I remember how bad this game was. I remember how hurt I was. It still hurts.
Format: Playstation 2
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Release: March 2003
A good sequel will add new aspects to the original. New techniques, new weapons, new characters… Devil May Cry adds all these things in the form of Lucia, an alternate playable character with new techniques and moves, and she even gets a separate disc for her escapade. While Lucia does have different weaponry and moves, for example instead of guns Lucia throws small daggers, and instead of a sword she uses twin short swords, they are merely cosmetic changes as both characters feel similar. You get 2 discs, 2 characters and 2 mildly different adventures. Unfortunately, the unique dynamic only ever gets as far as each character approaching a mission from the opposite direction; it could have been implemented in a far more innovative way.
Someone once said “Dante could quite possibly be the coolest guy in videogames, ever”. But when it comes to Devil May Cry 2, that statement couldn’t be further from the truth. He still looks like a bad-ass demon slayer, but has been stripped of all the personality that made him so likeable in the first place. Gone are the witty one-liners. Gone are the scathing put-downs. Gone is the gung-ho, all guns blazing attitude. This Dante silently stalks through the game, offering little more than angry looks in cut-scenes.
Another reason for concern is Dante’s motivation for being involved in all this in the first place. Seemingly meeting Lucia by accident in a distant land, the plot is wafer thin and ill conceived. At no point in the game is there any satisfactory explanation or reasoning given as to why a giant gorilla has just dropped through the ceiling, or why a military helicopter is composed of flesh that bleeds when cut. I would go so far to say that none of the enemies in this game have any personality or unique factors that define them as being fun, or a challenge to kill.
There are major issues concerning changes to the combat system too. Dante’s lock on seems to pick enemies to target at random, especially annoying when trying to take out the most dangerous individual in a large group of opponents, the aiming arbitrarily trains your sights not on the nearest bad-guy, or the strongest, but the one that is up on a high ledge 20 feet away. Also gone are the tremendous and surprising Boss battles of old. It can be so much easier just to stand back and let your handguns take care of things. These guys aren’t bosses, they are just bigger versions of regular enemies just with longer health bars.
The changes made to the general slicing and dicing are also detrimental to the memory of the first game. Combos are now almost impossible to carry over from one enemy to the next, as Dante’s once quick and fluid swordsmanship has been reduced to a short series of swipes with a severe pause at the end. Using Ebony and Ivory as stop-gap links in the combo chain is hindered as Dante is considerably slower whilst firing. The once fresh Orb power-up system no longer buys new arsenal boosting manoeuvres, but simply makes your weapons more powerful, meaning you are stuck with the same tedious techniques from start to finish. There are no elemental weapons either, just a basic range of swords.
Larger environments sound good in theory, but awry enemy placement and the perspective shifted further away from the player conspire to make the camera perform even worse this time around, with instances of shooting at off screen airborne creatures common place. The additions to the Devil May Cry mix are logical improvements, but you are never really given a chance to use them to their potential. The wall run for instance, although it looks incredibly cool, will be disregarded in favour of the much simpler task of walking. The new system of equipping Amulets that bestow special abilities upon you when in Devil form is a neat touch, but ultimately you can skip through the game without ever having to change the default settings and swap any around.
This title does have its good points however. The familiar chaotic atmosphere and schizophrenic musical score are still perfectly suited to the Devil May Cry universe. During quiet explorative moments the moody orchestral sounds wrap around you, chilling you with their mystifying arias, then when it’s time for action the slow paced score gives way to the familiar electro gothic rock. The art direction is simply beautiful, Dante may have had his personality drained, but his fashion sense is as strong as ever. Kudos’ to Capcom’s design team, Dante and Lucia look stunning both in regular and Demon forms, with clothing company Diesel lending a hand for the secret costumes.
Overall, for every improvement and enhancement that Devil May Cry 2 brings over its predecessor, it also brings faults and problems. The camera placement seems to have taken on an odd new role, with viewpoints skipping all over the place at the most inconvenient of times, even in the middle of crucial jumps. While anyone new to the series will find it hugely entertaining and very accessible, those of us who have played the original will see that although this is a great game in its own right, it is let down somewhat by the echo left by its forbearer. [6]
