User Review : Devil May Cry 4

Its over the top, and its lot of fun

Sometimes, over the top creations become art. Sometimes, they become strangely appealing and intriguing. That’s the reason Kill bill worked, that’s the reason anime is famous and that’s the same reason that Devil may cry series is famous. Devil May cry 4 follows the same tradition. What would you call a game where your gun has infinite bullets, your character can remain in air while slashing demons, bullets hit each other mid-air and we carry swords so big that even picking them up would be hard, let alone slash someone? Over the top, obviously. But just like things I mentioned above, it works wonderfully. It’s amazing fun and apart from a few frustrating boss battles, wont bore you in all its play through.
Dante returns for fourth time in this latest installment, but he is not the main playable character. It’s Nero, a guy who totally looks like Dante’s brother and has one demon arm, which is probably the most powerful weapon in the game.
It starts with a beautiful cinematic, showing a ceremony of some kind in a grand hall. Kyrie (Nero’s love interest in the game, even on the first glance you will know she is the one) looks towards an empty seat, obviously waiting for Nero. She starts singing a song (which is really really good. This song is called ‘out of darkness’), and then we are shown Nero who is running fast, obviously to attend the ceremony. But some scarecrow demons stop his way. The song goes on and Nero keeps running towards his destination, killing demons in between. He reaches exactly when the song ends.
Everyone then starts praying, but Nero is bored of it. He has bought a gift, a necklace, for Kyrie. Everything seems fine and everyone is happy, but then suddenly someone enters and kills Sanctus (the leader of the clan which held the ceremony). Who is he? It’s Dante!!

Nero feels Kyrie is in danger, so he faces off Dante then. Rest of the story is yours to see.

Gameplay-
Your first mission will be, obviously, facing Dante. The first thing you would notice is controls. You will loathe them at first, for there is no mouse support. Yes, you read it right. You can’t control the camera most of the times. And even when you do, it will be by arrow keys and not by mouse. It will suck greatly initially. Controls will feel strange, awkward and hard. But hang in there, I assure you that you will get used to them. In no way I am saying that it is the correct decision to not add Mouse support, but what I am indeed saying is that they aren’t as bad as they seem initially.
Once you get used to the controls, the game slowly draws you in. The combat is what takes the cake. Though there are many many combos to make in it, I just used three or four generic styles and got through the whole game. But for what it’s worth, whenever a combo happens, its deeply satisfying. For a third person game, puzzles are integral part, and DMC4 is no exception. Most of the puzzles are actually easy to solve, but they soon get boring. They only appear to be delaying us to reach much more satisfying combat sequences. Some puzzles are literally worthy of loathe, like a fountain-dice puzzle which comes just before the final battle and a forest mist puzzle.

Game is really easy, especially at easy settings. There will be no challenge until you reach a boss. Even most of the bosses are easy to defeat, even more so when you are controlling Nero, cause his devil-bringer arm makes everything a smooth ride. Other than puzzles, my other gripe with the gameplay is repetitive level designs. Initially you feel that they are varied, but later in the game, you will backtrack all the same levels again, just as a different character. The enemies are repetitive too. Especially the scarecrows. They are real easy foes to defeat, with no practical importance other than to extend the gameplay.

9/10.

Graphics-
Visually, DMC4 deserves all the praise it can get. It looks so good that I wouldn’t have minded if it was running at 40-45 FPS on my system. But I was pleasantly surprised that it ran at an average 90FPS, with never coming below 60FPS. It was real smooth. MT Framework (on which DMC4 runs) engine is one hell of an engine. Right on par with Source engine as best optimized engine in my opinion. Whats more praiseworthy was the fact that unlike most of the engines, it gave same FPS in interiors as in outdoors.
The art design too, is superb. Every single wall is intricately designed and Nero and Dante will be travelling from such vistas which will make your eyes pop out. Now, if only there was mouse support.

9.5/10

Story, Presentation-

Story is not really the strongest point, but the wonderfully acted and choreographed sequences make it worth. Yes they are over the top, but that’s what makes them interesting. Like a sequence in which Dante talks to one of his strongest foes while doing opera. It might sound funny to read but is a sheer fun to watch. Oh yes, like most of the games, this game too uses females only as a pleasing addition to eyes. They are as sultry as you would imagine and Capcom has no qualms in showing cleavages and flesh.

8/10

AI, Controls, Stability-

I have already talked about controls. AI is run of the mill, and it actually isn’t a bad thing because it is no shooter that they need to take cover and all. They need to attack you upfront and that’s what they do.
Voice acting is on par with any game out there. Every character is well voiced, but Nero and Dante take the cake for being the coolest ones. Actually I should point out that, while Nero is cool too, Dante is far cooler a character than Nero. He is so arrogant that it makes bosses look like dancing puppies in front of him, even before the fight starts.
Soundtrack is a strange blend of metal and orchestral score. There are a few really good soundtracks, but then there are some metal songs which I personally don’t like much. But that is a personal taste and obviously is different for every other person.
Technically, the game is rock solid. I already pointed out that the engine is wonderfully optimized, but its really really stable too. The game never ever crashed even once! Now this is something which is becoming a rarity in modern games.

8.5/10

Bottom-line- Don’t let the bizarre control scheme scare you. It’s a wonderful game, both visually and gameplay wise. It is something you will realize only after playing, what you were missing out.

8.75/10