Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition on PS5 is winging (air hiking?) its way to my front door as we speak. I’m a fan of the franchise, though obviously not a very good one. I picked up Devil May Cry and Devil May Cry 3 on launch on PS2, but skipped 4, didn’t bother with the Ninja Theory reboot and am late to the party on 5.
Now, after it sat unplayed in my Steam library for four years, I’ve finally put some decent time into Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition. The vanilla DMC4 hit Xbox 360 and PS3 way back in 2008, though was given a lick of paint and some new characters for this 2015 Special Edition re-release.
First impressions were great. After recently replaying DMC3 it took me a little time to get used to new character Nero’s modified move set, but it felt sliding on a new pair of the same type shoes you’ve been wearing for years. The graphical upgrade for the 2015 release means it still looks good – nobody’s going to mistake it for a modern game but textures are sharp, characters and enemies are well-animated and the game is crammed full of the over-the-top bravado I want from Devil May Cry.
But I was bracing for what I knew was coming mid-way through the game. The most common criticism is that Devil May Cry 4 has a ‘there-and-back-again’ design. You fight your way to the mid-way point of the game as Nero, then retrace those footsteps as Dante.
It’s not ideal, but I was having so much fun in the first ten stages that I figured I’d be able to fight through it. After all, with bosses like a giant demon frog with sexy-lady-lures dangling off it’s head to entrance men or a humungous flying half snake half plant woman how can you go wrong?
Then I got there and wouldn’t you know it, everyone was right. It is a drag. The game is suffering from a serious lack of content and assets and there’s a sense that it ran into a hard deadline and was rushed out the door. This series has often re-used environments, but there’s little excitement in progression when you know exactly what you’ll be seeing next. Plus, recycling the same bosses three times in a single campaign playthrough is a bit much.
It’s annoying because Devil May Cry 4 has rock-solid character action gameplay. I really enjoyed the way Nero adds interesting wrinkles to Dante’s general move and being able to rapidly cycle between trickster/swordmaster/royal guard/gunsliger mid-combo feels great. I also dabbled in playing as bonus characters Vergil, Trish and Lady, all of whom have their own quirks to master (that I don’t have time to do).
But the game feels a mile-deep and an inch-wide. Perhaps if I was seriously into the Bloody Palace mode or getting deep into Dante Must Die I’d appreciate all that, but what I really wanted was a main campaign that didn’t feel like a desperate attempt to make four hours content last twelve hours.
Oh well, at least it had some fun cutscenes, a nicely nonsensical plot, cackling theatrical baddies and a city-sized boss to whomp on in the final chapters. Roll on Devil May Cry 5!
Pixel Hunted 