Devil May Cry 4 PS3

The Devil May Cry series has been around since the beginning of the PS2 and has had a rocky history. The first and third iterations had rave reviews, but the second and this fourth iteration have had a bad reception. Personally, I believe the second game was not as bad as suggested, but very easy to beat. This fourth entry into the series I have mixed feelings about. The game is basically a clone of the last game, but with better graphics. That can be a blessing and a curse these days.

Graphic and sound:

The graphics in Devil May Cry 4 are nice compared to the earlier versions. Everything has a smooth feel to it, and the gothic inspired architecture is eye catching. My only complaints on the graphics are that the enemies need to be more varied, and the landscape needs to be more open instead of the small closed areas that need to be loaded all the time through the use of doors and other portals. There is no way that the either the PS3 or the XBOX 360 needs to load these levels independently when games like GTA IV are streaming large city areas with no visible loading times except when going from outdoors to indoors. The layout of levels in Devil May Cry 4 should be a sandbox.

The sound in Devil May Cry 4 is tolerable, but sometimes the heavy rock background music becomes intrusive into the gameplay and I just want to mute it. The voiceovers are well done, but the scripts are horrendous. The dialogue used is laughable at best, especially the annoying speech used when performing combos.

Gameplay and controls:

The game focuses around a character named Nero who looks very similar to Dante. His love of his life is kidnapped and the game centers on investigating the cause of demons appearing everywhere. The player takes control of Nero for half of the game and then Dante for the other half. Nero has a demon claw as his special ability where he can grab and slam enemies and grapple to areas out of reach. The game is very linear, with areas only being opened as a result of defeating bosses. The boss fights are actually very fun with many unique bosses. My only complaint with the bosses is having to defeat them twice, although the second time around, they were even easier than the first. Another problem is the annoying level loading that occurs even in small areas that could obviously be loaded into memory.

The control layout is similar to the older games in the series and easy to pick up and learn. The controls were very responsive to input, with no noticeable lag. Camera perspective becomes an issue when maneuvering through some of the areas, as the camera occludes important jump points, and enemies at certain angles.

 Overall thoughts:

     The game could have been a renewing of a series that has had a mixed past, but the introduction of another Dante clone (Nero), has added to a more confusing storyline. The level loading is another issue that I cannot stress enough. These days, level design should be open with a free roaming camera. Apparently, Capcom has not learned from all of the other fixed camera failures in the past. Also, the install time on the PS3 is horrendous. I swear I waited more than 30 minutes for the install to complete. The XBOX 360 version does not install to the hard drive and loads quickly from the DVD-DL.  The game was not ground breaking in any way and was more of a tech demo of what the series would look like on a next gen system. This is definitely a game to rent, not buy, unless you are a loyal fan to the series.