Devil May Cry 4: Odd #s > Even #s
Back in 2001, Devil May Cry changed the action game with slick combat and tons of style. In 2003, Devil May Cry 2 became one of the most disappointing sequels in gaming history. And in 2005, Devil May Cry 3 returned the series to form and brought it, in my opinion, to its peak. Now in 2008, Devil May Cry 4 was released, and a trend seems to be developing. While not the colossal failure of 2, Devil May Cry 4 starts establishing the trend of the odd numbered DMC games being better than the even numbered ones.
While what I just said may sound like this game is headed for 3 stars or worse, I want to say that I don't hate the game. Its filled with more of the awesome demonic combat that made the series great. It is the core focus of DMC 4. A new combat mechanic in the form of a demon arm attached to a new character named Nero have been added to this installment. The demon arm or Devil Bringer, can grab enemies and throw them in a very brutal and satisfying way into the ground or other enemies. The original two parts of combat, the guns and the swords also return with some slight tweaks. The guns are now easier to charge up to create more bullet damage, while Nero's sword has an exceed meter that allows the player to create more powerful strikes with the many, MANY sword techniques. Along with Nero, the main character of the past games Dante, becomes playable in the second half of the game. Dante's combat has been tweaked as well. Separate combat styles were introduced with a clunky menu system and limited switch points in DMC 3, but in DMC 4, the player can switch to any one of Dante's combat styles just by pressing the D pad. This is a welcome adjustment and helps the battles move much more smoothly.
Devil May Cry 4 continues the tradition of having a large selsction of combat moves that can all be used to create combos. These techniques have to be purchased, and this is the first place where DMC 4 falls down a little. An extra currency called Proud Souls has been added to purchase techniques, completely separated now from health and energy items which are purchased with red orbs. While this would be helpful if the game was hatefully difficult, its not, which is to the game's benefit. It has some challenge, but nowhere near the amount of curse word enducing, controller throwing frustration that was present in the previous games, especially DMC 3. The harder difficulties forced people to spend an increasing amount of red orbs on health items, leaving techniques in the dust more. While an extra currency would have been welcome then, the reduced difficulty just makes getting new moves long and frustrating.
Another part of DMC 4 that seems to have slipped a bit is the story. The scripts of previous games, except for 2, have always been well written given that the writers are not native speakers of English, and DMC 3's writing actually sounded like it was written by English speakers because it flowed well and didn't sound very cheesy. The writing of DMC 4, however suffers because it has more than one main character. Dante and Nero have almost the exact same personality. In fact the script sounds like it was originally written for Dante, but then they added Nero and decided not to change anything. This, and the lower quality writing in general, makes the game sound like a B movie and not a story with cohesive, believable characters. Two other characters return from previous games as well, but they provide almost nothing to the story and just serve as extras. What story is there though is done with well directed cutscenes and some touching moments despite the dialogue, and even though there are stories in games this year much worse than Devil May Cry 4 (*cough* Dark Sector *cough*) this is the one area where DMC 4 seems to have sunk the most.
The final part might be more of a nitpick, but it does bring Devil May Cry 4 down more in my opinion. DMC 3 introduced an arena mode after the single player mode was complete. The player went through multiple waves of enemies and met all the bosses over again. PLayers also had the option of going up levels in increments of 1, 10, or 100. The fights increased in difficulty until Dante lost all his health. The arena returns in DMC 4, but the difference is that the player takes all the levels in order and on a timer AND now that there are two characters, some scenarios appear easy with one and almost impossible with the other, not to mention that the rewards from the mode are too cheap to even mention. This just makes the arena mode frustrating and a waste of data.
After all these complaints, I still say that despite all I said here, Devil May Cry 4 is still a very good stylish action game of 2008. Fans, like myself will like it while others who enjoyed DMC 1 or 3 might not because Dante is not the sole main character or becuase the story is not up to their expectations. But if players look past what makes it lacking in the presence of greatness like DMC 3, Devili May cry 4 will turn out to be a satisfying game to get your stylish action fix.
- 4 Stars.
