Devil May Cry 4 is, predictably enough, the fourth game in the Devil May Cry series,. It?s the first game in the series not to be exclusive to the PlayStation, so finally, Microsoft aficionados get to experience the campy slack-jawed fun that is the DMC franchise.
Now, I like clever things. I like fresh ideas, I like compelling stories and I like realistic characters. However, due to a finely tuned sense of irony, I also like things that are so mind-numbingly stupid and over the top, they become awesome again. A good example of this is the movie Kung Fu Hustle, a bad example of this are the Underworld movies and an example that irritatingly defies classification is Devil May Cry 4.
In the Devil May Cry series you play a white haired smart-arse, wielding a sword the size of a park bench and some utterly useless firearms. Using this bizarre compliment of weapons you fight your way through legions of identikit monsters, doing your best to string attacks together without getting hit to generate combos. This carnage is only interrupted by pitched battles with the enormous demons that serve as the game?s bosses. Devil May Cry 4 mixes it up a bit by giving you TWO white haired smart-arses to play as, but otherwise does not deviate from this formula even one iota.
The game opens with a long cinematic which introduces us to new boy Nero and then does a quick tour of most of the major NPCs. In brief, a mysterious stranger, who would be a lot more mysterious if it wasn?t bloody Dante, murders the kindly old man who predictably turns out to be evil while the misguided but honourable knight and the plucky, impulsive hero watch in dismay and the brave and sweet damsel in distress gasps in horror. Archetypes are one thing, but these characters are so one-dimensional they shouldn?t be able to exist in our universe. Later on you get to add a mad scientist and an overtly sexual femme fatale to the line-up, which is good, because it?s always nice to have a full set of stereotypes.
The plot is similarly perfunctory. The various convolutions are so obvious they might as well be adorned with neon signs and a carnival barker. The only surprise came when one character turned out to be a character from an earlier game in disguise, but the only reason I didn?t see it coming is that I had forgotten that character had ever existed. You get the feeling that Capcom are trying, but they just aren?t very good at this sort of thing.
But as easy as it is to make fun of the shallowness of the story and characters, it?s not entirely fair. The plot is invariably going to be the weakest part of this kind of game and to condemn it is like condemning Tiny Tim for not being a very good dancer. The real meat and drink of any of the games in the Devil May Cry series is the combat and Devil May Cry 4 does pretty well in that respect. The actual mechanics of pushing buttons is blissfully uncomplicated. You have one button to leap tall buildings in a single bound, one button to swing your oversized, novelty sword, one button to fire your woefully underpowered gun and another button to use whatever special power you might have. The various special attacks are performed either by changing the timing of your button presses or by locking on and pushing the stick in a certain direction as you attack. The animations that accompany your button presses are gorgeous, especially the special attacks that Dante performs as part of his styles and it really helps to cement the idea that the characters you are controlling are slick and competent combatants rather than the mouth-breathing dunces some of their dialogue implies.
Of the two characters, Dante is the more fun to play as. As in previous games, he can equip a variety of ?Devil Arms? and seems like Capcom have decided to have some fun with them this time round. It?s hard not to like a backpack that contains an infinite number of exploding pink needles and a flamenco soundtrack or a pair of unholy cowboy boots that come with a jetpack. The styles from Devil May Cry 3 make a return as well, and you can change between them instantly by pressing the appropriate direction on the D-Pad. It makes for a fluid and dynamic combat system that you can tailor to your own playing style. Nero, by comparison, is dull. He uses the same weapons throughout the game and his special power is the arm he borrowed from Reed Richards. The only other special ability he picks up is his Devil Trigger and it takes about six levels for him to get it. It?s worth mentioning though, that you don?t really notice how badly Nero gets the shaft because the game wisely has you play as him first, and leaves Dante as a nice surprise.
So to recap, we have a plot that has the depth of a puddle, but pretty cool combat, which is, let?s face it, the reason people play Devil May Cry games. Surely that means that Devil May Cry 4 is a good game overall? Well, sort of, as there are other points that need to be mentioned.
