Devil May Cry 4 will be my third game this season with a 4 in its name followed by GTA4 and MGS4. Unfortunately, it does not hold even a single LED sized light to those two giants. Console users might’ve already tried and exhausted Dante’s latest outing and now PC users finally got their chance to slay demons. Yes, Dante is back on PC and is faster, better and smoother. Devil May Cry 4 plays just as it does on the consoles, even better thanks to the possibility of increased number of enemies and much higher frame rates. I have to say that this is a very decent port. How does it fare then? Let’s check it out.
Presentation:
Devil May Cry 4 is a mixed bag of goodness and ugliness. It has some great qualities but at the same time, plagued with appalling characteristics. Let’s start with the menu and interface. Capcom keeps its menu simple and straight forward. It’s the same kind of menu that’s in use since the earliest Resident Evils; simple and gets the job done but still like previous Capcom ports, the fastest way to quitting the game is ALT+F4. The navigational hierarchy is a bit bland. There’s no profile management or auto load in here. You have to load your previous save to see your unlocked missions/gallery/etc screen. I found it all a little awkward.
One thing should be very clear from the onset; you can only enjoy DMC4 if you play it with a gamepad (Honestly, I can’t imagine anyone playing it with a keyboard). There’s one little problem though, the PC version emulates any gamepad you have as an Xbox360 gamepad configuration. Personally I think the 360 pad is arguably the best gamepad but choices are always better. So if you’re using a Dual Shock clone gamepad on your PC, you’ll have to know that X means A, circle means B and so on. It will be a little problematic in the beginning, but you’ll get used to it in no time. However, the fact that I have to get used to it is unacceptable. Devil May Cry is a high profile series. Seeing such nuisances makes it look like any average game, which I’m afraid to say, this game tends to be.
Ok, let’s discuss the cutscenes, the core of any game’s presentation in this generation. I think the DMC series is kind of cursed with the even-numbered-sequels-are-crap spell. This series was never about Shakespeare class story and script, I admit. However, the point is, it is not as good as DMC3 or even DMC1. Much like DMC2, the characters are under developed, the script is mostly poor and there’s almost no story here. In fact, absence of story would’ve been better but in this case, the strapped piece of crap labeled as plot almost makes you overlook the good parts of the game. We felt that Dante was back after DMC3 as the Dante we knew from DMC1 but they over did his coolness once again in DMC4. The new character, our protagonist Nero, was interesting and could’ve developed well but we never really get to learn much about him, his past and his devil connections. DMC3’s treatment to weapons was also supreme; it all feels so lacking in DMC4.
The art and architecture in Devil May Cry 4 is stunning. Extremely beautiful environment with rich and detailed buildings will warrant a second look to appreciate finer details in the structures. The variety is just enough for a game of this length. However, where DMC4 falls flat on its face is its level design. Quite uninspired and lacking any form of innovative design which leads to frustrating platforming elements (thanks to the oh-so-old-generation camera) and exasperating backtracking. I wanted to love it, but I was prevented from doing so by the game’s designers.
The plus points are the beautiful art style in the constructions and setting in this game coupled with being an excellent port with good enough cutscenes and direction running at great frame rates on even medium end PCs. But the level design, camera, shallow plot, poor script and under-developed characters ruin the magic. Shyber will switch on the yellow light for this one. I’m just too spoiled by GTA4 and MGS4 to go green with DMC4. The bar for presentation values has been raised. A bit cruel perhaps considering that DMC4 was released originally much before these two behemoths but you can’t complain against a human’s taste. Perfectionists are their own devils – Jack Kirby.
Guess I might cry.
Gameplay:
You can complain about graphics, sound, presentation or whatever, but gameplay has always been a strong point of Devil May Cry. In fact, it’s its trademark gameplay that has put DMC on the map and made it such a legendary series. The juggling, the insane attacks, the ferocious combos, the coolest dodges and memorable boss battles are back and better than ever in DMC4. But like all other departments, the awesomeness is accompanied with awhsomeness.
