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PreviousDevil May Cry 4 Review
Xbox 360 PlayStation 3 Review by Kristan Reed
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It's almost three years since the last Devil May Cry, with its self-consciously angsty Emo shapes. Despite its awful music and dialogue, we were happy to dish out 8/10 for what was one of the best hackandslash fighting systems around. It wasn't a big step up, but it didn't need to be. It just needed better balance, and to make us forget about the awful second instalment. Refining the 2001 original into something truly fleshed out and compelling, it did the job.
That said, a lot's happened in the last three years, not least the arrival of next generation consoles with a larger, unforgiving audience, and some serious competition from two God of War games - all of which may have had some bearing on how DMC4 has turned out, whatever Hiroyuki Kobayashi says. The Capcom of old was happy to back a single-platform release, start the game's difficulty on 'hard' and expect players to admire its work, but this one has to retain its loyal following while opening DMC to a wider audience.
The first step was the most obvious: make it a multiformat title from launch day - a concept to which Capcom's been strangely resistant. Second sensible decision: make it accessible from the start rather than beating players around the head. It might irk the hardcore to see their beloved series being compromised, but Capcom's decision to offer 'Human' or 'Devil Hunter' difficulty from the off - and, gasp, a tutorial - is the sign of a developer chasing and trying to retain an audience in a mature way. All too aware of shortening attention spans, DMC4 is eminently playable even if you're a self-confessed button-masher, yet pretty challenging for series veterans, with a further four difficulties to unlock for the truly committed.
It's hard to be annoyed with a plant. Unless it's trying to eat your face.
So yeah, times change. It's easier from the off, and the move-set is less convoluted, but the payback is that the learning curve is smoother, and the game allows you to make (and alter) upgrade choices without giving you the impression these are bad decisions. Someone at Capcom has gone through series conventions with a big red pen, and made sure that a whole host of things that patently weren't fun were kicked out. You can't help love them for bits like 'Auto Skill Up', which selects upgrades for you but still gives you the option of tinkering with them if you change your mind. If you want to admit you're a ham-fisted, combo-fearing 'Novice', it'll select the moves best suited to hammering the buttons. If you're rather more proficient with your finger gymnastics, then you can go for a more demanding set of moves. The best thing about this approach is that there's always the option to cash in old upgrades and try something else (check out some combat footage from early on in the game on EGTV).
As you'll no doubt be aware from the endless previews and trailers over the past 30-odd months, DMC4 is the real sequel to the 2001 original - in chronological terms, at least. The big news is that surly newcomer Nero is the lead character, although he appears to go to the same barber and tailor as Dante. The game starts with the cocksure Dante bursting into a church and killing the leader of religious group The Order of the Sword. This prompts the incredulous Nero to give chase and seek revenge.
Like Dante, Nero is blessed with angst, and a nice line in grumpy quips. Just like all the other DMC games, the result is unbearably, self-consciously serious narrative interludes with chiselled looks, intricate Gothic attire, floppy fringes and frowns as standard-issue. It's still entertaining, but perhaps not for the reasons intended. However, if you've played any of the others, you'll know exactly what you're in for, and there's no denying that the actual quality of the choreography, animation and detail levels are exceptional. But as much as Capcom likes to devote so much effort to creating quality FMV sequences, we're here for DMC's intriguing blend of swords and guns.
Never a hair out of place. Perhaps he's a L'Oreal men expert.
Strange, then, that Nero's Blue Rose double-barrelled revolver is actually a bit weedy compared with Dante's equivalent firearm. The emphasis here is much more on Nero's Devil Bringer attack, and its ability to project a spectral arm out ahead of him. As well as being able to grab hold of enemies in the air (and smash them down), you can use it to propel Nero around the environment at speed, although this is limited to a few pre-determined areas where you'll be able to grab onto glowing blue blobs. Another new addition is the 'Exceed' system - the ability to 'rev up' your Red Queen sword, charge it up three times and unleash a red-hot powerful blow, except despite much experimentation, frenzied combat reduced charging opportunities too much to get a handle on it. Your mileage may vary.
