy to understand.

(Look at those combooooossssssss)

To add to the arsenal of combos, Dante also has a demon form and angel form that is easily access using the L2/R2 buttons, which  both grant him instant access to a weapon from the realm other than Rebellion. The weapons offer a chance to switch up the pacing of the combo style: his demon weapons offer slow, powerful attacks whereas his angelic weapons provide fast, effective crowd control for larger groups of enemies. There’s no limit to switching between these forms, and players have the chance to splice the different weapon style into the gameplay, making it a deeply fluid combo chain with Dante dancing across the ballroom of a battlefield. The combos, when coupled with the ability of Dante to pull enemies to him or grapple to them at will, makes its much easier to extend a combo with out needing to reposition himself during the battle. The player then get rewards by the ranking on the top right hand corner, which would then affect the player’s overall mission ranking. Players would love to see their moves as well as points racking up as they earn themselves towards the sweet coveted spot of the SSS rank.

The boss fights are spectacular too. Each enemy is a colossal badass, requiring you to make use of the environment while ducking their massive attacks. It offers a nice switch from plummeting multiple enemies to focusing on one big enemy, with each boss as challenging and as satisfying as the next one.

I might have made DmC sound too easy, but it’s not. It has a stunning five difficulty levels, the first of which comes divided into three sub-difficulties for beginning players to select. Even the first unlockable difficulty level, Son of Sparda, enhances the challenge tenfold, hurling waves of more powerful legions at players within the first few minutes of the campaign. Battles may be fair and well designed, but they will not be easy.

Story-wise, DmC differs from the original version as Dante is no longer a half-demon, half-human child but rather a half-angel, half-demon spawn. This gives a more refreshing take in the series, as well as a more relatable hero that is reluctant to save the world at first, but eventually finds himself swayed due to personal reasons. Dante and his brother, Vergil, appears together with the classic sibling rivalry at the side. They are Nephilim – an ancient fusion of the two powers that makes them so powerful with a lot of hidden potential that they are able to slay Mundus, the demon king. We see how the two nephilim brother work together to stop Mundus, who controls the world through contemporary means: debt, surveillance, and soft drinks. As Dante help Vergil in dealing with Mundus, he discovers more about himself and his past, while gaining more and more of his powers. The storyline gives itself room to have some satire against the modern addiction of media and on obesity pandemic. Underneath the layer of human faced that Mundus has created, there is a darker demonic world of Limbo which influences the human world in many ways, such as natural disasters or acts of terrorism, as painted by demons about Dante, which is known to the human world as a world-class criminal and a dangerous terrorist. Limbo is absolutely beautiful though, and the visuals are breath-taking with gripping environmental setpieces that is involved in the tory and gameplay as well.

Unfortunately for a story such as this, it cuts itself surprisingly short. The game only took less that 8 hours for me, and while playing one could have appreciated a little more backstory and depth to the story framework that was already very well-built.

In conclusion, I would urge people to keep an open mind and try out this game without referencing it to previous Devil series. DmC is a great game that can stand on its own, and if you can allow that, you might find yourself hooked to the game.

Verdict: 8/10