The best thing I found about DMC4’s gameplay was Nero’s devil arm. You can literally “slap ye b*****s” (ahem, excuse me) using it. The arm makes the combos much cooler and allows them to be longer as well. It’s like you start off the juggling with the sword, take a few shots, start the slashing, and then perform a slam dunk on the demon, grab it again in mid air and slice it some more….when this one perishes, grab another one in Mortal Kombat’s Scorpion’s GET OVER HERE snatch move and unleash your fury on it. The devil arm can perform the craziest of grapple moves on the biggest of foes (giving a 20 feet 4 legged flaming beast a pedigree with ONE hand HAS to be cool). The devil arm has different grapple moves for different foes and a general snatch/slam dunk move for "regular" demons. The snatch was most useful to me as it allowed me to chain lightning fast long combos on scattered distant enemies. And it’s always fun and satisfying to grab demons with a single hand, choke style. Nero will learn new moves as he acquires souls from demons but there won’t be new weapons for him. The new moves kept things new and prevented from the experience becoming repetitive but then, midway through the game when I thought that DMC4 is going to get even more awesome, I got the reins on DANTE.
But alas, it wasn’t so. Don’t get me wrong here; if DMC4 is your first DMC game then this paragraph will make no sense. But if you’ve already butchered millions of demons in the previous outings with your favorite devil hunter, you might feel things becoming slow and repetitive. Dante’s controls are almost exactly from Devil May Cry 3. So that’s a good thing, right? Yeah it is, till you’ve fallen in love with the devil arm in the new level designs with the enemies’ new attack patterns and the bosses. It is evident that these were designed with Nero’s devil arm in mind. The feeling and effect became choreness from coolness once we switched from Nero to Dante. Some things were improved from DMC3, like the ability to switch your style on the fly but there were things that went missing. My favorites from DMC3 were absent: The Agni/Rudra and Cerberus. I missed those and their moves with the swordmaster style. I missed them sorely.
Other nuisances that hurdle DMC4’s gameplay from being great were backtracking, repeated bosses and platforming elements. The controls for jumping/movement are kind of tight but the fact that hurts platforming elements more than anything else are the camera angles. For some reason, DMC4 is still using the pre-historic camera system that made 3rd person games such a nightmare in previous generations. Why use it still is beyond me. I had loved everything about DMC4 till I reached the point where I got hold of Dante. It would’ve been much better to have moved through a path with demons and boss fights that were designed to be cool with Dante’s style but no. We had to play the exact same game with Dante that we had played with Nero, only in reverse. This isn’t a racing game guys, reverse tracks don’t work here. One of the three bosses felt very lame to fight against as Dante. However, the boss fights were most enjoyable as Nero. They could’ve been slightly better. The jungle boss-fight for instance; instead of being in the arena, it would’ve felt really epic if it took place in the steel caged stairs section (where that boss was first introduced) with Nero jumping from platform to platform and taking odd shots at it. Anyways, it was still fun. But fighting the same bosses 3 times? Well, it was acceptable to have them twice – once with Nero and once with Dante but thrice? Not only the fights were too repetitive by then, they didn’t tie in to the plot. Oh wait, there was no plot to being with.
There is no doubt about DMC4 being the best current generation hack n’ slash action game on PC platform but you have to admit that it is easily outclassed by games like Ninja Gaiden and Heavenly Sword. Sorry Nero, you were cool but the world is cruel.
Graphics:
Devil May Cry 4 is a very pretty game to look at. No, it won’t blow you away but considering the type of game it is, and the speed at which it runs, the game looks gorgeous. The animations are great, the enemies are exquisitely detailed and the environment takes the cake in structural design and absolute beauty.
I didn’t find DMC4 to be so demanding technically either. On an X2 4000+ with 2 gigs of DDR2 and the 9600GT as GPU, the game gave over 70 frames per sec @ 1680x1050 60Hz on my 22” LCD on highest details. Watching such beauty run at such crazy speeds was a treat, apart from the level design, control nuisances and poor plot direction that I mentioned above.
I think that just to show how beautiful the environment was, the devs decided to use a static camera in most places. This was good for the presentation elements but it hurt the gameplay at times. Though my primary complain with graphics is in character’s faces, facial expression and skin textures. Don’t get me wrong, the characters have a great level of detail in them, in their clothes, weapons and everything but the faces and hair appear to be made from plastic. They lack an element of life in them. Let me give you an example, Silent Hill 3. I’m just talking about the level of facial detail, the smoothness of animation and life in it. I find that a little lacking in DMC4. And it was Capcom who had spoiled us. I have that image of Dante with flowing white hair etched into my mind that Capcom showed at E3 2005 and at a later event, even showed a technical demo where Dante wastes a TV. Now that was slick. No matter how good DMC4 looks now, it’s nowhere near that target render and also, it is not quite up to the level of current visual beasts on the PC.