The cut scenes, at least for me, are one of the most infuriating parts of the game. When the characters are fighting, the energy and sheer awesomely ridiculous action make the cinematics a joy to watch. Sadly, the enchanting effect is somewhat ruined when the characters open their mouths and a wave of smugness pours out. Dante comes off the best, as he is a least ONLY smug, whereas Nero oscillates between smugness and emo whinging with every alternate step.
The game also suffers from some earth-shatteringly bad design decisions. The level design follows the ?Grand Old Duke of York? school of thought, in that it marches you up to the top of the hill, then marches you back down again, forcing you to replay all of the levels in reverse order. Similarly, all bar one of the bosses are fought multiple times, in exactly the same way, and mostly in exactly the same place. The first time you fight Berial, Conqueror of the Fire Hell, is fucking cool, but by the third time it?s lost most of its charm. To make matters worse, the camera is unwieldy and all too often is fixed in place. You?d have thought that after more than a decade of making games with ropey cameras, Capcom would be able to figure out what they?re doing wrong.
I could go on pointing out flaws in the game, after all I haven?t mentioned the thinly disguised block pushing puzzles or the inventory system that punishes you for using items, and I haven?t even touched on the board game level that I spent hours on until I rolled the right number on the giant dice, but the only reason to list them all would be catharsis, and this is supposed to be a review, not a therapy session. Suffice to say that the good elements of Devil May Cry 4 are punctuated with so much irritating bullshit that it?s easy to lose sight of the fun you had in the earlier levels.
In conclusion, Devil May Cry 4 is really only for fans of the series. I realise that that is a massive cop out, but it happens to be true. It seems that in making the jump to the next generation of consoles, Capcom bottled it just before the edge and instead decided to play it safe and release a game just like its predecessors. I did finish it, but that had more to do with sheer bloody-mindedness than any desire to see the ending. The replay value is too dependent on the player loving the game, as it offers nothing to reward playing it on the higher difficulty levels aside from bragging rights and personally, I have better things to do than try and compete with the obsessive shut-ins that occupy the top spots on the leader boards. Devil May Cry 4 is a game that I finished, enjoyed in places, but ultimately am going to trade in for something better.
Now, I like clever things. I like fresh ideas, I like compelling stories and I like realistic characters. However, due to a finely tuned sense of irony, I also like things that are so mind-numbingly stupid and over the top, they become awesome again. A good example of this is the movie Kung Fu Hustle, a bad example of this are the Underworld movies and an example that irritatingly defies classification is Devil May Cry 4.
In the Devil May Cry series you play a white haired smart-arse, wielding a sword the size of a park bench and some utterly useless firearms. Using this bizarre compliment of weapons you fight your way through legions of identikit monsters, doing your best to string attacks together without getting hit to generate combos. This carnage is only interrupted by pitched battles with the enormous demons that serve as the game?s bosses. Devil May Cry 4 mixes it up a bit by giving you TWO white haired smart-arses to play as, but otherwise does not deviate from this formula even one iota.
The game opens with a long cinematic which introduces us to new boy Nero and then does a quick tour of most of the major NPCs. In brief, a mysterious stranger, who would be a lot more mysterious if it wasn?t bloody Dante, murders the kindly old man who predictably turns out to be evil while the misguided but honourable knight and the plucky, impulsive hero watch in dismay and the brave and sweet damsel in distress gasps in horror. Archetypes are one thing, but these characters are so one-dimensional they shouldn?t be able to exist in our universe. Later on you get to add a mad scientist and an overtly sexual femme fatale to the line-up, which is good, because it?s always nice to have a full set of stereotypes.
The plot is similarly perfunctory. The various convolutions are so obvious they might as well be adorned with neon signs and a carnival barker. The only surprise came when one character turned out to be a character from an earlier game in disguise, but the only reason I didn?t see it coming is that I had forgotten that character had ever existed. You get the feeling that Capcom are trying, but they just aren?t very good at this sort of thing.
