Review – Devil May Cry 4 (PS3)
- Ethan Cole
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RUNDOWN
Nero; a punk with a devil arm played like a pawn: set forth on a seemingly simple task ends up having to save his girlfriend from being sacrificed. Meanwhile, Dante reeking of cool and style reduces this quest to a trivial nuisance that should easily be resolved.
STORY
Paralleling ‘The Legend of Sparda’; a bunch of religious whack-jobs worship the demon as a god. Set in motion; a series of events that will bring him forth, so their bullshit idea of a paradise can be born. Thrown into the mix; the integral Nero and his opera singer girlfriend Kyrie – initially Nero is simply tasked with whacking demons and tracking down the man in the red coat who iced ‘his holiness’. In the interim, the Devil Hunter team of Dante and Trish seemingly hang on the sidelines for the main event.
Dante exudes style to the max; and one can see the Bruce Lee Clint Eastwood influence, making for some awesome cutscenes; proper evolution carrying on from his development in DMC3 (1 & 2 are effectively too old and dodgy to consider character development).
No doubt the presence of Nero will draw immediate comparisons to Raiden of Metal Gear Solid 2. This is warranted to some degree; both seem a bit like pretty-boy's and have some girlfriend to deal with. However, Kyrie is not some annoying bitch that wont shut the fuck up and bug you the whole time while you're trying to carry out missions, rather she's more someone in the background; someone who Nero (seemingly) takes for granted – eventually getting taken hostage. It seems like there was more of a story here (and possibly have Dante playable for more missions) but got cut out to meet the 20 missions and 120 minutes of cutscenes quota.
Not too sure why Nero's giving off that emo vibe, but he's far from one of those freaks... whatever they are exactly... Whilst his motivations from trailers echo his drive for trying to save his girl it doesn’t effectively convey his adolescent personality: aggressive; angry and a well known attitude problem. The great part is he isn’t annoying, mostly thanks to his voice and performance – far from some whiny prick who tries to be cool; a bit of a punk, but not in a bad way and eventually gets schooled by Dante no less; making for some great contrast and interaction; a true blast.
In regards to his demon-arm; it's not explained where it came from, but there are a few hints alluding to potential origin and the amount of power it possesses; however it raises more questions without answers. Furthermore, Kyrie seems a bit taken aback by it, there was a potential conflict here that could have been expanded, but given the personalities and time constraints it resolves effectively with a few hints – the subtlety was appreciated. The scene serves to illuminate his reasons for the arm and his motives for the power it possesses and yields, but not directly explaining its origins. It would have been cool, if there was a sequence where this was playable, perhaps in a director’s cut – depowered, fending off as many – effectively a character moment. Instead… darkness and a powerful scream, incidentally, the choice of the name 'Kyrie' makes for an excellent scream.
There’s supposedly twist or so evident, one supposedly in regards to Gloria, but once it’s brought up it is pretty obvious; thus the only surprise is the bouncing-buoyancy of the reveal.
PRESENTATION/GRAPHICS
Given how fast the game is, the menus still feel sluggish and almost constipated in their loading and navigation, which itself is a bit clunky: you have to enter the “Systems Options” menu to quit or restart a mission – as opposed to the option being directly available as it was in DMC3, or most other games.
To some degree it’s a next-gen title that suffers from a few last-gen flaws in so far as game structure – still stuck in that scavenger hunt ‘find this key’ mindset in a way, except the bosses killed grant the item required to unlocked the locked paths. Unfortunately this is more tedious than anything, as rather than having a new path to navigate, back tracking is required – the primary annoyance stemming from this form of gameplay is navigation, there’s a mini map available but it doesn’t help to inform you of the intended destination as much as it tells you which door you just came out of. Thankfully the environments aren’t drab and lifeless; the levels are vibrant and possess a degree of character; with some levels featuring great lighting.
