I stayed away from information about this game for a long time – I can’t remember exactly why, maybe it was because Ninja Theory were developing it, I’m not sure. I really hope it wasn’t just because Dante had black hair that I wasn’t that interested! My first hands-on with the game was via the demo that was released late last year. I was not impressed. The lack of a lock-on button annoyed me more than the new Dante. It annoyed me so much that I never actually finished the demo, I’d always get halfway through, try to hold a trigger and do a Stinger or a launcher and fail, and turn it off in disgust. The games release date rolled around, which was so near payday that I felt it’d be rude not to give it a whirl. Maybe they had snuck a lock-on feature into the full version without telling anyone?
The first thing that struck me was the art direction. The funfair setting was striking to say the least, with neon flairs clamouring against demonic reds, then everything losing contrast when Dante came out of Limbo… The visuals continued to impress me throughout the game. The mansion level really set the visual tone for the rest of the game, and established the environment as an antagonist, with corridors lengthening and whole sections of the building tearing themselves off in an effort to prevent Dante from continuing. The city of Limbo extended upon this, with the houses lining the streets crushing themselves together, and floors falling out from under our hero. The levels themselves go to crazy lengths later on, both visually and structurally. The gauntlet-style level set in the club was a highlight. So colourful compared to the previous games, and the way the demon world just didn’t obey the laws of physics was mind-blowingly delightful. While the game did eventually fall back to gothic underworld stylings, with rocky caves and arcane mechanical contraptions, it was only for a couple of levels very late on in the game, and quickly reverted to the poisoned real-world aesthetic once you were out of the Furnace of Souls. Overall I was very taken with the visual aspect, and extend my respect to the creators for bringing such a distinct and vibrant world to life.
The story and characterisation was pretty good – not at all cheesy or overblown like the Japanese games – but gritty, with a heavy dose of humanity. That the characters were rendered so well helped – DmC is second only to Halo 4 in that respect. And it was great to see that certain characters remained true to form, even in a reboot.
The main area of the game for me is War Games, and I feel it is a massive success. The maps are great, and I quite enjoy the new ways to play the old favourite gametypes. I don’t think personal ordnance messes up balance – you just have to be more wary of that enemy coming around the corner. He could have a Battle Rifle, he could have an Incineration Cannon. Play it safe. Do some recon. Quick spawning is good, I like spawning next to my team-mates rather than in a distant, empty, battle-free corner of the map.
Overall, I got the impression that the Campaign was merely a warm-up for 343 Industries. The existing enemies included were safe choices, and it harks back to the original Halo: Combat Evolved. The new Prometheans were great to look at, and both a joy and challenge to fight on Heroic. The Halo 5 Campaign, most probably on the next generation of Xbox, will take the beauty of Halo 4, and add to it in terms of scale and intensity thanks to larger storage and more advanced hardware. I can see the Flood re-entering the picture in the next game – I’m personally hoping that 343 Industries keep them as shambolic hordes for the most part, with the specialised units like the Tank and Ranged pure forms rarely encountered. Was I the only one who enjoyed the sheer endurathon of The Library and Cortana levels? I’m excited (and a little scared) to see how deadly these Flood-infected Spartans are…