But as easy as it is to make fun of the shallowness of the story and characters, it?s not entirely fair. The plot is invariably going to be the weakest part of this kind of game and to condemn it is like condemning Tiny Tim for not being a very good dancer. The real meat and drink of any of the games in the Devil May Cry series is the combat and Devil May Cry 4 does pretty well in that respect. The actual mechanics of pushing buttons is blissfully uncomplicated. You have one button to leap tall buildings in a single bound, one button to swing your oversized, novelty sword, one button to fire your woefully underpowered gun and another button to use whatever special power you might have. The various special attacks are performed either by changing the timing of your button presses or by locking on and pushing the stick in a certain direction as you attack. The animations that accompany your button presses are gorgeous, especially the special attacks that Dante performs as part of his styles and it really helps to cement the idea that the characters you are controlling are slick and competent combatants rather than the mouth-breathing dunces some of their dialogue implies.
Of the two characters, Dante is the more fun to play as. As in previous games, he can equip a variety of ?Devil Arms? and seems like Capcom have decided to have some fun with them this time round. It?s hard not to like a backpack that contains an infinite number of exploding pink needles and a flamenco soundtrack or a pair of unholy cowboy boots that come with a jetpack. The styles from Devil May Cry 3 make a return as well, and you can change between them instantly by pressing the appropriate direction on the D-Pad. It makes for a fluid and dynamic combat system that you can tailor to your own playing style. Nero, by comparison, is dull. He uses the same weapons throughout the game and his special power is the arm he borrowed from Reed Richards. The only other special ability he picks up is his Devil Trigger and it takes about six levels for him to get it. It?s worth mentioning though, that you don?t really notice how badly Nero gets the shaft because the game wisely has you play as him first, and leaves Dante as a nice surprise.
So to recap, we have a plot that has the depth of a puddle, but pretty cool combat, which is, let?s face it, the reason people play Devil May Cry games. Surely that means that Devil May Cry 4 is a good game overall? Well, sort of, as there are other points that need to be mentioned.
The cut scenes, at least for me, are one of the most infuriating parts of the game. When the characters are fighting, the energy and sheer awesomely ridiculous action make the cinematics a joy to watch. Sadly, the enchanting effect is somewhat ruined when the characters open their mouths and a wave of smugness pours out. Dante comes off the best, as he is a least ONLY smug, whereas Nero oscillates between smugness and emo whinging with every alternate step.
The game also suffers from some earth-shatteringly bad design decisions. The level design follows the ?Grand Old Duke of York? school of thought, in that it marches you up to the top of the hill, then marches you back down again, forcing you to replay all of the levels in reverse order. Similarly, all bar one of the bosses are fought multiple times, in exactly the same way, and mostly in exactly the same place. The first time you fight Berial, Conqueror of the Fire Hell, is fucking cool, but by the third time it?s lost most of its charm. To make matters worse, the camera is unwieldy and all too often is fixed in place. You?d have thought that after more than a decade of making games with ropey cameras, Capcom would be able to figure out what they?re doing wrong.
I could go on pointing out flaws in the game, after all I haven?t mentioned the thinly disguised block pushing puzzles or the inventory system that punishes you for using items, and I haven?t even touched on the board game level that I spent hours on until I rolled the right number on the giant dice, but the only reason to list them all would be catharsis, and this is supposed to be a review, not a therapy session. Suffice to say that the good elements of Devil May Cry 4 are punctuated with so much irritating bullshit that it?s easy to lose sight of the fun you had in the earlier levels.
In conclusion, Devil May Cry 4 is really only for fans of the series. I realise that that is a massive cop out, but it happens to be true. It seems that in making the jump to the next generation of consoles, Capcom bottled it just before the edge and instead decided to play it safe and release a game just like its predecessors. I did finish it, but that had more to do with sheer bloody-mindedness than any desire to see the ending. The replay value is too dependent on the player loving the game, as it offers nothing to reward playing it on the higher difficulty levels aside from bragging rights and personally, I have better things to do than try and compete with the obsessive shut-ins that occupy the top spots on the leader boards. Devil May Cry 4 is a game that I finished, enjoyed in places, but ultimately am going to trade in for something better.