Some slowdown occurs in a few levels – mostly in the forest when objects become transparent, this however can be remedied by readjusting the camera. Whilst some may complain about the camera, at least when it comes to boss fights you don’t have to battle the camera as well; thanks to the target lock on. The camera is great for the most part, save for a few instances in tight corridors where an alternate or new camera angle could've been switched to. Crossing the 180° axis is still present, but it's something that can’t really be sacrificed in regards to delivering the ideal view. A peculiarity; that a MGS style ‘zoom’ and moderate camera pan/tilt is evident during cutscenes, just not as clean, probably there so the player can try and zoom in on Gloria’s crotch and Lady/Trish’s tits.
The animation is fantastic; actions fluid and dynamic; Dante appears to move with a greater mass, seeming only slightly slower than his previous iterations, but more realistic (within the realms of extreme possibility). The animation for the Honey-comb in particular is amusing and rings of the classic gun-slinger fun. The excellent motion capture work serves the cutscenes beautifully; even more amped now in HD.
The character models of the enemies and the principle cast look great, which makes it weird to see some blocky pixels and textures; when contrasted w/ the polish of the aforementioned elements. Additionally it’s odd seeing a slideshow-style of stills for the 'moves' rather than lores vids like DMC3 - especially since there are video versions available in the 'Library', so why they weren’t included in the main screen is odd (unless it’s something to do with cross-platform consistency… but this is mere speculation). It’s particularly annoying since you don’t get a fair representation of the moves being performed.
GAMEPLAY
One of the best features evident here, is that the personalities translate to the character’s combat style and move set. Nero; brash and angst ridden; conveyed through his combo’s and dialog; utilizing the buster and slam – successive smashes of the Red Queen whilst bellowing and eventually stabbing direct into the enemy. This device amps up the adrenaline; fueling combat to a greater degree of satisfaction; similar to God of War where Kratos will repeatedly mash on an enemies head until it pops off. The same is true for Dante; his style falling more towards the happy-go-lucky all’s-good-and-fun side.
Unfortunately, switching to Dante can be fairly jarring – perhaps more so if you’re still used to his move-set from DMC3 – in this iteration you’re much more limited in the ways of combos; in essence the combat has been dumbed-down somewhat, and not for the better. Too many of the actions are mapped to O which reduces the ‘styles’ to a modifier as opposed to giving the player a greater choice in how they want to play; simultaneously forcing them to switch styles more. For instance in DMC3, regardless of what style you’re in, you can ‘Million-stab’ with a /\ combo, in DMC4, you’ve got to do that with O – and it’s only available when you’re in Swordmaster (which again is the best style to play with). The most annoying result of this change is when performing aerial combos - hitting /\ performs ‘[helm] split’ - so you can no longer dart around in Trickster and perform aerials; less you’re quick on the switch to Swordmaster; perform an Aerial Rave.
Switching styles is performed with the D-pad which is conceptually ideal, were it not for the aforementioned style limitations – though most gamers may just stick with a single style, those who want to mix things up a bit might find it’ll take some modified strategy to move your thumb off the analog-stick to the D-pad at an appropriate time – it’s possible, just a matter of good timing and unhindered dexterity.
In spite of this Dante still plays like an uber being; being more powerful than before, though still not quite as invincible as in the cutscenes (although if you don’t suck at playing and don’t get hit – it’s a fair approximation).
For those who’ve come off DMC3, this is quite a change to play; for one, Nero’s a slower character, only later with the upgrades does Nero’s move set compensate for this. The initial advantage here is less finger-cramps. Being a new character, his controls are effective – featuring an interesting array of combos. The exceed system is a nicely integrated addition that augments the dynamics of combat and satisfaction visually and practically, whilst simultaneously giving the player additional control over the strength and power of successive attacks. This is done through revving the Red Queen sequentially, or revving at the moment of impact to quickly max the meter. However, a few more moves would have been appreciated, in terms of standard sword slashes on both the ground and aerial attacks. The addition of “back to forward” or “forward to backward” movement with the analog stick to perform some of the combos seems somewhat obtuse; it’s possible, but rather annoying during the latter stages in the heat of certain boss battles on the harder difficulties.
