Gaming

Devil May Cry 5 review – diabolically stylish


Devil May Cry 5 (PS4) – Dante, and friends, are back

Dante and Nero return for Capcom’s outrageously over-the-top action sequel in a game that will delight both new fans and old.

thumbnail for post ID 8825544Microsoft rumoured to release disc-less Xbox One S in May 2019

Video games are all about second chances, and third and fourth and however many other lives you’re granted. Perseverance can overcome almost any obstacle, whether you’re a gamer trying to beat that final boss or a developer trying to ensure the survival of a beloved franchise. Devil May Cry has had its ups and down, with two controversial entries that still divide the fanbase, and that’s made things difficult for a style of game that’s previously never enjoyed much mainstream appeal.

We always felt 2013 reboot DmC: Devil May Cry was poorly treated by fans, and we know, after having spoken to him, that series overseer Hideaki Itsuno feels the same way. There are some welcome nods to the most recent game here, but it’s also made very clear that this is a direct sequel to the previous numbered entries – and not the soft reboot some may have been expecting.

For those not familiar with the series, Devil May Cry is part of a small sub-genre that’s never really had an unanimously accepted name but which encompasses Bayonetta, Ninja Gaiden, Heavenly Sword, and, arguably, the early God Of War games. Devil May Cry was the originator of the concept though, with both it and Bayonetta created by PlatinumGames’ Hideki Kamiya. Bayonetta has been the standard bearer for the genre in recent years but now has a serious rival again, because this is the best Devil May Cry has ever been.

We’re glad there’s a ‘History of DMC’ summary available from the game’s main menu because we’re not sure we could do the enjoyably nonsensical plot justice. The basics are very simple though: series lead Dante is a demon hunter (while also being part demon himself) and is hired by a mysterious man named V to investigate a series of supernatural attacks. This brings him to a fictionalised version of London, where a gigantic demonic tree, that feeds on human blood, has sprouted up.

There is nothing subtle or plausible about Devil May Cry’s storytelling and for many that’s part of the appeal. The cocky bravado of Dante, and fellow demon hunter Nero, is cheesy and over-the-top but in such an earnest manner it’s somehow endearing. How seriously it’s meant to be taken is always difficult to tell (especially after Itsuno explained the concept chu-ni to us in an interview last year) but it leads to a lot of mostly intentional comedy and some wonderfully over-the-top cut scenes.

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But Devil May Cry is not one of those games where you get to see the characters participate in all manner of athletic action during a cut scene and then find out the in-game action is far more mundane. Fighting as stylishly as possible is entirely the point of Devi May Cry, with the game constantly grading your performance – in terms of skill, fluidity, and variety of moves – to S-rank and beyond. That could easily be seen as discouraging for newer players but one of the great achievements of Devil May Cry 5 is how accessible it makes itself without compromising the core gameplay.

Not only are there multiple difficulty modes and an auto-assist option for combos but every gameplay concept and technique is carefully explained and introduced in a way that allows you to experiment and practice as much as you like. Devil May Cry 5 can get quite hard towards the end but the real challenge comes from bettering your own scores, not simply getting through the game, and that allows it to be appreciated by all kinds of different players.

What also helps is that the game features three very different playable characters, with you often having the option to pick which one you want to play as in each mission. Nero is clearly the beginner’s option, with a simple mix of guns and a sword he can rev with what looks like a motorcycle throttle. In that sense he works very similarly to his appearance in Devil May Cry 4 but he starts the game missing an arm – thanks to the same demon tree-sprouting bad guy – and can replace the missing limb with a range of prosthetic ones that imbue different special abilities, from stopping time to lightning attacks.

By comparison, Dante has a more complex moveset and is when the game bears the closest resemblance to Bayonetta. Dante can utilise much more complex combos between guns and melee combat and can also turn into a demon for a few seconds. But on top of that he can also change combat styles via the D-pad, to emphasise guns, melee attacks, defence, or agility. These can be ignored at first but give a clear advantage when fighting different types of enemies.

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More moves and abilities can be bought from shops (including using real money, rather disturbingly, although we certainly never felt the need to use microtransactions), which allows you to increase the complexity of the game at your own pace. Each character also has their own individual skill tree to unlock, using items collected from defeated foes. Even with Dante the game never has quite the same range and complexity of moves as Bayonetta, but the combination of different characters and abilities ensures it never feels shallow by the comparison.

Both Dante and Nero are veterans of the series but the third playable character, V, is brand new. He uses a cane and is physically very weak, so he can’t fight enemies directly – only finish them off once they’ve already been injured. Instead he uses demons to fight for him: a machinegun-equipped bird, a Venom-esque panther, and a giant goelm-like creature as his special move (whose summons meter can be increased by reading from a book and making V even more vulnerable).

V still uses the same underlying controls as the other two characters, since he’s basically engaging with a similar mix of ranged and melee attacks, so taking control of him isn’t quite as disorientating as it might sound, but trying to keep him safe while he organises the attacks is a pleasingly different challenge. V is so good, in fact, that he almost risks unbalancing the game, as we kept wanting to use him instead of the others. Having a choice is clearly for the best though and further increases the compulsion to replay missions.

That desire is fuelled further by a huge collection of very enjoyable boss battles and a wide selection of optional extras to collect and find along the way – not just Nero’s robot arms but optional weapons that include a pair of nunchakus that transform into a giant match and a motorcycle that can be broken apart into two giant circular saws. It’s all fantastically over-the-top and demonstrates that such a traditionally ‘video game-y’ release can be as self-indulgently imaginative as it likes and still remain surprisingly accessible.

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In terms of flaws the game has no real Achilles heel, although inevitably not everyone will get on with the cheesy characterisations and silly plot. And while the combat is very welcoming for novices the camera and lock-on system could certainly be more helpful and requires a lot of manual adjustment.

Our only other complaint is that the backdrops remain very static and inert, a problem the genre has always suffered from – presumably because all the processing power is put into maintaining a 60fps frame rate. There are usually a few destructible items laying around but there’s still a lack of dynamism to most environments, despite the generally good graphics (powered by the same engine as Resident Evil 2).

Devil May Cry 5 is a triumphal return for the series, with a host of end game secrets that you really shouldn’t wait on someone else to spoil for you. It’s the most approachable and varied any similar game has ever been and yet deep enough to satisfy long-term fans as well. What a few years ago might have been written off as niche franchise, doomed never to return, has reinvented itself as one of the best action games of the generation.



Devil May Cry 5

In Short: A perfectly judged comeback that’s full of all the wild invention and stylish mayhem fans demand but proves surprisingly accessible and varied for everyone else.

Pros: All three characters are great to control and very distinctive, with V being a real revelation. Wide range of difficulty modifiers and additional abilities and moves. Great boss battles.

Cons: The camera and lock-on requires a bit too much nannying to keep on top of. Static levels lack dynamism.

Score: 9/10

Formats: PlayStation 4 (reviewed), Xbox One, and PC
Price: £44.99
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Capcom
Release Date: 8th March 2019
Age Rating: 18

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