Capcom - 2002

Resident Evil, eat your heart out. Ok, you all remember when Capcom brought third-person survival horror home with the original Resident Evil for Playstation, right? You know, the one where that first zombie you thought you'd killed jumps up and grabs you, making you scream like a little girl and soil your trousers, just before your character dies a horrible death (the first of many). I think pretty much everyone who's ever seen R.E. associates that game with that moment. Anyway, you run around scared for hours, during most of which you're completely without useful weapons...or at least without the ammunition to use them as anything but bludgeons, which, unfortunately, you're not allowed to do. Well, five years and three sequels later (five if you count Onimusha 1 and 2...see the articles section for the related history), Capcom finally offers us a little payback on all those g*%!&#@$d creatures of the night.

Devil May Cry is the story of Dante, a professional devil hunter, half-breed demon (picture Vampire Hunter D, only a lot more fun), who gets involved with a pulchritudinous demon femme going by the name of Trish, who bears a striking resemblance to Dante's dead mother (when she was alive, stupid). She leads him into a castle on a quest to slay the demon overlord, Mundus, who killed his mother and brother before being sealed away by Dante's father, the legendary dark (read "demon") knight Sparda. Let this be a lesson to you, boys -- never let yourself be led around by a pair of big, luscious, supple, enticing...um...er...what was I saying?

Anyway, battle begins right away, and ends when you beat the game. I don't exaggerate in promising there's never a dull moment from the very first second. You'll learn some basic moves at first -- a few sword slashes based on d-pad forward, back or neutral plus the properly timed pushes of the O button. The most important of these involves sweeping your sword upward to launch your enemy into the air, then unloading your INFINITE AMMO twin pistols (all guns are infinite ammo in this game -- take that, Resident Evil) to juggle him while your combo meter builds to the vaunted Super level. The good news for non-fighting gamers is that the swordplay really doesn't require such expertise. You could conceiveably beat the game on Regular difficulty without ever learning any of the cooler techniques, though you'd probably be bored stupid doing the same four-hit attack on everyone (plus, your grade would suck). Speaking of grades, you get one at the end of each level you complete, based on your time, items collected, damage sustained, and combos achieved.

Adding to the RPG element of this "action/rpg" is the ability to collect and trade gems for items and new devil techniques, which you can use in each of your two respective Devil forms. Your devil forms, incidentally, are what allow a novice to beat this game. When you go devil, you kill EVERYTHING. Even when you don't use those special techniques you purchased, your devil power somehow infuses your sword/gauntlets, and even your guns (hey, I don't question...I just enjoy the bloodbath) with extra bone-shattering force. As an added bonus, except on the absolute hardest difficulty, it also replenishes your life meter for as long as you are in Devil mode.

Also in the RPG vein, there are twelve secret missions to be found throughout the game. They range from really simple puzzles, to really tough puzzles, to really simple combat, to really tough combat, to ridiculously tough puzzles COMBINED with impossible, gang-up-on-you-and-rape-you-with-your-own-weapons combat. Each challenge rewards you with a blue orb fragment, four of which combine to increase your health meter length...though, if you're good enough to beat all of these, your health meter's plenty big already. I had to wait till my second run-through to do a couple. Wait a minute...what was that?

