The Devil Did Cry When He Saw How Awesome This Game Was
*NOTE* This Review was written on another website by me and because of the Giantbomb format, It won't carry the website links along with it. So you'll have to do without a youtube video and 5 screenshots.
Genre: Action/Plat former/RPG/3rd Person Shooter
Rated: M for Mature
Game play See those genres listed? DMC4 is such a diverse game, you can’t put it into one genre. It’s got a lot of action both game play and cut scene wise—in fact, the cut scenes themselves play like an action movie; it’s got the puzzles and movement of a plat former; The ability to unlock new abilities, weapons, and earn more health & Devil Trigger (to be explained later) a la your average RPG; and a perfect blend of swords and gunplay, resulting in a somewhat 3rd person shooter. Keep in mind this is all one game. You will find all of the stated above in THIS ONE GAME!
Let’s start with the story. Although this is the 4th game in the series, you don’t need to have ANY experience to DMC whatsoever. I admit this was my first game, and I understand it completely. If you are curious about the previous installments, however, you can unlock a slideshow of sorts in the gallery with the title “History of Devil May Cry” after you beat the game once.
Anyway, the story starts as a young man named Nero (probably around his 20s) runs towards a church, with music singing in the background. He has a sling on one of his arms (right, I think). He makes it to the church, where a cult known as The Order of The Sword has come to worship their deity, which is ironically a demon. Now here’s the only little tidbit you should research to fully understand the story right away.|||The Demon Knight Sparda fought in a war between humans and demons in an attempt to wipe out the human race. Sparda stood up against his brethren and sealed off the Hellgate, the entrance to the demon realm and human realm. Before he died, he had twin sons (you only need to worry about one in particular). The one we care about in this story is Dante.||| Quick Note about Dante: He is a laid back, arrogant, smart-alecky demon hunter (also a half demon) that is famous throughout the world for his devil slaying abilities.
So anyway, as The Order of the Sword prays, they are interrupted by none other than Dante himself as he crashes through the church’s glass ceiling. He then pulls out his gun and fires a bullet into the Prophet’s head. Blood splatters on Dante’s face, and as the citizens of Fortuna panic, Nero stands up and fights Dante. And then he…… you know what, this beginning scene that sets the mood for the whole game (and practically a trailer so there will be minimal spoilers) is probably best explained from a youtube video, not a block of text. Yes I know, waste of typing space, but I had to put the story portion somewhere, right? Besides, laziness isn’t an excuse.
Opening cut scene Devil May Cry 4
Are you done watching the video? Okay, now that the gist of the story is done, onto the game play.
DMC4 is divided into 6 increasingly difficult modes. Two are unlocked from the beginning, Human and Devil Hunter. Newcomers to DMC are suggested to try Human Mode. I did so, and only died at the second boss(first real boss). It wasn’t difficult, I just wasn’t used to the massive demon bosses the game throws at you. Each time you complete the game on a difficulty, things are unlocked. New modes, gallery, and Bloody Palace. Bloody Palace is unlocked after you complete Devil Hunter mode, which is basically a Survival Mode.
The game is divided into 20 levels, each taking no more than a half hour if you know where to go(you won’t get lost often, however) and the shortest I played was 30 seconds (first level, basically a tutorial then a boss. The boss fight is when the timer starts. So that said the boss is easy). During each mission, you go through the level fighting demons. You have health and Devil Trigger(which is basically a magic system, allowing special attacks and powered up moves). Now here’s where the fun begins.
Each demon has its own attacks, weaknesses, and health points. You must kill them (obviously). It sounds simple and easy on paper, but believe me, it’s not. See, you can’t just buttonmash the attack button. There is a Style System, which grades you on the varied moves you use. So variation of swords and gunplay is needed to succeed. Each grade has a name, starting with the letter of your ‘actual’ grade as you are fighting. The grading is Deadly, Carnage, Brutal, Atomic, Stylin’, Smokin’ Style, and Super Smokin’ Style.
Now this isn’t just damage either. In order to bring up your grade, you have to do it in one big combo. Your grade is lowered if you get damaged at all during your fighting. As you bring your grade up, the style bar will be harder to rise. Don’t worry, if the style bar goes down, you stay at that rank. So if you need to jump out of the battle to reposition yourself, you won’t lose your combo.
Why is this grading so important? At the end of each mission you are grading on 3 areas with grades ranging from D to S, as well as your overall mission ranking. The areas are Time, Style, and Red Orbs (Currency to buy items at the store, based on the percentage of all of the red orbs in the level you collected). Your Style and Overall Ranking also determine how many Proud Souls you get (Currency to buy new abilities at the store). Every item and ability has a start price. But as you buy items/abilities, the price of the unbought items/abilities will increase. So when saving up for item/abilities, you must take into account the price raise. Thankfully you can refund any abilities (you can’t refund items) you have purchased. So if you think that new move you just bought was a waste, you can get 100% of the orbs you spent on that move back to spend on something else. Your score can be uploaded to online leader boards, to compare yourself to players around the world.