So as I said, this is a beautiful game to look at. But it's made from plastic. Tip for Capcom: Make the next DMC Cell Shaded. Seriously, take cue from the Prince of Persia series and make the next DMC game cell shaded anime style. It’d rock.
Sound/Music:
When DMC3 came out, it's fresh sound track rocked me and it felt demonish to slash demons with the uber cool BGM. Well, DMC4 doesn't add much new to it. In fact, it all felt quite too similar and again, there wasn't enough polish as was in DMC3. Since I never was an audiophile, music doesn't matter to me that much but then again, extraordinary music plays a very important role in making a game memorable. DMC3 was memorable. DMC4 is not. Nothing extraordinary here but nothing bad either. It just gets the job done. Same goes for the sound effects. Voice overs were quite decent but DMC4 happens to be one of those games where all these things can be overlooked. But still, I'll just tag it just as good (or as bad) as its presentation.
Replayability:
If you've played this game once, you've already played it twice and been through the best moments (boss fights) thrice. Will you play it again? if you've got COD4 multi-player lying in front of you, Crysis on your shelf and by any chance you're into WoW then you can say good bye to Dante till DMC5.
I admit I'm being extremely harsh. I am a disappointed fan after all. DMC4 does have a bit of depth to its combat mechanics. The Devil Arm will intrigue you during your first couple of playthroughs, but there's more depth to Dante's fighting mechanics. Considering you can switch weapons and styles mid combo, there's an insane amount of depth there if you want to dive. Problem with me was that I lost my desire to play DMC4 after the initial disappointments. So approach with caution.
Summary:
Presentation:
I wanted to love it, but I was prevented from doing so by the game’s designers.
Gameplay:
There is no doubt about DMC4 being the best current generation hack n’ slash action game on PC platform but you have to admit that it is easily outclassed by games like Ninja Gaiden and Heavenly Sword
Graphics:
This is a beautiful game to look at. But it's made from plastic. Tip: Make DMC Cell Shaded.
Sound/Music:
Nothing extra ordinary here but nothing bad. It just gets the job done.
Replayability:
If you've played this game once, you've already played it twice and been through the best moments (boss fights) thrice. Will you play it again? if you've got COD4 multi-player lying in front of you, Crysis on your shelf and by any chance you're into WoW then you can say good bye to Dante till DMC5.
OVERALL: Yellow
Considering the hype that Dante's first image in E3 2005 started, I didn't bash this game enough. I'm disappointed, to put it politely.
Presentation:
Devil May Cry 4 is a mixed bag of goodness and ugliness. It has some great qualities but at the same time, plagued with appalling characteristics. Let’s start with the menu and interface. Capcom keeps its menu simple and straight forward. It’s the same kind of menu that’s in use since the earliest Resident Evils; simple and gets the job done but still like previous Capcom ports, the fastest way to quitting the game is ALT+F4. The navigational hierarchy is a bit bland. There’s no profile management or auto load in here. You have to load your previous save to see your unlocked missions/gallery/etc screen. I found it all a little awkward.
One thing should be very clear from the onset; you can only enjoy DMC4 if you play it with a gamepad (Honestly, I can’t imagine anyone playing it with a keyboard). There’s one little problem though, the PC version emulates any gamepad you have as an Xbox360 gamepad configuration. Personally I think the 360 pad is arguably the best gamepad but choices are always better. So if you’re using a Dual Shock clone gamepad on your PC, you’ll have to know that X means A, circle means B and so on. It will be a little problematic in the beginning, but you’ll get used to it in no time. However, the fact that I have to get used to it is unacceptable. Devil May Cry is a high profile series. Seeing such nuisances makes it look like any average game, which I’m afraid to say, this game tends to be.
Ok, let’s discuss the cutscenes, the core of any game’s presentation in this generation. I think the DMC series is kind of cursed with the even-numbered-sequels-are-crap spell. This series was never about Shakespeare class story and script, I admit. However, the point is, it is not as good as DMC3 or even DMC1. Much like DMC2, the characters are under developed, the script is mostly poor and there’s almost no story here. In fact, absence of story would’ve been better but in this case, the strapped piece of crap labeled as plot almost makes you overlook the good parts of the game. We felt that Dante was back after DMC3 as the Dante we knew from DMC1 but they over did his coolness once again in DMC4. The new character, our protagonist Nero, was interesting and could’ve developed well but we never really get to learn much about him, his past and his devil connections. DMC3’s treatment to weapons was also supreme; it all feels so lacking in DMC4.