Yes, that's right, RPG-fans -- this game really delivers what we've all craved for so long and have so rarely received: replay with your leveled-up character. When you beat the game on one difficulty, you get to choose a difficulty through which to play the whole game again, using your personalized Dante, with all the stats, skills, weapons, and items he had at the end of the last time through. To increase your revisited fun, you also have the chance to get two new versions of your main man to begin leveling-up all over again. The first you get for beating the game on Hard mode ... he's just a Victorian English-looking Dante with a monocle, a slightly different sword and one different Devil form. If you can get through Hard, though, you then have a shot at the greatest prize of all: Super Dante. This uber-form of your hardcore hero comes equipped with -- are you ready for this? -- INFINITE DEVIL METER. Remember what I said happens when Dante's in Devil mode? Yeah, you get to do that all the time now. Only trouble is, to get Super Dante, you must first beat the nightmarish hell that is Dante-Must-Die mode. Here, your Devil mode no longer heals you, your enemies are the strongest possible from the get-go, the damage you deal is reduced to a pathetic shadow of your former might, and, just for added spice, every enemy you face that you fail to kill within a matter of seconds gets an aura of nigh-invulnerability, which essentially translates to an aura of "beat-the-stuffing-out-of-you-while-you-cry-like-a-little-girl." In fact, having beaten this mode after countless hours, I can safely say that this is a true Catch-22. To get Super Dante, you must beat Dante-Must-Die Mode, but to beat DMD mode, you basically need Super Dante. Still, the reward is well worth it...at least, that's what I tell myself when I ask where those weeks of my life went.

What I liked: Almost everything. The character designs were fantastic. The weapons and enemies were cool as hell. The levels were engaging, the puzzles stimulating, and the action non-stop. Even the voice-acting and the story were great. In fact, once you get Super Dante and can go through the game in about an hour-and-a-half, you feel like you're just watching this amazing, bad-ass movie.

What I disliked: Ok, Capcom...we've talked about this before, but I gotta say it again. Camera angles! What were you thinking? Is the challenge of fighting an enemy that's off-screen supposed to be part of the fun? 'Cause lemme just tell ya, it ain't. Also, DMD mode...JEEEEEZ LOUISE! Why do you hate me? Was it my constant bitching about camera angles through the first two difficulties that pissed you off so much? I don't understand. Dante...used to do damage...now, NOT. Enemies...used to be little marionettes...now, shadow beasts (you'll learn to hate these things...trust me). Devil mode healing...used to save me...now, NOT. Oh, and Nightmare (the next-to-last enemy of the game)...used to take damage...now, NOT.

What to expect: Resident evil on speed. Hard-core action. Great, if simplistic, story. Pretty graphics. A hero so kick-ass he'll smack down anyone in the video game world, including Ashley Riot (face it, Hawke...Dante pulls swords through his own torso on a disturbingly regular basis).

What not to expect: Random encounters. Needless leveling-up. Time to stop and smell the roses.

What sets it apart: It's a lot deeper than a platformer, and a lot shallower than a real RPG.

Ratings On:

Controls: 8 - Despite the opinions of some, *cough, cough Master Duck* who judge after a half-hour of play, the arrangement is quite economical and intutive. Anyone with three-year-old motor skills or better will get the hang of these keys in no time, and their organization on the controller is so good that you can literally do every function simultaneously without needing a third hand or having two change your grip.

Graphics: 8 - I think. What the hell did I give GTAIII? 'Cause these are better. But not as good as DOA2.

Sound: 7 - It was good. The gunfire sounded fine, and that's the main thing you hear...all the time. Also, the voice acting didn't grate on the nerves, which is rare and a plus.

Style: 10 - This is where this game shines. It would be just a 3-D platformer, but Capcom took the time and energy to make it look and play like cream, or silk, or something else cool and smooth.

1st hour: 10 - The intro alone makes Dante the toughest guy in the video game world, except maybe Yuri from Shadowhearts. Is it more challenging to reattach your own severed arm or to pull yourself off a six-foot bastard sword...over the hilt?

5th hour: 8 - Beat Easy mode, loved the ending, am now learning what the game is supposed to be like via Hard difficulty.

10th hour: 7 -Beat Hard mode and 20 out of 23 stages on Dante-Must-Die mode. Um, is it just me, or does Nightmare not seem to be taking any damage after about an hour's worth of pummeling him/her/it mercilessly?

1st week: 2 - Holy crap! Doesn't anything hurt Nightmare on this level?! This game is ruining my life!

1st month: 1 - SON OF A...! NIGHTMAAAAAAARE!!

#1 thing I hate about this game: Nightmare (3rd appearance) on Dante Must Die difficulty.

by Ari