Sound The music is PHENOMENAL! Not only are there custom hard rock tracks (with lyrics), there is also some beautiful instrumental and choirs singing. But the music isn’t the highlight. The voice acting is EPIC. Each character has a well acted voice which really brings out the personality of the characters. The script is VERY well written, and the well-delivered dialogues makes it all the better, with plenty of one-liners and monologues and conversations and insults and…. You get the idea.
Graphics The graphics are bright and beautiful in outside locations, and beautifully gloomy (oxymoron haha!!!) in most inside locations. Each environment is distinctly different from the last. No recycled buildings here. The battles never slow down or lag no matter how many enemies show up onscreen. But what really shines (Irony haha!!!) is the cut scenes. The characters are extremely detailed, and their lips move right with the voice. There is blood, which is somewhat realistic, but even the blood glimmers in awe! The cut scenes are too perfect. TOO PERFECT!!!!
Glitches There are actually no glitches I encountered.
What's Good –Perfect blend of sword and gunplay
-Interesting Style System
-Non-Stop action packed battles
-6 difficulties and survival mode
-Detailed environments
-Detailed characters in cut scenes
-Well-written script (and excellent, likeable characters, even the villains)
-Top notch voice acting
-Leaderboards
-Many abilities in game play
-Excellent Replay value (you’ll want to play through all 6 difficulties)
What's Bad -Lots of loading screens (but this can be considered a good thing. Each loading screen only lasts about 5 seconds, and this seems to make lag and unsynched cut scenes nonexistent)
- Big jump between difficulties
-Same battle music for every fight against non-boss characters
-Lots of backtracking
Overall I give Devil May Cry 4 a 9.5 out of 10. It would be perfect were it not for [mostly] unvaried battle music and ridiculous backtracking. Seriously, you get to the half point in the game, then must trace your steps ALL THE WAY BACK TO THE BEGINNING in order to face the final boss. This can actually be somewhat forgiven, as the experiences are new as you play as a different character.
ScreenshotsGameplay 1
Promo Picture
Gameplay 2
Gameplay 3
Dante
Nero
Genre: Action/Plat former/RPG/3rd Person Shooter
Rated: M for Mature
Game play See those genres listed? DMC4 is such a diverse game, you can’t put it into one genre. It’s got a lot of action both game play and cut scene wise—in fact, the cut scenes themselves play like an action movie; it’s got the puzzles and movement of a plat former; The ability to unlock new abilities, weapons, and earn more health & Devil Trigger (to be explained later) a la your average RPG; and a perfect blend of swords and gunplay, resulting in a somewhat 3rd person shooter. Keep in mind this is all one game. You will find all of the stated above in THIS ONE GAME!
Let’s start with the story. Although this is the 4th game in the series, you don’t need to have ANY experience to DMC whatsoever. I admit this was my first game, and I understand it completely. If you are curious about the previous installments, however, you can unlock a slideshow of sorts in the gallery with the title “History of Devil May Cry” after you beat the game once.
Anyway, the story starts as a young man named Nero (probably around his 20s) runs towards a church, with music singing in the background. He has a sling on one of his arms (right, I think). He makes it to the church, where a cult known as The Order of The Sword has come to worship their deity, which is ironically a demon. Now here’s the only little tidbit you should research to fully understand the story right away.|||The Demon Knight Sparda fought in a war between humans and demons in an attempt to wipe out the human race. Sparda stood up against his brethren and sealed off the Hellgate, the entrance to the demon realm and human realm. Before he died, he had twin sons (you only need to worry about one in particular). The one we care about in this story is Dante.||| Quick Note about Dante: He is a laid back, arrogant, smart-alecky demon hunter (also a half demon) that is famous throughout the world for his devil slaying abilities.
So anyway, as The Order of the Sword prays, they are interrupted by none other than Dante himself as he crashes through the church’s glass ceiling. He then pulls out his gun and fires a bullet into the Prophet’s head. Blood splatters on Dante’s face, and as the citizens of Fortuna panic, Nero stands up and fights Dante. And then he…… you know what, this beginning scene that sets the mood for the whole game (and practically a trailer so there will be minimal spoilers) is probably best explained from a youtube video, not a block of text. Yes I know, waste of typing space, but I had to put the story portion somewhere, right? Besides, laziness isn’t an excuse.