Perhaps the most annoying is that the 'tutorial' cant be disabled for successive play-throughs. It's understandable for the first 'level' which is constructed around a tutorial; but whilst that was annoying the first time through, its worse replaying it; given it's akin to being handcuffed.
Whilst there are a fair number of enemies on screen at a given point – it still doesn’t seem more than enough – especially in light of the amount present in DMC3 (not withstanding slow down). Instead of throwing a bunch of demons to the slaughter, they opt to use enemies that tend to veer on the lengthy to fight side – not as a result of difficulty, but rather they require weakening; the two specifically being the Blitz and scarecrows. The former; electric-warping demoncunts that you can’t kill until you’ve broken its ‘shield’ (that can hurt you); for the first few encounters, may seem like a mini-boss fight of its own. In some respects it’s a curious choice, as the joy in this sort of hack and slash game stems from fighting waves upon waves of enemies. The issue that arises from this is one of a start-stop sense of pacing, which progresses into a potentially repetitive feel; given progress is halted as opposed to temporarily impeded.
The bosses on the other hand, are a different story. This is where the challenge and satisfaction really pays off. There’s something remarkably satisfying about slamming a giant demon’s head into the ground; uppercutting him into the air and punch him across the quarry. Additionally the different tactics required makes each boss unique and distinctive; particularly intense in Nero’s run were the battles against Dante and Credo; evoking pure brawling beat down; both are a true highlight of the combat featured in the game.
In some ways its strange there’s no rank penalty for playing on ‘Automatic’ as it makes the game much easier – getting at least an ‘A’ rating should be no challenge and getting ‘Smoking Style’ is a breeze. The closest to a penalty would be ‘automatically’ performing a certain move that you wouldn’t otherwise use in that situation – though this would only apply to those who aren’t just into mindless button mashing. Primarily ‘automatic’ effectively reduces the need to multitask; particularly with Exceed triggering and pounding the fire button - it's recommended for the DMC rookies... or those who're starting to feel their hand cramp up (though at this point you may want to be thinking about getting an icepack and some painkillers – carpal tunnal is rare and more common in women than men, maybe you'll get arthritis in future but who gives a toss, there's medicine for that so: play on).
The difficulty is fairly inconsistent peaking at certain points and then becoming almost too easy. At one point in particular it comes out of nowhere, like some practical joke styled misdirection. Not only isn’t it as challenging as DMC3, it’s also more forgiving – much like DMC3: SE should you die you can ‘continue’ from the Gold Statue – and should you keep dieing an ‘enemy handicap’ will be in effect to pussy up the enemies for you to slay. To some degree this is more effective than using items in regards to being penalized - stat wise you can always go back and rank it up later when you're more powerful or better at the game. DMC3 vets however, may still maintain the discipline of saving items for use on harder levels (if at all) and upon death: restart the mission. Playing on difficulties above Son of Sparda is where the game begins to get challenging and the fun really begins – especially for ranking up the stylish points. ‘Human’ is there for rookies and n00bs.
The upgrade system for DMC4 differs in that you now upgrade with ‘Proud Souls’ which can only be earned by playing through missions (and of course replaying them) – where as the red orbs are used only to buy items; in effect, it’s easy enough to get masses of red orbs and buy whatever items you might need. This system is fairly effective, as it’s more fun to play through missions getting ‘Proud Souls’ based on your skills rather than your orb collecting ability.
The backtracking elements can be seen as a bit tiresome, but technically it's a logical progression - but what takes away from the fun a little bit; is the Timed aspect featured in a few of Dante's missions; only one of which is OK. A further annoyance is the platforming. Why they feel the need to include it in an action title like this is a mystery – ought to take a few cues from God of War II in this respect; in so far as keeping with the stylish and vicarious power elements. The platforming here just comes off lame; now if you could do stylish shit in the cutscenes, that’d be a different story.
