Devil May Cry 4 is Capcom's newest installment in the established Devil May Cry (DMC) series. Unlike most gamers though, my experience with the franchise was previously limited to a small piece of the first game (Dante must be used to getting impaled by now). What that means for all of you is that I'm going into this game with fairly fresh eyes.
Overview:
Devil May Cry 4 stars a new character to the franchise, Nero, whose slash-shoot style of gameplay is reminiscent to Dante's. Nero is a member of the mysterious Order of the Sword and is part of an elite group that protects the leader of the Order. The Order of the Sword worship Dante's Father, Sparda who was a powerful demon warrior who turned his back on evil. The storyline is set in motion when Dante (at this point known as "the man in red") assassinates the leader of the Order of the Sword. After a brief encounter, the chase is on to find Dante and figure out just what is his problem.
Presentation:
Upon popping the game disc for the first time on your Playstation 3, you will notice that you can't play the game unless you download 4.9GB worth of data onto your harddrive. Unfortunately, this will take you about 20-25 minutes. On the plus side, the game runs a slideshow-like video in the background, explaining the overall DMC storyline. This will really help gamers new to the series get acquainted. The next thing that will instantly stand out is the direction of the cutscenes. The action is really well made and some of the camera angles are reminiscent of the 100 Agent Smith fight from The Matrix Reloaded. Cutscenes were directed by Yuji Shimomura, action director of films such as Versus and Alive. From then on out, the presentation is really good. Menus have an interesting style and the in-game/cutscene sound production is really well done. For evidence of this, just listen closely to the sound quality during one of the boss fights.
Graphics are pretty much on par with the high-quality of the rest of the game. My only complaint in this department is that this game suffers from acute Call-of-Duty-2-itis. What I mean is that for such insane level/art design and textures, not much is destructible. For example, a few plates on a table can be slashed, but the table itself can take hits like you aren't even there. Also, strangely, there are no bullet-holes when you shoot things. Aside from this, the game is visually pleasing and has sick character design on top of that.
Gameplay:
The gameplay is basically the popular hack-slash-shoot formula that has you beating demons into a fine paste. Your main weapons are Red Queen (sword) and Blue Rose (revolver). By pressing L2, you can charge up your exceed gauge in order to deal extra damage to enemies with either the gun or sword. These weapons can all be upgraded in order to add new features as well as new moves to your repertoire. For example, you can collect Proud Souls (collectable orbs) to a new combo. This upgrade system keeps everything fresh so you won't be doing the same slash-slash-jump combo over and over. In addition to these weapons, Nero has his demonically possessed arm known as the Devil Bringer. This thing is a demonic Swiss-army knife that can grab enemies, activate certain objects, grab grapple points and charge up your weapons (plus more). The Devil Bringer adds yet another fun aspect to the level of depth in the puzzles and combat.
Dante is also available as a playable character, albeit for a small portion of the game. Dante still uses his signature Ebony and Ivory pistols, as well as his sword, Rebellion. Also, Dante has four fighting styles which can be switched on-the-fly. Lastly, the game has added features such as different levels of difficulty, ranking lists, galleries, accomplishments (similar to Xbox Achievements) and SIXAXIS camera control. Speaking of which, the camera is the only thing that was disappointing. The camera doesn't work well when you are inside small rooms, sometimes getting in the way of the action. When passing through doorways, the shifting camera angles can be an annoyance as well. If you are holding the thumbstick down on the controller, all of a sudden you may have to switch to up. Also, for some reason it doesn't like getting too close to Nero, so there will be times when you can hear enemies near you, but you can't see them because the camera is stuck on a wall. Overall, this problem isn't a fatal blow to the game play, just an annoyance at times.
Buy it, Rent it or Hardcore Only?
Buy it. This game truly caught me by surprise. While I am not normally a fan of single-player games, Devil May Cry 4 is definitely worth the purchase if you can live without multiplayer. The sheer quality of the entire package makes it easy to recommend and you will definitely thank yourself for making the purchase.
Note: I did a comparison of the graphics between the full game on the PS3 and the Xbox 360 demo. As far as I can tell, the graphics are identical and deliver the same punch.
