the devil will cry (Devil May Cry (PS2))

Member Name: shadowhawk

Product:	Devil May Cry (PS2)
Date:	11/06/01 (99 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great Action, The Fighting

Disadvantages: Graphics

Devil May Cry
Format: PS2

~ Why? ~
It was £9.99 second hand in a shop and my friend said he really liked it so I took a long stare into my wallet and then a long stare at the game and the red cover with the lead character himself on it with a lot of red around him, colour associated with the devil really grasped me and took me in to buying it.

~ Who? ~
The lead character Dante is a demon hunter he acts all things evil and demonic even though he is half demon and half human. Dante gets offered a job by a mysterious woman to take on the devil himself. Dante realises that things may not be as simple as a one of pick fight as enemy after enemy stands between him and his target.

> Verdict:
The storyline itself is a little thin its not a lot to get your head around it getting from start to end of each level with your only problem being staying alive. So if you want a great gripping storyline then this problem is not your game but the action keeps the game going as it is continual and doesn?t slow up much at all.

~ How? ~
Dante: uses swords and demon like firearms to conflict damage upon his enemies. To improve his move list you collect red orbs and you trade these in for better and more powerful moves. When fighting you get graded on the moves and style in which you fight and these add up to give you a grade at the end of the level and the results in giving you more red orbs of course the higher the grade the more orbs you get.

Alastar: The lightening demon that enchants Dante with her power in the form of a sword. You can buy power-ups for the Alastar side of you. You get a power-gauge with this spirit and it builds up as you fight and you can unleash the spirit for a short burst during this time you can fire lightening bullets use special moves and gain high move grades.

Ifrit: the god o
f fire comes in the form of gloves, like Alastar you get a spirit trigger with the gloves that builds and is unleashed in an inferno of flames for a short period resulting in special moves and high grades.

Trish: the mysterious woman whom offers you the chance to take out evil itself. Through the story she offers you with the twists and turns that keep the storyline interesting and keeps the whole game away from just a plain old crash bash kill everything in site game.

> Verdict:
The characters are not well constructed really but that fits in with the game its about the action rather then the characters you find out a little bit about Dante as you go through but nothing that is really unexpected nor taking the game on to any other levels.

~ Handling ~
As the camera angel likes to switch back and forth and move around a lot to provide a more intense feeling handling Dante provides a tricky problem with the button your holding being forward switching to going backwards as the camera changes. It takes some getting used to but soon you?ll learn to instantly re-asset your bearings as soon as the camera changes.

~ Bosses ~
End of each level normally throws a good boss at you as these provide the difficult of the game I will not give you the advice to what is best against each one, don?t want to make the game easy for you. Bosses have health bars like you and the idea will normally be to hit the boss as much as you can with as much as you have, but some moves are more effective and hitting the boss in certain places does more damage then other moves, so keep an eye on the health bar as you are hitting the enemy to learn what is and isn?t effective.

~ Graphics ~
The graphics in the game are pretty good with the textures all proving smooth and the landscapes just sink into the background so they do not get in the way of the game. The characters the
mselves are built way and have individual personalities. Even the repetitive doll enemies come in all shapes, colours, and types. All the graphics seem stunning as you start and the schemes are kept dark which is a good tactic to play it does hide sins where graphics are concerned and boosts our thoughts of how good graphics are.

As you play on you do start to realise how grainy the graphics actually are and proves to be quite an upset about how grainy they really are as you get into the game. The game is a little dated and this does show it seems that almost that the pixels aren?t small enough to look good. This could always be the fact that I played on a 29 inch television but the rest of my game collection seem good enough.

> Verdict:
The graphics even though they are not ground breaking prove to compliment the game very well and the fast pace of the game which involves events continually happening means you don?t really get time to concentrate on the graphics but spend your time plotting your next move. So the graphics are good enough for the game type and the darkness hides them very well.

~ Sound Track ~
I really liked the soundtrack on the back of this it?s a heavy metal tracking that picks up to get speeds when action is at its most intense. It really pumps up the mood and gets you wanting to rip the heads of every enemy that appears on your screen.

> Verdict:
A lot of effort had been put into the soundtrack and it really does great things to the person playing it. Sets up the mind set that the player needs to get them into the real enjoyment of this game.

~ Gameplay ~
The game itself does not last very long with a person being able to complete it in maybe 4 to 6 hours being presented with about 5 or 6 difficult situations nothing that will have you to boggle your mind over and it can normally be resolved by just throwing all y
ou have at the boss.

After play is something that modern games have been lacking recently, but Devil May Cry does present a few good things, increasing the start difficulty presents you with different foes to fight increasing the difficulty massively. Also if you complete the game good enough then you can play with different characters the story is basically the same just you use different moves and have special powers.

~ Overall Verdict ~
The game itself is not the most thought through providing only the shreds of what could be a possible storyline, it does not really get you thinking at all and provides you with little to think about. The game is mostly about action and it hits you with that fast and hard and provides some of the best fighting that I have seen in any game and provided me with a lot of entertainment when I was in the mood to test my reactions rather then my brain.

~ Audience ~
If you are good at beat ?em up games, those games that to do you need to be right on the edge of your seat and have your senses on full to react to what ever is going on around you.

~ Resident Evil? ~
Capcom other really famous game was resident evil and if you liked that you?re thinking that you might like this so to help you decide:

Resident Evil is a thinking game with action, it provides you with detailed storylines that have twists in them, Devil May Cry has weak characters that provide a pretty bland storyline. Puzzles are also given to you on resident evil that take some thinking to solve, there are no puzzles on the game all doors are basically open and the odd key needs to be found but they are not hidden just have to kill things to get to them. Action in resident evil is more about bullet conserving as you have limited ammo but with Devil May Cry you have unlimited ammo so you can shoot to your hearts conten
t.

So Resident Evil provides story-based game and Devil May Cry is Capcom?s pure action feature.

~ Rating ~
4 out of 5,
I know I have complained continually about the storyline and characters but for what the game offers and is, which is a pure action game it is the best around and provides great fighting scenes.

© David Clark ~ Electronics Guide
(DavidJamesClark@hotmail.com)

Capital letters courtesy of: http://www.chuckleweb.co.uk/fixit.php

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