Ninja Theory’s new design of Dante for DmC has stirred up more than a few arguments, but does the gameplay fix all of that?

In the fifth iteration of the Devil May Cry saga, you control a new punk style Dante that doesn’t care for the well being of others. Instead, he is only looking out for himself and his own pleasure. After being attacked by a few grotesque looking demons, Dante is asked by his twin brother Vergil to join “The Order,” an anonymous group that is being blamed by the media for terrorism across the city. Once Dante agrees to join “The Order,” he learns that he and his brother are nephilim, the children of a demon father and an angel mother. Along with being told that Dante and his brother must work together to take down the demon king Mundus, who is watching over humans and controlling their lives with hidden subliminal messages.

Design

The design of DmC is rather linear, with hidden keys that can open hidden doors, each presenting their own challenge and reward. The game lasts around seven hours with 20 missions. In addition to the hidden keys and doors, there are devilishly placed lost souls to increase your completion rating. As Dante increases his arsenal with new moves and weapons, he can also traverse areas that he couldn’t before. The Hidden Doors each lead to a different challenge. In other beat ‘em up games similar to DmC, the challenge would take place in a battle stadium, while in DmC, Dante goes through the obstacles in the miss matched world of limbo, with floating buildings and bottomless pits. At the end of each level there is a rating system to show how well you performed combos and how fast you went through the level. During your first play through  it’s understandable that you may take longer as the designs of the game always place Dante in a beautiful, jaw dropping motif.

Gameplay

As like DmC’s Predecessor’s, Dante must go through the city and cut down all the demons that lay before him, using anything at his disposal. The Combat system has been simplified for new players, with Dante switching between the demon and angel weapons with the trigger buttons and changing guns with the D-pad. Dante starts out with his dual hand guns and his sword; as he slices through bosses he gets different weapons to add to his arsenal. A scythe and a pair of throwing stars are his angel weapons, meant for quick attacks to mow down the demon spawn. A large ax and gauntlets are his demon weapons, using strong slow attacks on specific enemies. The combo system is easy to get into, and satisfying as you see it gradually increase. Unfortunately DmC decided to ditch the lock on feature, you can’t see what your attacking when Dante attacks something that the camera isn’t looking at. Also, Dante’s fighting style is always focused on the enemy in front of him while more demons start to surround him, making the situation hectic and difficult to control.

Presentation

Ninja Theory’s Devil May Cry is nothing short of spectacular, with hyper realistic character cut scenes and the  colorful and demonic levels, as if you were truly pulled into limbo. Sometimes you can get lost just looking at the area around you, as none of the levels look similar to each other.

Some minor problems with the presentation would be the shadow textures during the cut scenes that keep changing, even though the character is standing still, talking. With only this small problem, the graphics in DmC look as if you were actually fighting demons in limbo.

With this, and Dante’s comical one liners, we can see that Ninja Theory hasn’t let us down with this new presentation of the demon killer. Dante’s new look hasn’t stopped him from action-packed events, and thankfully the fans can see that their pizza loving nephilim is still alive and kicking. The game gets nine out of 10 stars.