The Dice Room; like something out of Gunstar Heroes, the level is all about chance – sometimes you get lucky; through the room without much in the way of enemies encountered; or successive battles and warp-back-a-few-steps. Similarly to DMC3 there’s a stage where you fight almost all the bosses – except here it’s not nearly as fun. The problem with both is they tend to be unnecessarily drawn out.
Much like previous titles, Bloody Palace is featured - the difference here is there’s a timer. Your rank is gauged based on style points, damage and time. This incarnation is more oriented towards this rank and leaderboard junk of ‘next gen’, if this is something for you, then it’s fine – but for those who’d rather have a gameplay driven Bloody Palace, this is somewhat lacking; due in part to the limitations of Dante’s combat, and the DMC3 option of choice and variety of enemies. I’d rather have waves and waves of enemies keep coming – like some sort of survival mode where the adrenaline hits the peak and the words “MORE” manifest themselves like some natural empowerment invoked in the over-top-onslaught.
AUDIO
Much like the whole package, the music and voice work is a love it or hate it affair. You either roll with it and have a blast, or fuck off; playing mostly for the mostly solid combat. The action effects: gun shots w/ ricochet, sword hits and swipes, explosions; all impacts sound fantastic and properly cranked up matching the hyper exaggerated action. A cohesive package on the audio front.
The music: even more amped; a soundtrack that not only induces a boost of adrenaline, but adds to the rush. Featuring a nice range of the instrumental, the operatic, to the industrial; a cool mix; nothing quite like the excitement elicited from “The Time Has Come”, it’s also nice to hear a return of “Lock and Load”. “Shall Never Surrender” is a little bit too feely, overly so in so far as the credits, though it worked to great dramatic impact in the TGS 2007 Trailer coupled with Nero’s ‘Kyrie’-scream. It’s a stark contrast to “Devils Never Cry” (DMC3) where the two vocal elements were harmonious and complimented each other. The rest of the sound track is great – further fueling the rush. In addition; a nice touch featured; hitting the pause menu switches the soundtrack to a tinny audio; like hearing it from someone else’s headphones.
Johnny Bosch pretty much saves Nero from being a whiny prat, though Nero is still a punk, there’s a range of energy, pain and power embodied in his voice and in particular scream imbued with evocative anguish; which should come as no surprise from the man behind the famous “TETSUO!”-scream from Akira [spoiler] another time he's played a character trapped inside some giant demon spawn thing [/spoiler]. It further augments the combat with his lines delivered or his yells upon successive strikes; true to his character.
The voice work is solid all round; Reuben Langdon returns as Dante; performing older yet still possessing the style and energy of his youth; just more responsible, and more of a classic gunslinger. There is pure fun evoked from this performance, bringing more energy to the excitement of the cutscenes – the Dant V. Angus in particular. There’s some excellent riffs and banter between Nero and Agnus; making for some amusement is Agnus’ stutter. Lady doesn’t have a large role, but is the voice of Kyrie as well, so all’s good – can’t argue with her presence even if it’s just exposition.
WRAP UP
DMC4, a transition game; of last to next gen – the older flaws holding it back from beoming the solid title it needs to be, but it's heading in the right direction. Whilst it’s not Devil May Cry 3 [Special Edition], it’s Devil May Cry HD for new comers, yet still retaining that love-it-or-hate-it over the top ‘style’ fun (and perhaps, to some degree: cheesiness). Those who couldn’t tolerate DMC3 won’t necessarily dig what’s here; except the translations are better this time round, making for less awkward moments.
This title is a bit too melodramatic at times in so far as the story, but the gameplay and action is addictive. I’d rather have had a more Dante-centric game (with his Eastwood/Lee influence) especially after the bonus Epilogue 2 cutscene; like 3 shots of adrenaline crux impalement "lets rock!" indeed; Here's looking forward to DMC5 - preferably following Dante and the babes. Until such time: I’ll be playing DMC3: SE with intermittent glances at Trish and Lady’s impressive ‘next gen’ assets.
Rating: 8.8/10
Cumjackulation Rating: 9.0/10
(ratings explained)