Devil May Cry 4

Review from AJ - Thursday, 24 April 2008 @ 1:46pm

I just don’t know about Devil May Cry 4. I’m gonna get flamed for this review for sure, I just know it. Let me first start by pointing out that I’m not a Playstation fanboy. I owned a Playstation, and a Playstation 2, but the games just never really did it for me. As such, I never got into Metal Gear, I never got into Silent Hill, I never got into Resident Evil, I sorta got into Final Fantasy but I certainly never got into Devil May Cry. Now, I can hear all the fanboys going nuts at me right now but hear me out. I have played all of those games at least once. But when the Xbox came out, I switched platform and hence never saw anything beyond the first or second title of each series. The same reason Japanese gamers fail to get into the Xbox is the same reason I fail to get into Playstation. The big name Japanese developers like Squaresoft, Capcom, Polyphony Digital, and Konami are all synonymous with the Playstation brand. Not being a big PS fan has meant that I never really got into those brands, it’s as simple as that. It’s probably a chicken or the egg argument, but it’s important to clarify my position before I start.

One thing all of those great games have in common for me is that I loved them all for precisely half the game. I’ve played every one of those games, and I don’t think I finished any of them. Capcom games particularly for me follow a definite formula which I just find dull. The formula is pretty simple. Big cut scene intro with loads’o’cool action sequences, followed by long dialogue sequences which bore you to tears. Then get out into the world and mash mash mash until you get to the next cut scene. Get upgraded gear/learn new combos. Get out and mash mash until you get to the next cut scene. Rinse and repeat for a few levels. Just when you’re about to get bored and throw the game away, fight a big boss to get you interested again. Then back to another cut scene of you killing said boss, followed by long dialogue, and then we start over again. Every one of these games I’ve played follows the same formula. YAWN.



Cinematics are great, but when the best part of the game is a movie of your character doing a heap of cool stuff, well I start to get a little annoyed. How about letting ME play the damned game hey?? For me, that was the first big stumbling block with Devil May Cry. Every awesome fight scene is taken out of your hands and rendered as a cinematic. If I wanted to watch a movie, I’d buy a DVD. Actually, come to think of it, that is kind of amusing when you consider that these days my PS3 is almost exclusively a media centre anyway. I’ve long been a campaigner of getting rid of cut scenes. I tolerate them when it helps progress the story line, but I really can’t tolerate it when the developer is actually saying, "oh we wanted you to play a really cool fight here, but actually our game isn’t good enough to let you fight like that, so if it is ok, we’ll show you a video of what we dreamed about building but were just too lazy to". Screw that.

Oh yeah, the review! I found it interesting that the main character in Devil May Cry 4 is a new guy named Nero, instead of the old Dante. Even though I wasn’t a huge fan of the series, Dante was definitely a pretty awesome anti-hero. I don’t know what was so wrong with Dante that they felt the need to replace him, relegating him to cameo status, but given I have no overwhelming love for him it was no skin off my nose. Not that you could tell the difference as they are all but identical, excluding Nero’s blue "devil bringer" hand and his weapons of choice the "Blue Rose" and "Red Queen". You do eventually get to play as Dante, complete with his old special moves, his twin pistols and sawn-off shotgun. But it isn’t any more than about a quarter of the game, which will disappoint his loyal fans.

Nero’s Blue Rose is a gun, by the way, and being a Capcom game it is of course upgradeable. The Red Queen is a sword with a motorbike engine attached... but a small one...and it’s also upgradeable. Okay sure, why not. Being the new guy, Nero brings some new tricks with him to try and freshen up the series. He has plenty of new moves and styles which make him a bit of a change for those of you who have played all the previous titles in the series. In a lot of ways I felt the devil bring hand made some levels feel a little bit too much like Mario Galaxy, and a lot of the levels felt more than a little forced with this new weapon as the gimmick to hold it altogether. Actually, the devil bringer can be used to create some pretty damned cool combos involving throwing the enemy about like a toy all the while smashing it to bits with your sword or gun. The motorbike sword "thing", is actually also pretty neat once you get the hang of it. I’d imagine that someone from Gillette was involved in the making of this game, because the whole concept is remarkably similar to the Gillette Fusion battery powered blade razor. And just like how I don’t quite understand how a vibrating blade assists shaving, I don’t quite understand how a motorbike throttle on a sword is supposed to assist in carving up enemies. Perhaps they just don’t get a rash.



Like most other Capcom games, one of the things you must do is collect floating orbs. Orbs in this game, rather than powering your environmental suit like in Lost Planet, allow you to buy new skills or items. The cool by-product of this requirement is the addition of several mini-game type "secret missions" which require you to complete a certain combo or some other feat within a certain time limit to be rewarded with more orbs. These are certainly an entertaining break from the rest of the game.

On the surface of it, this should be a great game. Well, no, it IS a great game, "if you’re into that kind of thing". I never got games which require “combos”, and this one is no exception. If you get into Street Fighter, then combo it up baby... go nuts. But given that I play a game for a day or two, and then come back to it a week or so later, remembering combos is somewhat of a pain the ass. Don’t get me wrong, combos are fun. I just hate having to remember stuff when I sit down to play a game. You don’t have to use the combos, as the game does have a dumbass mode which has you just pressing X a lot. The problem with this is that if you aren’t doing combos, you’re just mashing... and mashing isn’t fun.

The game itself is spectacular to look at. The environments are some of the best I’ve seen on a console, the characters and monsters look amazing, and the fights are always high pressure slash-fests. In this way, Devil May Cry shares a lot in common with other Capcom titles like Dead Rising, Resident Evil and Lost Planet. Whilst each have their distinct flavour, the underlying feel of the game is very similar. That is pretty much enough to judge whether you will like the game. If you historically like Capcom games, then this one certainly won’t be an exception. To be honest, if we gave games ratings, I would have to rate DMC4 a pretty damned high score, as technically it is a great game. It’s definitely worthy of the eights and nines that it has been getting all around the web. Giving a score requires a great deal of objectivity, and if we gave scores here this review would be totally different. But we don’t, and it isn’t, and I don’t have to be objective, and I didn’t like the game. If you think I’m being harsh, just be glad I didn’t rant about the required installation as well.



As I said at the top of the review, I’m not a Capcom fan. If you loved the earlier Devil May Cry games, this is definitely another one, and that will be enough for you. A mate of mine absolutely raves about this game, so I have no doubt that it just missed the mark with me. I’m cool with that. Games are like wine and movies. What one person loves, the next person may hate. That makes it hard to review a game like this. I know that DMC4 is actually a top notch AAA game. But I just don’t like it. It is hard to appreciate the wonderful graphics when you’re sitting there with your eyes closed mashing buttons while the games protagonist leaps about all over the screen like a teenage "emo" Yoda on speed yelling, "yeeeeeeaaAA YA. yeeeeeaaaaAAA YA."

Summary

Devil May Cry 4 is an awesome game which I totally failed to enjoy. I don’t know if it was its fault or mine, but we both walked away unhappy. For most normal people, I’m sure this game is the bee’s knees, for me it was a button mashing snoozefest.

Pros

Spectacular scenery. Exciting battles. Seriously over the top combos.

Cons

Repetitive. Cut scenes are the highlight. Forced installation!?!?.