DmC Devil May Cry

It’s official: I don’t get Devil May Cry fans. I played the first three games in the franchise almost exclusively to give myself the necessary context for the fan reaction to this stupidly-titled reboot/alternate continuity installment. In the time I’ve been doing this, DmC has grown to be considered a good game that’s just not a good Devil May Cry game, but even that position seems ludicrous. Unless the fourth game was solid gold, the series legacy to me was two fun, undeniably influential, but severely flawed titles and one absolutely abysmal one. DmC is better than all of them.

I suspect that the initial backlash was unconsciously aimed at its new Western identity more than the trivial concerns of character design and framerate that it manifested as. It’s an extraordinarily loud, busy, and profane title with the subtlety of a stick of dynamite. But the series’ stories have always been intentionally silly at best and completely nonsensical at worst, so this one fits right in in that regard, and the voice acting and sound effects are vastly superior to previous efforts. It’s also been blessed with creative and fascinating environment design, which can be freely enjoyed, because the platforming controls are now basically alright instead of entirely awful.

The non-combat sections (including the platforming) suffer for how scripted they feel, which was an expected problem for me after the developer’s last game, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. Unlike in that game, however, DmC players accomplish these tasks using flashy long-range grapples, so they’re smooth and impressive-looking enough to engage anyway. The combat is in a similar situation. It’s disappointingly easy, and I say that as someone who can’t S-rank a level in the PS2 games to save my life. But unlike Devil May Cry 2’s pathetic difficulty, this one is visually spectacular and deep enough to satisfy all but the most dedicated veterans.