A better idea is switching between slashing with the uncharged Red Queen and using the grapple powers of the Devil Bringer, locking on, and varying attacks depending on the type of enemy. Some aerial enemies have to be grabbed first with the Devil Bringer, then slashed furiously once they're on the ground. Others, you might need to actually jump up first, grab onto the enemy, and then pull off a combo mid-air, perhaps before finishing them off in a flurry of slashing steel on the ground. If you've got enough magic charged up, you'll gain access to the Devil Trigger, which in simple terms makes Nero faster and more powerful for a brief period, and proves a useful way of draining enemy health quickly. As ever, it's satisfying once you become confident with the broader move-set. The greater emphasis on aerial combat, new weapons, a different upgrade system and different enemy types puts a newish spin on the combat, although repetition drags down some of the initial excitement relatively quickly.
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alimokrane
05/02/08 @ 14:25
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DMC4 is £24.99 at gamestation people! so at this price, a 7/10 is more like a 10/10 :D
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The tired gameplay, lacklustre graphics and infuriating camera showcased in the demo really put me off this game. Since the review text then goes on to suggest that those are only some of the game's flaws I'm actually surprised it was worth 7/10. Time for a Resident Evil 4-style reinvention of the series perhaps?
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I'm kind of surprised at the score, was expecting an 8, but it fits with the words of the review so I can't really complain except to say I'm a little disappointed but only a bit.
As the review points out this game is little more a prettier remake of the original games, somewhat dated in design but trying to appeal to casual and hardcore gamers, rather than being a 'proper' reinvention of the series. Still the reduced difficulty and other friendly features Capcom having thoughtfully added to this game means it may be the first DMC game I can actually finish so that's good news for me. I found DMC3 especially frustrating in difficulty but the DMC4 demo seemed just right which the bosses being where the real challenge lay. I'm looking forward to playing it on (hopefully) Thursday as there's no denying it's all very stylish, slick and tongue-in-cheek. The demo definitely made me want to play the full game and the videos I've seen from other sections on Gamersyde only make me want it more. Quite surprising really seeing as I wasn't that fussed over it prior to playing the demo! LOL P.S. Which version was reviewed... 360 or PS3? |
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GordonCaladan
05/02/08 @ 14:39
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It's a shame, really, that the series never lived up to the insane promise of the first title.
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@pjmaybe - A ONE-OFF 20 minute install and then you can play the PS3 version with quicker loading times for the rest of your life. True, the install should really have been optional and it's not a wonderful advert for BD as a console storage media but it's not exactly a big deal when you consider how long you might be actually playing the game for.
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Also, and this is a plus: It runs full-screen on my 4:3 monitor via the VGA cable, rather than the irritating letterboxing I get with Bioshock and the like.
Any chance Eurogamer could start putting info like this in, the same way you guys used to report on the presence of borders etc in PAL releases? Or would that be too much hassle for too few people using VGA cables? |
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FlamingCarrot
05/02/08 @ 14:46
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Ah splendid! More homoerotic demon slashing japery. IGN gave the PS3 the nod over the 360 version out of interest. I enjoyed the first one so will give it a go.
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Diomedes117
05/02/08 @ 14:46
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Great review Kristan, exactly what I thought by playing the demo. It feels like an HD redo of the 2001 original...
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Psychotext
05/02/08 @ 14:50
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@Darren: Just for fun, assuming you see a load screen every 5 mins and the PS3 version loads everything 2 seconds faster... You'd save 24 seconds for every hour played, 4 mins for every 10 hours played, 20 mins for every 50 hours played. So as long as you play for over 50 hours you'll see the benefit of the install time! =)
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To be fair most sequels play the same as the previous games in their series, and that didn't stop Halo 3 getting 10/10
If you mark one game down for being unoriginal then you have to mark them all down for the same crime. Most games I play are the same as the last game in their series Silent hill COD God of war PGR Forza Splinter cell Every JRPG GTA Zelda and so on... originality died along time ago.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 05/02/08 @ 14:53
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@Psychotext - Well when you put it that way, it does make the HDD install sound like a complete waste of time... except that the loading times might have been utterly unbearable had the PS3 game ran straight off the Blu-ray Disc. I suspect that is the real reason for the compulsory install, not that Capcom or Sony would ever admit it. And because no-one can play the PS3 version from the disc there's no way of proving it.
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Grogmonkey
05/02/08 @ 14:56
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I've not picked up a DMC in a while, so I can add on some 'it's still pretty fresh for me' points. Suits me.
