Devil May Cry contains many similarities reminiscent to Resident Evil because it was intended to be part four in the sequel, but midway through production someone suggested refashioning it into a whole new game instead. The camera has many of the same characteristics that Resident Evil has such as a static positioning that requires the constant adjustment of the analog stick causing a disorienting feeling for the player; however the camera is positioned farther back giving the player an ample view of what is going on all around the character. The castle and the grounds surrounding the castle where the game takes place are also redolent of the Resident Evil games, although altered the basic feel screams reproduction.
The hero of the game is named Dante, he is a half-human, half-demon private investigator of the super natural who works out of a place called Devil May Cry. Dante is the son of Sparda who was a legendary dark knight that also fought against evil. He carries his father’s sword and one day hopes to avenge the death of his mother and his brother. At the start of the game he meets a woman named Trish who also exhibits superhuman abilities, she asks him to come with her to Mallet Island because something unnatural is going on there. Dante agrees to go, rather grudgingly though, after all he just met her.
Mallet Island is the gateway to the Netherworld, this is where the fun begins. Dante and Trish must scale the walls to reach the entrance of the castle, Trish disappears from Dante’s site and he is now left to his own devises. Once he has entered the castle he finds that all of the doors are locked and he must find a certain number of red orbs in order to gain access to the rest of the castle.
The ultimate evil behind everything is Mundus, the emperor of darkness. Mundus wishes to take over the word and unleash hell upon it. Mundus was once vanquished more than two thousand years ago by Sparda, but now he returns as evil as ever before. Dante has taken over his father’s role as savior of the world even if he does not know it yet he must free the world from Mundus and all of his evil.
Following the path that will eventually lead him to Mundus Dante encounters many other villians that he must slaughter. Some of Dante’s enemies are Sin Scissors who wear long robes, float in the air, and try to kill you with scissors big enough to cut off your head; Sargosso who is a floating skull; Kyklops is a giant spider with a glowing eye; Marionettes are possessed puppets; Sin Scythes are a stronger version of the Sin Scissors; Beelzebubs are giant insects; Blades are reptilian in form, but wear helmets and carry a shield; Fetish have faces similar to birds and carry blades that are on fire; Plasma are glowing blue creatures; Frosts are a stronger version of Blades; and Nobody crawls on the ground with giant claws. The enemies of this game are ingeniously thought out and masterfully crafted into action. Among these enemies there are still boss characters to defeat, they are called Phantom, Nero Angelo, Griffon, Nightmare, and Mundus. The bosses are not easy to defeat and will probably take multiple tries.
Through the game Dante collects orbs that come in five different colors; each color orb corresponds to a different result. The red orbs open unlocked doors and give you power-ups; the green orbs heal you; the purple increase the gauge of the demon mode; the yellow allow you to continue after you die; and the blue increase the life gauge. These orbs are obtained in many different ways, but mostly they are received by killing the enemies. There are also three different colored stars to be aware of, the green stars heal; the yellow make you invincible for awhile; and the purple refill a portion of the demon gauge. They are great to use when fighting a boss character.
When Dante picks up enough red orbs you will get a chance to choose what new moves you would like to learn. Some of these attacks are a kick jump, roll, multi-stroke, high time, stinger, stinger jump, round trip, air hike move, devil mode, air raid, vortex, rolling blaze, magma drive, kick 13, meteor, and inferno. The number of red orbs that are required for each of these moves depends entirely on how strong the move is, the stronger the move the more orbs it will cost you. Along with these attacks Dante picks up bottles of holy water as he goes along which can be used to kill all of the enemies that surround you when you use it. You already know that Dante comes equipped with his father’s sword, but he also comes with two 45’s that he calls ebony and ivory. These guns are so easy to use its like taking candy from a baby at times. He also acquires different guns throughout the game, some of them are really good and some of them it feels like why bother.
During the game you will complete a total of 23 missions and 12 secret missions which really doesn’t take as long as you might think. This game is fairly short, somewhere under ten hours long from start to finish. It comes complete with great visuals that have a more gothic style to it, music that is fitting for each of the scenes, and it runs at 60 frames per second through the entire game. The graphics are stunning, very unique in design, almost flawless. The camera is its major downfall being that it is almost an exact duplicate of the Resident Evil cameras. The camera doesn’t always keep up with the player and everything else that is going on in the game at the same time. The story itself is a little on the hokey side and the missions are all similar to the ones before them; kill the bad guys. There is a little bit of a puzzle to figure out as you progress through the game so it is not all just a matter of following a set path and then killing everything in sight. All in all this is a very good game, hard enough to keep you interested, but not so hard that you get frustrated.
Miranda Stites
HeroesOfGaming.com
“Saving Good People From Bad Games”
http://www.heroesofgaming.com/games/ps2/d/devilmaycry/devilmaycry_rev.htm
