I have been an Xbox gamer for a long time, always owning but rarely using my Sony Playstation 2 during the last gaming generation. As a loyal Microsoft fanboy there were always a couple different franchises that I missed playing. Other than the obvious Metal Gear, God of War, and Final Fantasy series the one that bothered me the most was the Japanese style action game Devil May Cry (and subsequent two sequels). When the announcement was made that Capcom’s Devil May Cry 4 would be shipping simultaneously on the Xbox 360 we here at the PX360 offices were all overjoyed beyond belief. After much hype and plenty of waiting the time is finally upon us and it was well worth the wait, for the most part at least. For people new to the DMC series number four will satisfy on most fronts, as will it for die-hard fans of the franchise. On the other hand people looking for a game that breaks new boundaries will be sorely disappointed. Devil May Cry 4 does so much more right than it does wrong and for this it is a game that we can easily recommend for any fans of action style game, as well as for any gamers out there who are familiar with the series and just want more of the same.
There was a ton of hype surrounding Devil May Cry 4; from exclusivity news to unseen screenshots this game oozed gaming news for the past year. For a game that had this much hype around it the launch was surprisingly uneventful. It will be exciting to see what kind of sales numbers the game did in the US because Japanese numbers were released last week and Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. Melee owned it severely. Logistics and the hype-machine aside let’s dive in and see what Capcom brings to the table and whether or not it warrants a full sixty-dollar purchase. The big shocker with DMC4 was the news that Dante would no longer be the driving force behind the game, that honor would be bestowed upon a young man with a deep soul, Nero. Fortunately for old-school fans Dante does become playable for the latter part of the game but for now let’s focus on Nero and what he brings to the Devil May Cry series. The main story revolves around revenge, betrayal, and love; developing and twisting over the course of twenty levels of gameplay. Overall we were very pleased with the way the story unfolded and the pace of the game throughout the campaign. Because we don’t want to spoil too much there is no reason to go into detail on how the story unfolds. Simply put Nero sees Dante do something he thinks is evil and he begins to chase him all over a demon-ridden world. Around half way through the game players will get to switch over to controlling Dante once again and then come back to Nero as the story closes.
Given the second half of the game (where you play as Dante) does play entirely different because many of Nero’s features give a big impact on how players will complete each level, of which there are 20 total. There are multiple bosses in DMC4 and each one has it’s own unique feel to it; these are some of the best boss battles we have ever seen in an action videogame. Each one of the boss fights will be revisited three total times while playing the main story because you will fight as Nero, then Dante, then Nero again. As we said earlier in the review this gameplay style is not all bad because the game is just so entirely different when playing as either Nero or Dante. The most obvious difference in the two characters is Nero’s use of the devil arm. Using this arm Nero can pull items/enemies towards him as well as travel between warp points scattered all over the level. The impact that this devil arm has on the gameplay is enormous and fighting the same boss monster without it feels like a different experience all together. By the time we finished Devil May Cry 4 our first time through, on human mode, about ten hours had gone by. This is not a short game by any means and there is plenty of exploration/unlocking to do if that intrigues you, achievement-wanting gamers will be spending a lot of time with Capcom’s latest action game.
