This Devil May Cry 3 review was written for Poopgang back in 2005 (or thereabouts). Unfortunately I’ve lost the original images I made for it (I liked to use thin vertical slices of image back then, to break the chunks of text up), but I’ll pop a few relevant ones in, just so it’s not a fucking massive block of text.
Enjoy.
Devil May Cry 3
Format – Playstation 2
Developer – Capcom
Publisher – Capcom
Release – March 2005
Those who forget the mistakes of the past are condemned to repeat them. Although it would be easier just to forget Devil May Cry 2 ever happened it’s a good job that Capcom kept it in mind. Devil May Cry was, and still is, a momentous and ground-breaking game. Fusing swordplay and marksmanship, it was a revolution to the genre. With its tight, enclosed spaces, extraordinary depth of combat and unparalleled atmosphere it quickly became a hardcore favourite. Devil May Cry 2, developed by a different team to that of the original, featured poor characterisation and a broken combat dynamic. To be fair, it did introduce a lot of useful and interesting techniques such as dual targeting, horizontal wall running, and the powering up of firearms, but lacked that magical something, that indescribable element of focus. With the original team back behind the reigns, Devil May Cry 3 has a lot to live up to, and make up for. Does it succeed?
I’ll start with your avatar in the world of Devil May Cry 3, the main protagonist, Dante. Half demon and half human, our white haired hero is the spawn of a human woman and a Devil, The Legendary Dark Knight Sparda. Raised by his mother, Dante is a hyperactive and good natured wannabe rock-star, and sees his gift of super human strength, agility and resilience as a responsibility to keep the World free of demons. Cool, cocky, and confident, he has a carefree attitude that lightens up every bad situation with a cheesy one liner, or witty remark. From the opening scene where Dante kicks a fallen chair into its correct standing position, lunges onto the chair, thumps his feet onto the adjacent desk which launches the ringing phone into his hand – all in one glorious sweeping movement – you just know that this guy has style. When surrounded by demons he instinctively reaches for a slice of pizza, not his handgun. His twin brother, Vergil, couldn’t be more different. Whereas Dante uses a heady mix of swords and firearms, Vergil disapproves of such methods, instead choosing to exclusively wield a katana given to him by his father.
Aloof and serious, he wishes to open the door to Hell that was sealed two millennia ago by his father, and rule the Earth alongside Arkham; a mysterious, sinister man with his own nefarious motives who preaches damnation instead of salvation. The fourth supporting character is the enigmatic schoolgirl, Lady. A skilled demon hunter, proficient with pistols, sub machine guns and her custom made bazooka, Kalina Ann, she has her own agenda for getting involved in the scenario. Holding her fury under her every breath, you sense the venom waiting to be unleashed; you see the anger in her mismatched eyes. With one brown eye and one blue, her visage is not dissimilar to that of Arkham, who also shares this peculiar ocular trait. And finally there is Jester, a bizarrely clothed individual, who seems intent on not only leading Dante up the correct path but also conversely littering the path with obstacles. The twist is so obvious and transparent you want to shoot yourself when it’s revealed and you are utterly, utterly shocked by it. The way this mix of distinctly different characters interact with each other throughout the games 20 missions is handled superbly, each played with a professional level of conviction by the voiceover actors and the motion capture department.
But what of the interactive meat that hangs on the passive plots bones? The crux of the game, the combat, is exciting and surprisingly deep. Over the course of the game Dante will obtain ten diversely different weapons; five melee – which range from Dante’s standard sword, Rebellion, to a succubus possessed scythe-guitar; and five projectile – including the default dual handguns Ebony and Ivory, the series stalwart shotgun and an armour piercing sniper/railgun. Each weapon has a range of moves and techniques that are not only mostly unique to them, but also incredibly useful for different scenarios. Some excel at controlling crowds of demons, some are most useful against single foes, and you never find yourself neglecting a move because there are others more valuable, as each technique has its place in your arsenal. Moves are easy to perform, too, as any move can be performed at a whim with minimal practise. No move is unachievable in the heat of battle where split second timing is essential for survival. Four weapons can be equipped simultaneously, two of each discipline, and this really opens up the potential for some truly outlandish combo attacks.
As an example, you can rush an enemy with your twin elemental swords, Agni and Rudra, and slash away, then perform the High Time move and knock your opponent into the air. With Ebony and Ivory a mere button press away, you can unload several shots into your target, holding him aloft, before jumping up to meet him with Rebellion and slamming him back to Earth under your sword. Looking stylish has never been so easy. Defeated enemies produce red orbs, which can be exchanged for new moves or abilities to extend your repertoire, quite simply, the more stylish and varied your combos, the more red orbs released. Another way of extending your collection of moves is building up stylish points which level up your chosen vocation. There are initially four to choose from, and each can deliver a wholly different playing experience.
The circle button is key here, as any style specific moves are assigned to it. For those of you who like to get close up and in the face of your enemies, there is the Swordmaster Style. Extending the uses of your melee weapons, or Devil Arms, this is definitely the way to go when facing a new level for the first time, or impressing friends. Prefer ranged combat? Then Gunslinger is for you. Enabling you to do lots of damage at a distance, this style is essential for making full use of your guns. Trickster Style is a nod to Devil May Cry 2, and fans of that episode will relish the wall running, air dashing qualities it brings. Widely accepted as the expert playing style, Royal Guard requires a cool head at all times. With timing and tactical thinking, you can negate all damage from an enemy with a deftly timed, last second block. Using this style it’s possible to get through the entire game without taking one hit. Adding another layer to this is your nigh invulnerable Devil Trigger state, where, for a limited time, you move faster, hit harder and look cooler. With its regenerative abilities, sometimes it is wise to use it out of battle while you take a breather and let your health bar refill without interruption.