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Muddtallica
05/02/08 @ 15:00
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Nick007: Yeah, but what makes a grate sequel is its ability to take old concepts and gamepay staples and reinvigorate and refine them in such a way as to make them feel new again. The best Zeldas, Marios and FFs do that, as do the likes of CoD and GTA; this one just sounds like a simple "new coat of paint, same old engine" job, in the vein of the PSX-era Resis and Tomb Raiders.
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Eighthours
05/02/08 @ 15:00
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When it does things like this, it just feels like a high-def re-skin of a 2001 game design.
This is what I thought about the demo, to be honest. |
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DMC fans can just ignore the reviews and buy it regardless if they liked 1 and 3.
also I love how DMC4 gets slated for being same old with a new engine and stuff like Dynasty Warriors keeps raking in 8/10s, even though those games are mediocrity embodied, even if you like them. Stop giving preferential treatment to games just because you'd like to see them do better over here?
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most recently on 05/02/08 @ 15:05
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Well if Tecmo's lacklustre DOA4 and DOA Xtreme 2 are anything to go by, I'm not expecting Ninja Gaiden 2 to be anything more than Ninja Gaiden 1.5 in HD. I guess that's what the fans want so who can blame Capcom or even Tecmo for sticking to the same successful formulas: it works, it ain't broken, people want it and it sells. Bingo!
The reason this game is multi-format is because of spiralling development costs so it would have been risky had Capcom reinvented the series only to alienate the hardcore fans and produce a game that didn't sell. At least they've attempted to make the game more accessible to casual gamers by dropping the default difficulty, that's terrific news for me. Shame they didn't bother to fix the camera though but from the demo everything else seemed spot on and it's looking like it'll be the first game to impress me this year. |
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Max_Powers
05/02/08 @ 15:15
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I knew it. Demo was very lacklustre and the game is just old with 'sterile' next-gen graphics. God of War just came sailing by it 2 years ago.
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Well EG have always been inconsistent with this "plays the same so it's marked down" business. I suppose it's really down to the reviewer's expectations.
I can't see how anyone expected this to play different from the other DMCs to be honest, and I'm not sure reviewing it on the basis of what you reckon it should be like is a fair thing to do. Oh well, I suppose fans know what they're getting - and ARE getting it anyway. It's just ironic how Dynasty Warriors get away with being the same game over and over at this site because the reviewer's simply decided it's okay in that case. For the record, I am a closet DW fan too, but these are murky waters if some games get special treatment.
Edited 2 times,
most recently on 05/02/08 @ 15:17
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Triggerhappytel
05/02/08 @ 15:18
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Who the Hell proof-read this?
"DMC4 is eminently playable even if you're a self-confessed button-masher, yet pretty challenging for series veterans, with a further four difficulties to unlock for the truly committed." Also, it's not been 'more than seven years' since the original, it's been more than six. I'm not trying to be a know-it-all twat, just a few mistakes I noticed. I'm available to hire as a proof-reader, if you're interested EG ;) |
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rhinoxious
05/02/08 @ 15:24
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Nick007 - I mean what else can they do with it short of turning it into a first-person game?
What they could do is add a larger and more persistent environment with multiple objectives and ways to achieve them. But japanese games design prefers hokey plots and set paths, the japanese love a set path (see any of their home-grown tourist attractions, or those masss coach parrtes that descend on tourist sites in europe) it's all about folliowing the marked path, shared and standardised experiences etc etc. This pattern is then reinforced by repeated completions at harder difficulty level. I loved RE4 but I'm starting to give up on my long-term love affair with big japanese releases. |
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"Just for fun, assuming you see a load screen every 5 mins and the PS3 version loads everything 2 seconds faster... You'd save 24 seconds for every hour played, 4 mins for every 10 hours played, 20 mins for every 50 hours played. So as long as you play for over 50 hours you'll see the benefit of the install time! =)"
It's comparing apples with oranges. During the 20 min install you can do other things while that's not the case whith the two second wait every five minutes. So in the end it allowes for a more efficient use of time. But 20 minutes still seems a bit ridiculous (though numerous PC games take even longer), probably due to Capcom's inexperience with the PS3 hardware. Maybe those idiots just used the regular PC compressed DVD assets and uncompressed them to the HDD or something... Definitely not a title that shows what the PS3 is capable of, that's clear by now. Would have been amazed if it had BTW, given that it's multiplatform. Like the previous gen, in general only the platform exclusives on each system are worth a buy. |
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