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Devil May Cry 3

When it was first introduced, Devil May Cry was touted as the “all-original, PS2-exclusive” series – along with Onimusha – that was supposed to make us forgive and forget that Capcom had taken Resident Evil and Dino Crisis away from Sony platforms. In large part, sore feelings aside, Devil May Cry did exactly that, delivering an all-new series with an all-new engine that delivered a new type of horror-based survival-action game. What made DMC so successful was that, after years of complaints about Capcom titles featuring 2D control schemes in 3D games as seen in Resident Evil, Dino Crisis and even to some extent Onimusha, DMC was the first title of its type from Capcom to truly deliver a 3D control scheme – and the freedom of movement, the ease of controls, made it an instant hit; no longer were gamers dying due to awkward controls schemes; they were capable of kicking butt and taking names and if they died, it was a matter of skill and strategy, not wonky controls.

But it wasn’t just great controls that made DMC appealing; it was the cool-as-hell main character, Dante, who had a great look and a Clint Eastwood-style, man-of-few-words approached that made gamers want to spend hours playing through the game as the former demon turned motorcycle-riding detective. So, what happened with DMC2? *shudder* It’s best we don’t even speak if it. For one thing, Dante became a chatty Cathy and for another thing – the most important reason – the story just didn’t play well. And when the story sucks, it’s hard to draw gamers in. Those of you who skipped DMC2 may feel left out, not knowing what we’re talking about; you’re missing nothing worth experiencing, folks. Those of us who’ve been there and survived are like war vets; talking about it is about as appealing as talking about bowel movements; we’d just rather not, thanks.

So the gigantic question with DMC3: Dante’s Awakening was this: will it go back to its cool-as-hell roots, or follow in the burn-in-hell footfalls of DMC2. Fortunately, I can report that the game is closer to the former than the latter. The game opens with a hot, full-of-particle-effects FMV of Dante and his previously unmentioned twin brother as they are locked in spectacular battle. An affecting voiceover tells the legend of the two brothers and their epic struggle, ending with a visual that suggests Dante, not his brother, is destined to fall in the end. Good mind-messover! I’m willing to keep going.

Skip to the game’s true start as we establish Dante as he’s just opened his private eye office. A “first client” comes in and it’s a demonic messenger with a missive from Dante’s bro, who we now know is his twin and still stands on the side of evil, just as Dante stands on the side of fighting for humanity. Of course, the messengers lead to your first hyper-fast, hyper-cool battle. Barely five minutes in, and we’re kicking butt? Kick butt! Now, this is the kind of formula that made the first DMC game great. But can it hold up as the game unfolds?

There have been enough changes to the game that it pays, the first time through, to enable the tutorial mode; most importantly, it’ll clue you in to the new “My Dante” personality system, that, among other things, lets you focus Dante’s skill progression. When I first heard of this system in theory, I’ll admit it sounds a bit snarky. So I can concentrate on sword skills? That’s fine, but Dante needs his guns, too, to really be Dante. Not to worry, though. It really is a system that just focuses your skill progression, not the skills available to you during a gaming session. No matter which “personality” you choose for Dante, all his abilities are always available to you. Like gun-toting Dante? Cool. Your skill progression in that personality profile will focus on advancing for gun skills above all else. But if you need a sword, it’s there; you’re just not getting as many supermoves, or leveling up in your sword skills as quickly as in your gun skills.

There are advantages to focusing on each of the four initially-available personalities available in game play, but you’ll have versatility no matter which you choose. Personally, I have come to like the evasive-focused Dante; if Dante’s harder to catch, harder to hit, he’s harder to kill, which comes in handy against level bosses. But there’s definite appeal in getting some extra sword tricks or gunplay displays. It’s not a bad idea to mix it up a little bit, even if you focus primarily on one style of Dante-play. The catch is this; through much of the game, you can only change Dante-styles between levels, so there’s a limit to how many opportunities you’ll have to mix it up.

Graphically, the DMC series has always been rock solid, but this time out is a high watermark, not just because it’s the most recent installment but because Capcom has responded to feedback and attempted to move some of Dante’s cooler moves out of FMV and into actual game play. The effort has paid off, but in response the FMV folks have taken their game up a notch, to show off some timing and effects that still can’t be replicated by a gamer in actual combat within the game; ah well, the cooler-moves Dante is still a vast improvement over the more standard-moves Dante of the previous two games. The series has a higher eye-candy factor than ever before.

In terms of progressing through the game, the flood of standard enemies is as impressive as ever, but the boss battles have been upgraded in terms of challenge. Whether on easy, normal or one of the unlockable hard levels of play, bosses present a challenge that will test your skills of recognizing patterns, responding quickly to erratic behaviors, fast attacks and skillful jump-and-evades. Unlike some adventure games, like last summer’s Spiderman 2, which has each boss one-dimensionally teach you a certain skills, DMC3’s bosses are three-dimensional in more ways than just graphics; yes, they have behavior patterns you can learn, but there’s been some room allowed for erratic behavior in the AI, raising the challenge level since you can’t completely depend on a behavior pattern to coordinate your attack. It’s an example of sweet game play design, not just sweet graphics.

Of course, the hook that makes any game of this type rise (DMC) or fall (DMC2) is the story; fortunately, this time out DMC3 has a classic theme of brotherly bonds and brotherly rivalry, a theme that fits Dante as a character, flows out of who he is naturally and keeps the game driving toward a final, emotion-laden confrontation in much the same way that SquareEnix pulled off with Final Fantasy X’s father-son theme. As the game unfolds, you begin to understand more and more of what motivates Dante and what has formed him into who he is today. Typically, prequels are anticlimactic because “no one you already know can ever die.” While that may be true, the skill behind the storytelling of DMC3 is that Capcom has whipped up a tale that matters to Dante and keeps the emotional stakes high enough throughout that the dramatic failing of all prequels is no barrier. Well done.

In the end, DMC3 is an adrenaline-laden, horror-inspired action game that has rediscovered its sense of cool after a series misstep last time out. Graphically superior with an enhanced combat engine that pulls super-cool moves out of FMV and allows you to pull off the same sort of slick moves adds fresh appeal to a series that needed a strong bounce-back title to keep the series vital. Capcom has succeeded, as DMC3: Dante’s Awakening is not only a vast improvement over DMC2, but is arguably better than the very first, classic Devil May Cry title. If the series can stay on track from here on out, ol’ Beelzebub will be in need of Kleenexes well into the PS3 generation.

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Tags: Devil May Cry 3

Posted by Craig "American Idle" Hansen on Apr 7th, 2005 and is filed under PS2 Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.

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