The enemies you project all this violence toward hark back to the original, where they all had distinct looks, or peculiar traits that made each one different to fight. For example the bread and butter Hell: Pride are slow and cumbersome, but have a deadly sand projectile move if you give them enough time to muster it, whereas the Hell: Lusts are speedy and agile, always lunging backwards before attacking with their large reaping hooks. Hell: Wraths are another example of the assortment, immune to sword attacks; they carry the hearts of larger demons on their backs that explode when shot. Anyone familiar with the rules of Chess will know what kind of thing to expect from the statues modelled on those infamous pieces. The Pawns, while weak, can over power you with sheer numbers, the Rooks attack in straight horizontal or vertical lines, Bishops have nasty fire attacks that spray diagonally. Destroy the King, perform Check Mate, and they all fall, the game is yours.
This level of creativity also carries over to the bosses. From the first you encounter, the Hell Vanguard with his ability to teleport around the map and carve you up with his glowing magical scythe, up until the last, not one of them is filler. Initially feeling like tests of patience and stamina, the battles can drag on with you doing miniscule damage to them, but only until you have discovered and exploited their weak spot, their Achilles heel. Often requiring you to put Dante in a highly exposed, dangerous position, but offering incredible damage returns, hacking away at their vulnerability is a first-rate example of the risk/reward mechanic. Each Boss character bestows a new weapon or ability upon you, for example defeating Cerberus, the three headed guardian that has control over ice, rewards you with a set of three pronged ice nunchucks. Upon perishing, the electrically charged opera singer Nevan rewards you with the aforementioned “electric” guitar/scythe. Defeating your shadow late in the game unlocks a novel, yet ultimately confusing two player mode.
Visually, the game impresses on many levels, one area in particular is the lighting, which also plays an integral part in a Boss confrontation late in the game. Another area is the spot effects. As you fire your handguns the empty bullet casings fall to the floor, bouncing with an element of realistic randomness. Swiping away at an enemy with Beowulf’s Ifrit inspired Gauntlets leaves a trail of light, and causes sparks of energy snaking through the air. These may sound trivial and non-essential, but the amount of character they add to the game is immeasurable. The same engine is used to not only power the game itself, but also the cut-scenes where the plot is unravelled, which helps keep the two areas together, and not have you fall asleep while the next section loads.
Although the story of one man’s quest to prevent an apocalyptic outcome is slightly clichéd and has been seen hundreds of times before, it neatly punctuates the hardcore fighting action, and provides ample motivation for the characters in the next scene. Starting off in the grimy office of Dante’s demon killing agency, the game then progresses through darkened rubble strewn streets, a dusty, quaint bar and a nightclub decked out in flashy neon, all just the right size for the hordes of enemies that appear, intent on impeding your progress. Then it is onto where the majority of the game takes place; The Temen-Ni-Gru tower. Created as a door between Earth and Hell, it was sealed off and buried deep underground two thousand years ago by Sparda in an act of selflessness for mankind, an act of rebellion against the inhabitants of Hell. Now it has been erected again by one of Sparda’s offspring no less, and atop the tower stand Vergil and Arkham, trying to decipher the code that will unlock the door to Hell.
The traditional and effective Devil May Cry scheme of having fixed cameras returns, but some rooms do offer a slight element of control on the right analogue stick for navigation reasons. The environments drip with personality and individuality, some rooms ornate and luxurious, some functional and bare, some dark, dank and dirty, all perfectly suited to the purpose of their existence. Later on in the game, familiar rooms will lead to unfamiliar locations, when the core of the tower rises, and the ability to rotate the centre of the tower combine to not only enable the designers to re-use old rooms, but also enhance the players knowledge of his surroundings. Maybe re-use is too harsh a phrase, as the majority of rooms visited after said event have been cruelly cut in two, or are in an unrecognisable state of disrepair. While some may see it as a way of re-using earlier backgrounds, I found it to be a major architectural miracle. These rooms and corridors that played such an essential and coherent role on your first trek through them are now just as important and pivotal after they have been rotated, raised, lowered or decimated and crucially, still make both logical and logistic sense.
Also making a welcome return is the Hellish music style. When exploring, the audio is quiet and brooding; deep organ melodies are being played in an undisclosed far away location, echoing through the corridors and bouncing off the walls. However as soon as your exits become blocked off by eerie red barriers and enemies shift into your dimension, the game steps up the pace and launches the series trademark of heavy industrial beats, screaming vocals and electric guitars turned up to eleven. Then, when the last blow is struck the barriers disappear, and the music is gone, making you wonder if it was created by the adrenaline rush of combat. The loosely termed “puzzles” are simply a matter of taking a mysterious artefact from one place to another in order to open the path to the next mysterious artefact, but anything more complicated would detract from the straightforward and honest nature of the game. While the obscene difficulty of the game has been criticised, it is merely a matter of learning the enemy’s personalities and fighting styles, and deciding which weapons to use accordingly.
Devil May Cry 3 is the epitome of the hack and slash genre. With style and substance it stands head and shoulders over the rest of the genre with the cocky attitude that no-one will ever better it. Accomplished, polished and complete, for fans of the genre it will provide the ultimate roller-coaster ride of thrills, spills, action, revenge, betrayal, deception and, the defining element of the series, family values. Devil May Cry 3 takes everything good from the original game, and its sequel, refines and repositions them, whilst adding new elements that fit in the series schematic like pieces of a puzzle. Capcom outshone themselves in creating or recreating everything at its most fundamental, basic level, then building on them with a diverse range of conflicting characters, deep and satisfying combat with imaginative weapons and over the top manoeuvres, inspirational and challenging set pieces and that familiar, overbearing Devil May Cry style and flavour. There is only one word to truly sum this game up.
And that word is “Complete”. [10]