Opening cut scene Devil May Cry 4
Are you done watching the video? Okay, now that the gist of the story is done, onto the game play.
DMC4 is divided into 6 increasingly difficult modes. Two are unlocked from the beginning, Human and Devil Hunter. Newcomers to DMC are suggested to try Human Mode. I did so, and only died at the second boss(first real boss). It wasn’t difficult, I just wasn’t used to the massive demon bosses the game throws at you. Each time you complete the game on a difficulty, things are unlocked. New modes, gallery, and Bloody Palace. Bloody Palace is unlocked after you complete Devil Hunter mode, which is basically a Survival Mode.
The game is divided into 20 levels, each taking no more than a half hour if you know where to go(you won’t get lost often, however) and the shortest I played was 30 seconds (first level, basically a tutorial then a boss. The boss fight is when the timer starts. So that said the boss is easy). During each mission, you go through the level fighting demons. You have health and Devil Trigger(which is basically a magic system, allowing special attacks and powered up moves). Now here’s where the fun begins.
Each demon has its own attacks, weaknesses, and health points. You must kill them (obviously). It sounds simple and easy on paper, but believe me, it’s not. See, you can’t just buttonmash the attack button. There is a Style System, which grades you on the varied moves you use. So variation of swords and gunplay is needed to succeed. Each grade has a name, starting with the letter of your ‘actual’ grade as you are fighting. The grading is Deadly, Carnage, Brutal, Atomic, Stylin’, Smokin’ Style, and Super Smokin’ Style.
Now this isn’t just damage either. In order to bring up your grade, you have to do it in one big combo. Your grade is lowered if you get damaged at all during your fighting. As you bring your grade up, the style bar will be harder to rise. Don’t worry, if the style bar goes down, you stay at that rank. So if you need to jump out of the battle to reposition yourself, you won’t lose your combo.
Why is this grading so important? At the end of each mission you are grading on 3 areas with grades ranging from D to S, as well as your overall mission ranking. The areas are Time, Style, and Red Orbs (Currency to buy items at the store, based on the percentage of all of the red orbs in the level you collected). Your Style and Overall Ranking also determine how many Proud Souls you get (Currency to buy new abilities at the store). Every item and ability has a start price. But as you buy items/abilities, the price of the unbought items/abilities will increase. So when saving up for item/abilities, you must take into account the price raise. Thankfully you can refund any abilities (you can’t refund items) you have purchased. So if you think that new move you just bought was a waste, you can get 100% of the orbs you spent on that move back to spend on something else. Your score can be uploaded to online leader boards, to compare yourself to players around the world.
Sound The music is PHENOMENAL! Not only are there custom hard rock tracks (with lyrics), there is also some beautiful instrumental and choirs singing. But the music isn’t the highlight. The voice acting is EPIC. Each character has a well acted voice which really brings out the personality of the characters. The script is VERY well written, and the well-delivered dialogues makes it all the better, with plenty of one-liners and monologues and conversations and insults and…. You get the idea.
Graphics The graphics are bright and beautiful in outside locations, and beautifully gloomy (oxymoron haha!!!) in most inside locations. Each environment is distinctly different from the last. No recycled buildings here. The battles never slow down or lag no matter how many enemies show up onscreen. But what really shines (Irony haha!!!) is the cut scenes. The characters are extremely detailed, and their lips move right with the voice. There is blood, which is somewhat realistic, but even the blood glimmers in awe! The cut scenes are too perfect. TOO PERFECT!!!!
Glitches There are actually no glitches I encountered.
What's Good –Perfect blend of sword and gunplay
-Interesting Style System
-Non-Stop action packed battles
-6 difficulties and survival mode
-Detailed environments
-Detailed characters in cut scenes
-Well-written script (and excellent, likeable characters, even the villains)
-Top notch voice acting
-Leaderboards
-Many abilities in game play
-Excellent Replay value (you’ll want to play through all 6 difficulties)
What's Bad -Lots of loading screens (but this can be considered a good thing. Each loading screen only lasts about 5 seconds, and this seems to make lag and unsynched cut scenes nonexistent)
- Big jump between difficulties
-Same battle music for every fight against non-boss characters
-Lots of backtracking
Overall I give Devil May Cry 4 a 9.5 out of 10. It would be perfect were it not for [mostly] unvaried battle music and ridiculous backtracking. Seriously, you get to the half point in the game, then must trace your steps ALL THE WAY BACK TO THE BEGINNING in order to face the final boss. This can actually be somewhat forgiven, as the experiences are new as you play as a different character.
ScreenshotsGameplay 1
Promo Picture
Gameplay 2
Gameplay 3
Dante
Nero