The art and architecture in Devil May Cry 4 is stunning. Extremely beautiful environment with rich and detailed buildings will warrant a second look to appreciate finer details in the structures. The variety is just enough for a game of this length. However, where DMC4 falls flat on its face is its level design. Quite uninspired and lacking any form of innovative design which leads to frustrating platforming elements (thanks to the oh-so-old-generation camera) and exasperating backtracking. I wanted to love it, but I was prevented from doing so by the game’s designers.
The plus points are the beautiful art style in the constructions and setting in this game coupled with being an excellent port with good enough cutscenes and direction running at great frame rates on even medium end PCs. But the level design, camera, shallow plot, poor script and under-developed characters ruin the magic. Shyber will switch on the yellow light for this one. I’m just too spoiled by GTA4 and MGS4 to go green with DMC4. The bar for presentation values has been raised. A bit cruel perhaps considering that DMC4 was released originally much before these two behemoths but you can’t complain against a human’s taste. Perfectionists are their own devils – Jack Kirby.
Guess I might cry.
Gameplay:
You can complain about graphics, sound, presentation or whatever, but gameplay has always been a strong point of Devil May Cry. In fact, it’s its trademark gameplay that has put DMC on the map and made it such a legendary series. The juggling, the insane attacks, the ferocious combos, the coolest dodges and memorable boss battles are back and better than ever in DMC4. But like all other departments, the awesomeness is accompanied with awhsomeness.
The best thing I found about DMC4’s gameplay was Nero’s devil arm. You can literally “slap ye b*****s” (ahem, excuse me) using it. The arm makes the combos much cooler and allows them to be longer as well. It’s like you start off the juggling with the sword, take a few shots, start the slashing, and then perform a slam dunk on the demon, grab it again in mid air and slice it some more….when this one perishes, grab another one in Mortal Kombat’s Scorpion’s GET OVER HERE snatch move and unleash your fury on it. The devil arm can perform the craziest of grapple moves on the biggest of foes (giving a 20 feet 4 legged flaming beast a pedigree with ONE hand HAS to be cool). The devil arm has different grapple moves for different foes and a general snatch/slam dunk move for "regular" demons. The snatch was most useful to me as it allowed me to chain lightning fast long combos on scattered distant enemies. And it’s always fun and satisfying to grab demons with a single hand, choke style. Nero will learn new moves as he acquires souls from demons but there won’t be new weapons for him. The new moves kept things new and prevented from the experience becoming repetitive but then, midway through the game when I thought that DMC4 is going to get even more awesome, I got the reins on DANTE.
But alas, it wasn’t so. Don’t get me wrong here; if DMC4 is your first DMC game then this paragraph will make no sense. But if you’ve already butchered millions of demons in the previous outings with your favorite devil hunter, you might feel things becoming slow and repetitive. Dante’s controls are almost exactly from Devil May Cry 3. So that’s a good thing, right? Yeah it is, till you’ve fallen in love with the devil arm in the new level designs with the enemies’ new attack patterns and the bosses. It is evident that these were designed with Nero’s devil arm in mind. The feeling and effect became choreness from coolness once we switched from Nero to Dante. Some things were improved from DMC3, like the ability to switch your style on the fly but there were things that went missing. My favorites from DMC3 were absent: The Agni/Rudra and Cerberus. I missed those and their moves with the swordmaster style. I missed them sorely.
Other nuisances that hurdle DMC4’s gameplay from being great were backtracking, repeated bosses and platforming elements. The controls for jumping/movement are kind of tight but the fact that hurts platforming elements more than anything else are the camera angles. For some reason, DMC4 is still using the pre-historic camera system that made 3rd person games such a nightmare in previous generations. Why use it still is beyond me. I had loved everything about DMC4 till I reached the point where I got hold of Dante. It would’ve been much better to have moved through a path with demons and boss fights that were designed to be cool with Dante’s style but no. We had to play the exact same game with Dante that we had played with Nero, only in reverse. This isn’t a racing game guys, reverse tracks don’t work here. One of the three bosses felt very lame to fight against as Dante. However, the boss fights were most enjoyable as Nero. They could’ve been slightly better. The jungle boss-fight for instance; instead of being in the arena, it would’ve felt really epic if it took place in the steel caged stairs section (where that boss was first introduced) with Nero jumping from platform to platform and taking odd shots at it. Anyways, it was still fun. But fighting the same bosses 3 times? Well, it was acceptable to have them twice – once with Nero and once with Dante but thrice? Not only the fights were too repetitive by then, they didn’t tie in to the plot. Oh wait, there was no plot to being with.
