Devil May Cry 4 - PS3

Capcom Feb 5, 2008 »

The newest entry in the revered series features plenty of awesome action, a great new character...and a bit of repetition.

The Good
Extraordinary action sequences highlighted by smooth controls and slick animations
Nero is a great new character with some terrific new moves
Beautiful visuals and incredible cutscenes will constantly amaze you
Boss characters are designed well and fun to fight.

The Bad
Environments and boss fights are repeated far too often
Puzzles and platforming aren't much fun and chop up the pace too much.
You'll probably remember Devil May Cry 3 for the PlayStation 2 as being an unfairly difficult game, yet one that rewarded your patience with a slew of high-quality action. If playing it gave you tears of frustration, you'll be happy to learn that although this sequel is a challenge, it's by no means an extreme one. In fact, you're given an excellent number of gameplay choices that help you tailor the challenge to your preferences. You can initially choose one of two difficulties (and if you want to cry like a little girl, you can unlock several more), and you can even choose whether you want the game to perform some combos for you automatically. No, you aren't apt to find Devil May Cry 4 to be excessively tough on your first play-through, though it is no walk in the park either. However, it is generally excessive--not that that's a bad thing. Stylish action, terrific boss fights, and beautiful, melodramatic cutscenes will inspire you to push forward, and they serve as an appropriate reward for a well-played sequence of demon slaying.

The devil-bringer moves go a long way, which is probably a good thing, since Nero has neither as varied an arsenal as Dante nor access to multiple fighting styles. However, he does have his standard sword, red queen, and a revolver known as blue rose, and later on he earns another weapon that franchise fans will enjoy seeing in action. As you progress, you will earn proud souls based on your performance in any given mission, and with them, you can purchase new combos and upgrade existing ones. And you'll need them, too, since you'll need to handle droves of demons that get progressively tougher--and they're awesome to look at, to boot. You can choose these new moves individually, or you can let the game auto-select them for you based on how varied you want your array of attacks to be. It's worth noting that you can't really make a mistake here; if you don't like the move, or if there is a more powerful upgrade available to you, you can unlearn what you have purchased for a full refund and use the souls for something else.

You'll also encounter a number of secret missions scattered about, and you'll no doubt find them the most challenging aspect of the game. In some cases, you have to execute a certain move a set number of times in a row, or dispatch every demon within the allotted time. While those missions are challenging, others require you to have purchased a particular move before you can manage it. If at first it seems that some of these missions are simply unbeatable, have faith and return to it later. There's a good chance you were simply just missing a piece of the puzzle. You aren't required to do these missions, but the orb fragment you earn is a perfectly fine reward, and accomplishing these difficult tasks is incredibly gratifying.

That repetition even makes its way into the admittedly spectacular boss fights. These battles are easily the shining star of Devil May Cry 4, and each boss is wildly different from the last, requiring some split-second timing and good control over your reflexes. From a giant toad to a hulking stone behemoth, these bosses are cleverly designed and a good deal of fun. Yet in the second half of the game, you'll face all of the same bosses as Dante that you fought as Nero. While the game could have benefitted from some new blood during these missions, the differences in styles between the two at least lend some diversity to the repeated bosses and test the newest additions to your arsenal. Yet amazingly (and irritatingly), Capcom brings most of them out for a third time in the game's padded and plodding penultimate mission. Yes, these fights are fun, but forcing most of them on the player three times is overkill.
Regardless of which platform you play Devil May Cry 4 on, this game is a looker. Both Nero and Dante are fluid in motion, showcasing a good deal of flair and subtlety in their movements. The more damage a move does, the more astonishing it looks onscreen, and few games can approach the pure razzle-dazzle of Nero jumping into the air, his cape flying and the glowing devil bringer tossing lumbering demons around with matchless grace. From a design standpoint, the visuals can be gorgeous to behold, and moments like your first glimpse of Gran Album bridge are bound to take your breath away. What's more, all of this visual prowess is smoothly rendered on both platforms, and broken up only by the occasional loading time. This can be noticeably reduced if you are playing on the PlayStation 3, since some files will be installed to the hard drive, though the loading times aren't excessive by any stretch. The downside for PS3 owners is that the installation takes around 20 minutes to finish.

Devil May Cry 4 is a great game, and it delivers a lot of quality action that will please fans without alienating those new to the series. If you liked previous entries, you'll find what you're looking for here; and if you were turned off by Devil May Cry 3's insane challenge, you'll feel a lot more comfortable this time around.