Dante’s back in his demon slaying exploits and this time he brings along the entire house that made him an icon during the last generation on the PlayStation 2. Devil May Cry 4 begins with your everyday demon slaying action that has brought millions to pledge their souls to the series.
The game takes place on a distant land in the castle town of Fortuna where a group called “The order of the sword” worships the demon slayer Sparda (for the yet to be initiated demon slayer this is Dante’s father) during one such religious gathering which marks the day of their annual “festival of the sword”. A stranger (Dante) sprang out of no-where to disrupt and assassinates the head of the order.
During the course of these events the game familiarizes you with a guy called Nero (who quaintly resembles Vergil). He is sent to find out and assassinate this so called mysterious man and thus he begins his quest. The game starts off with quite a bang putting this new guy who you are going to control for one part of the game, and your first foe is no low demon but the legendary Dante himself.
Players might feel a little deceived at the sight like I was initially, but in due course of time I would have preferred to play as Nero than Dante for rest of the game. Now why would I make such a choice when Dante looks, feels and is hell lot cooler than Nero in every possible way!?
The answer lies in Nero’s Devil Bringer move that multiplies the fun factor of the entire game. This kiddo’s devil arm can be used for insane combos, snatching and grabbing enemies and items that stray far from the screen or are otherwise impossible to get. During Boss battles this arm can be used to pull of stylish combos that are not only crucial in bashing up your enemy but are also extremely stylized action set pieces.
Even Nero’s Red Queen moves are something to die for especially once you get hold of the fuel injection system. This allows Nero to charge up his blade upto three different levels and according unleashes a powerful set of combos. Just revving up the darn thing makes you feel out of this world.
Dante on the other hand comes equipped with his regular Rebellion sword and comes with all four styles introduced in DMC3. Gunslinger, Swordmaster, Royalgaurd and Trickster, plus his regular arsenal of new weapons that he acquires via the boss battles. The Gilgamesh will remind veterans of the “Ifrit” that Dante got as an upgrade in the original Devil May Cry and the Pandora’s box morphs into different projectile weapons, but majority of the game is played using his trademark guns Ebony and Ivory. Lucifer is like a “proximity mine” that explodes on coming in contact with the enemy.
Capcom has not made any significant changes to the gameplay. It’s essentially more of hack slash and morph and hack and slash even more. But this is now done in glorious 60 fps which not only accentuates the entire feel of an action slasher but also feels immensely satisfying when terribly frustrated with the incongruities of the real world. The combo machine that drives the entire game has been stylized and upgraded to a hardcore gamers delight and will keep people satiated for majority of the time.
Now the game does have its fair share of flaws. Let’s start with the camera system, this is what takes the fun out of the entire game, frequently changing camera angles are quite bothersome when roaming around the game world, although they usually work fine during battles. This is something that feels awkward cause most games in this generation have a user-controlled camera, Capcom’s other franchises like Resident Evil 4 for instance also allowed for a much more convenient camera position. This is something that these guys need to make serious amends to.
Exploration and a significant amount of backtracking make the entire experience extremely monotonous. It seems majority of the time was spent perfecting the combo system but Capcom absolutely forgot about level design. The player is bound to get irritated when he has to backtrack a significant portion of the game when he assumes the role of Dante. The low-resolution shadows during the Jungle portion of the game are a sight for really sore eyes, think Splinter Cell running on the PS2. The puzzles in the game are a rehash from previous iterations and the little dice game that springs up is also quite a drag.
The worst bit are the bosses. You face the same set of bosses thrice, yes thrice, once as Nero, once as Dante and then Nero again. Capcom really needs to hire some creative lead to grant an extension to the dying level design and overall structure of the game.
I also had a minor issue with the controls. This is no fanboy rant. I’ve played all three games on the PS2 and this morph to the Xbox 360 although extremely smooth has a hitch, when it comes to controls, there are hassles when you need to shift between styles for Dante and revving up the Red Queen for Nero. The occasional Dante-Nero switch during the game also gets to you after a point.
FINAL WORD:
The entire game feels like playing a souped up version of the original Devil May Cry and its third iteration, which is not necessarily a bad thing but it isn’t a good thing either. But the series is bound to fall if proper steps are not taken to introduce a fresh batch of creativity to the series. This is the best action game that has been released during this year and should keep people trigger-happy for quite some time. If anyone finds “Sparda” as an unlockable do let me know cause I fell in love with the sword introduced in the original.
Better than: Devil May Cry 3
Worse than: God of War 2
–Neelesh Mukherjee