There is no doubt about DMC4 being the best current generation hack n’ slash action game on PC platform but you have to admit that it is easily outclassed by games like Ninja Gaiden and Heavenly Sword. Sorry Nero, you were cool but the world is cruel.
Graphics:
Devil May Cry 4 is a very pretty game to look at. No, it won’t blow you away but considering the type of game it is, and the speed at which it runs, the game looks gorgeous. The animations are great, the enemies are exquisitely detailed and the environment takes the cake in structural design and absolute beauty.
I didn’t find DMC4 to be so demanding technically either. On an X2 4000+ with 2 gigs of DDR2 and the 9600GT as GPU, the game gave over 70 frames per sec @ 1680x1050 60Hz on my 22” LCD on highest details. Watching such beauty run at such crazy speeds was a treat, apart from the level design, control nuisances and poor plot direction that I mentioned above.
I think that just to show how beautiful the environment was, the devs decided to use a static camera in most places. This was good for the presentation elements but it hurt the gameplay at times. Though my primary complain with graphics is in character’s faces, facial expression and skin textures. Don’t get me wrong, the characters have a great level of detail in them, in their clothes, weapons and everything but the faces and hair appear to be made from plastic. They lack an element of life in them. Let me give you an example, Silent Hill 3. I’m just talking about the level of facial detail, the smoothness of animation and life in it. I find that a little lacking in DMC4. And it was Capcom who had spoiled us. I have that image of Dante with flowing white hair etched into my mind that Capcom showed at E3 2005 and at a later event, even showed a technical demo where Dante wastes a TV. Now that was slick. No matter how good DMC4 looks now, it’s nowhere near that target render and also, it is not quite up to the level of current visual beasts on the PC.
So as I said, this is a beautiful game to look at. But it's made from plastic. Tip for Capcom: Make the next DMC Cell Shaded. Seriously, take cue from the Prince of Persia series and make the next DMC game cell shaded anime style. It’d rock.
Sound/Music:
When DMC3 came out, it's fresh sound track rocked me and it felt demonish to slash demons with the uber cool BGM. Well, DMC4 doesn't add much new to it. In fact, it all felt quite too similar and again, there wasn't enough polish as was in DMC3. Since I never was an audiophile, music doesn't matter to me that much but then again, extraordinary music plays a very important role in making a game memorable. DMC3 was memorable. DMC4 is not. Nothing extraordinary here but nothing bad either. It just gets the job done. Same goes for the sound effects. Voice overs were quite decent but DMC4 happens to be one of those games where all these things can be overlooked. But still, I'll just tag it just as good (or as bad) as its presentation.
Replayability:
If you've played this game once, you've already played it twice and been through the best moments (boss fights) thrice. Will you play it again? if you've got COD4 multi-player lying in front of you, Crysis on your shelf and by any chance you're into WoW then you can say good bye to Dante till DMC5.
I admit I'm being extremely harsh. I am a disappointed fan after all. DMC4 does have a bit of depth to its combat mechanics. The Devil Arm will intrigue you during your first couple of playthroughs, but there's more depth to Dante's fighting mechanics. Considering you can switch weapons and styles mid combo, there's an insane amount of depth there if you want to dive. Problem with me was that I lost my desire to play DMC4 after the initial disappointments. So approach with caution.
Summary:
Presentation:
I wanted to love it, but I was prevented from doing so by the game’s designers.
Gameplay:
There is no doubt about DMC4 being the best current generation hack n’ slash action game on PC platform but you have to admit that it is easily outclassed by games like Ninja Gaiden and Heavenly Sword
Graphics:
This is a beautiful game to look at. But it's made from plastic. Tip: Make DMC Cell Shaded.
Sound/Music:
Nothing extra ordinary here but nothing bad. It just gets the job done.
Replayability:
If you've played this game once, you've already played it twice and been through the best moments (boss fights) thrice. Will you play it again? if you've got COD4 multi-player lying in front of you, Crysis on your shelf and by any chance you're into WoW then you can say good bye to Dante till DMC5.
OVERALL: Yellow
Considering the hype that Dante's first image in E3 2005 started, I didn't bash this game enough. I'm disappointed, to put it politely.
