DmC review: Cry me a bloody river

DmC, Capcom’s new attempt to revive the Devil May Cry series, will surely earn recognition thanks to its gorgeous art direction and dazzling visual effects which push years-old consoles to their polygon-rendering limits. But to truly appreciate DmC‘s artistry, you’ll need to take a microscope to its razor-sharp blades.

The mid-2000s hack-and-slash revival gave new life to the chore of mowing down peons. God of War and Ninja Gaiden upped the ante in violence, boss quality, and weapon selection, far outpacing anything the arcade generation dreamed up. That peak was short-lived, however. Sequels and spinoffs of those two hits have done little more than increase the number of enemy waves or puff up the boss fights, so DmC has seized an opportunity to reshape the genre’s focus on kill-combo action. It’s no small tweak.

Like any good piece of art, DmC transcends niches by paying homage to the classics while sneaking in new and startling ideas. That’s not to say DmC is a total masterstroke; its focus on things like plot and exploration don’t always serve the greater good of the game. But as a whole, the game is a PhD-level study on the art of virtual bludgeoning. The plot, much like the gameplay, lands like a giant, man-sized hammer on a devil’s face.

Meet the new Dante

The somewhat emo Dante from the previous four Devil May Cry titles is a distant memory. The new Dante wakes up in an alternate, modern America with a hangover and a giant devil-monster trying to kill him, sporting a nonchalance that makes it seem like he’s previously woken up in a stupor next to Lindsay Lohan.

The game hits the ground running as Dante quickly gets caught in a plan to tear down a dark lord’s master plans. At first blush, this part of DmC shines as its most obvious strength, a fact that won’t shock anybody familiar with developer Ninja Theory’s previous work on 2010’s under-appreciated Enslaved: Odyssey To The West. The same crew of writers, actors, and motion-capture specialists that gave that game such a memorable story and presentation were tasked with DmC‘s rebirth.

Credit: Capcom / Ninja Theory

Dante has always been a smart-ass, but this version of the half-angel, half-devil delivers a performance that really sells his deeper trust issues. The game sports some of the tightest dialogue in a Capcom game, along with an appreciation for subtler moves and silent gestures, rendered with stellar acting and facial animation that scale the uncanny valley. The main exception to this is Dante’s intentionally earnest brother Virgil, who comes off as intentionally flat more than anything else.

Let’s kill us some demons

When Dante isn’t rolling his eyes at the thought of saving the world, he’s putting a lot of weapons through a lot of demons. The game eventually arms players with five primary melee weapons that range from quick, wide swipes to slower, brutal slams, along with a rotation of three guns. Where DmC diverges from the usual slate of brutalize-’em-ups is in its weapon juggling. If you’ve played a modern slasher, you’re familiar with combo systems that reward constant chains of attack: mow down foes while expertly dodging attacks and the combo multiplier climbs.

DmC adds a curious burden to its own combo system: the points plateau if you stick to only one blade. Conveniently, the game allows for incredibly quick swaps between fast, medium, and slow weaponry; holding down either the L or R triggers puts a different weapon in your hands; you’ll get standard attacks if you leave the triggers alone. The triggers also enable two types of grappling hook, which either pulls foes toward Dante or pushes them away. The more you learn, the worse foes become—especially those that team up together and can only be killed by certain weapons. These force Dante to make the most of his weapon-swap powers in a huge crowd.

Ninja Theory must have known that its controller diagram looks as hellish as its worlds, so it made sure DmC does a good job of introducing new weapons and moves slowly over time and through a “moves” store. In doing so, the game bottle-feeds its complex combat to players, so that by the end, DmC‘s shifts between gun-splosions, launchers, grapples, and thousand-stab lunges feel as natural as they do thrilling.

Ninja Theory has built an absolutely gorgeous game here, full of tastefully contrasted color, giant constructions, lavish details, hulking baddies, and disgusting bosses. On top of that, the developers have engineered a world-in-limbo effect that throws walls, floors, and debris around with a mesmerizing melty, warpy effect. The thundering impact of some of the levels, including a dance club and a high-speed car escort mission, will stick to my gut for a long time.

Credit: Capcom / Ninja Theory

It’s a shame, then, that the developers’ pride occasionally gets in the way of what the game does so well. This is most evident in dull jumping and platforming challenges that comprise nearly an entire hour of a game that only takes about ten hours to complete. Maybe they’re there to break up the high-octane battles or to force players to take some time to look at the game’s giant environments. Either way, they’re at best a tolerable nuisance and at worst an aggravating distraction. DmC‘s jumping physics have been built for battle maneuvers, not a game of Dante-Kazooie. Even the addition of double- and triple-jumps can’t fix the issues inherent in aiming the game’s awkward jumps across chasms.

The same pride weighs down the plot, too. Certainly, it has its holes; for starters, a seemingly important character mentioned at the game’s outset and trapped by the game’s lead villain winds up forgotten by the heroes pretty early on. Then there’s the game’s one-dimensional lambasting of corporate propaganda. An energy drink company and a news channel obviously inspired by Fox News take all of the blame for brainwashing DmC‘s masses, and the game comes off a little too smug about its superficial swipes at these straw men. Don’t expect Chuck Palahniuk or Bret Easton Ellis-level commentary on America’s evils.