Dante is the son of a legendary devil-knight Sparda. Two millennia ago, Sparda turned his back on his kin, after the Devil Prince Mundus attempted to lead an army of darkness to take over the Earth realm. Mundus was defeated by Sparda, and banished from the land. Unfortunately for the citizens of Earth, Mundus is assembling his forces on the tiny, remote island of Mallet. With the inhuman blood flowing through his veins, and supernatural powers inherited from his father, Dante is the only man who can stand against them.
The game starts with a small narrative and introduction to the main characters of the game, and then you’re flung into the thick of it. Dante has a few toys at his disposal to begin with; namely a sword and two pistols. These two weapon types allow for you to develop some fairly impressive combos; such as launching an enemy into the air with an upward swipe, riddling him with bullets from your two pistols, and then hitting him on the way down with a jumping thrust. There’s dozens of different combinations to work out. As you defeat enemies, you are rated on the methods you used to dispose of them, and these will account to your end of level ranking. There are a wide variety of boss battles featured in the game and all of these are very intense fights. In fact, just about all of the fighting sequences in the game feature a high level of intensity
Throughout the game you also find extensions to your life bar and Devil Trigger meter. The Devil Trigger meter allows you to change into your demonic form, and rain hell down upon your enemies. The meter is filled up by defeating enemies, and special abilities for the forms can be purchased with red orbs. Red Orbs are collected after you defeat enemies. If you finish enemies off in a more impressive fashion, you get more Red Orbs. As well as buying upgrades for your devil form, you also purchase upgrades for the two main weapons, Ifrit and Alastor. Alastor is a lightning sword, similar to the Force Edge, but allows you to transform into the Alastor form, as well as giving you access to nifty powers such as a double jump. Ifrit is a set of flaming gauntlets which allow you to perform various martial arts moves, and transform into the Ifrit devil, who fancies a bit of fire here and there.
Dante is much easier to control than his Resident Evil and Dino Crisis brethren, as he moves in a fashion similar to Mario, rather than the tank-like method used in RE. Unfortunately, this method of control can be slightly problematic in some levels due to the fact the game uses fixed camera angles in a lot of instances. Level design is still pretty good, though thanks to the camera, you may run into scenery now and then due to the way the control changes when the camera angle shifts. In most situations the camera will let you see the portion of the screen that you require; the only time it doesn’t really seem to be co-operative in this respect is in the first fight against the magma spider. Another factor that should be noted is the lousy PAL conversion this game has received – close to 40% of the screen is taken up by black bars, and the action is noticeably slower when compared to the NTSC version.
The main quest of Devil May Cry lasts about 10-12 hours for the average player. There are a few extra difficulty modes which will unlock new costumes and the like, as well as the much feared Dante Must Die mode; a difficulty that strikes fear in the hearts of gamers everywhere. However, when it’s all said and done, Devil May Cry is still over fairly quickly.
Devil May Cry is no slouch in the graphical stakes, featuring high detail models and environments, all at a smooth 60 frames per second. Models and animation are the main highlight, with excellent animation on Dante himself, especially his trench coat. His movements are like liquid and smooth as silk. The detail on his model is also fairly good, although his guns appear to be a little too square. Dante’s overall look is fairly stylish, though he can come off as a bit of a ponce at times. The enemies and other characters in the games have seen a similar level of detail poured into their appearances, and look excellent on the whole, especially Nelo Angelo, the marionettes and the shadow enemies.
The region of Mallet Island is filled with ruins and gothic castles and mansions. The area generally looks worn and decrepit, and heightens the atmosphere of the whole experience. Texturing on the levels is satisfactory, and the level of detail is above average. Certain areas are a little generic, such as the sewers, but it is all leveled out.
Music is delivered via spine tingling orchestral and ambient tunes mixed up with a bit of hard rock and thrash music, dynamically switching between the styles when the action heats up. Sound effects are of a very high quality; effects are crystal clear and brilliantly orchestrated, though a lack of any significant surround sound is a slight disadvantage to those who have the equipment. Voice acting is full of that cheesy Capcom “charm”, which has a relatively large detraction on one’s ability to follow the plot (which is kind of crud, anyway).
Capcom have done well with their first major Playstation 2 release, providing a fairly solid action experience. Unfortunately the plot stinks, the voice acting stinks and it’s all over too quickly. The poor PAL conversion is also a major factor in contributing to the adjustment of this mark to what a PAL gamer should expect, though all of these factors have an opportunity to be fixed in the sequel, which you know is on its way (just a matter of days). Due to the fact its release was over a year ago, this game should be relatively easy to find at a budget price, and a lower price point may negate the length factor in the minds of some purchasers.
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