"Our Dante's going to be way cooler than Japanese Dante. Gay cowboys aren't cool. You know what is cool? Tyler Durden from Fight Club. He's so cool."
- Ninja Theory (slightly paraphrased)

This is an absolutely fascinating video game, in which most of the damage it dealt to the brand was not through any direct part of the game, but simply the way in which it was marketing leading up to release. You can actually kind of see within the game the way they tried to course correct and embrace the source material near the end, but the damage had already been done. Sad thing is, it's not entirely Ninja Theory's fault - Capcom were the ones pushing HARD for a "westernised Devil May Cry", in what was an uncomfortably racist era of gaming that came to a head with Capcom's own Keiji Inafune declaring "Japan is over" in 2012. It's rumoured Inafune himself was a big factor in rebooting DmC like this, among other properties. Whatever you think of the end result, it's a fascinating glimpse into what could've been what may have become the new normal for Devil May Cry, and similar IPs.

As for what I think? I think the game is kind of alright. I'd even say I liked it more than DMC4. That being said, I think I know which one I'd rather have seen a sequel to, and I'm glad I'm living in that timeline.

STORY

So, to call this the elephant in the room would be putting it lightly. The story is probably the biggest sore point (other than the marketing and PR) that led to the complete rejection of this by fans, and for good reason. While basic elements of the lore remain similar, many finer details are changed. Some of these feel like changes for the worse, such as how Dante and Vergil are now Demon/Angel hybrids as opposed to Demon/Human, and how only someone of that breed can kill the Demon God Mundus. It's lore as a structure to dictate the plot, as opposed to lore that gives flavour to the story. Perhaps I'm talking out of my ass, but changes like that aren't just "different", they're lesser.

As for the actual story and characters, it's a bit of a mess. Dante is a really cool guy, he swears, he has SEX with WOMEN and don't need no-one's help. He wears a British flag on his jacket because he's cool and anti-establishment - it almost reads like parody and I'm still not certain whether it is or not. If it is parody, the game sure forgets about it quickly. He's recruited to fight the demons by The Order (definition of a placeholder name that stuck), consisting of Kat, a young woman with a tortured past that is brought up once and never has any real meaning again, and their leader Vergil, who is gasp Dante's long lost and forgotten twin brother. I'm guessing Dante never read the Divine Comedy, I mean, he's just too cool to read. Vergil, who continues the trend of Vergil voice actors being former Power Rangers, is a mild guy, and essentially the polar opposite of Dante. Right down to being completely powerless and useless in almost every single cutscene in which he's placed in danger. As for the rest of The Order, uh, well...they consist of a bunch of nameless extras who are first seen being gunned down halfway through the game while Kat cries about them being her friends.

Let that set the tone for how this narrative is approached.

The Order opposes Mundus, who was an unfathomably powerful Demon God who can't be completely killed...at least, he was in Devil May Cry 1. In DmC, he's just a bald white guy. Sure, he's still technically a Demon God underneath, but here's the kicker - the setting of DmC is a world in which the demons have infiltrated, and have total control of. The news is all edited and has an intentionally biased narrative against Dante and co., cameras watch every street (and yes, all the cameras are secretly demons), and then there's the number one energy drink brand, which is secreted directly from a succubus demon and is described by Kat as "lobotomy in a can". Even the advertisements for the drink are one step away from literally saying "we're DEFINITELY NOT evil! Nope!".

If you take this aspect of the plot and take it at face value, this is a completely deranged far-right conspiracyshit rhetoric, and one that hit very close to home - literally, considering I live with someone who genuinely thinks exactly these things. Vergil is absolutely someone who complains about "wokeism" online.

Now, not to exclusively compare the story to the regular games, but one thing gets me here. While I like this perspective of "what if Devil May Cry, but more grounded and closer to home?", the main appeal of Devil May Cry is how larger-than-life everyone is. DMC3 sees the likely deaths of thousands off-screen, but it's all in the background because it's not about how demons are affected the regular, mundane world, but about Dante, his crazy style and near-indestrucability, and how he fights his equally outlandish opponents. DmC takes these fundamentals and creates a story where...everyone's JUST a guy. Dante's just the cool guy, cool like the guy from Fight Club. Vergil is literally a guy, all the way until the final couple of missions. Kat is just a normal girl who spends most of the game as either emotional support, in peril, or not there, but a big driving point is that she's just a human. DMC3 did that whole thing much better with Lady - that's not me wishing DmC was more like DMC, this is me wishing DmC was good.

Despite the effort to create this grounded world run by demons, nothing is ever explored. The game sprints from one target to the next, never taking much time to dwell on how the world is shaped by the secret invasion - except for in the energy drink factory, which was embarrassingly heavy-handed. You never get much of an impression of these villains before they're immediately thrown out of the picture. It feels as if a lot was cut from the story, and maybe there was. A particular sore point was during a scene that lives in infamy; while exchanging Lillith (who's carrying Mundus' child and future heir) for Kat (who had been captured earlier) on a bridge, Vergil suddenly aims his FAMAS and directly shoots the unborn child. The result enrages Mundus, leaving thousands likely dead from his outburst, and endangers Kat's life (as she was nowhere near making it back to Dante and Vergil at the time). Vergil justifies this with "having no choice" (killing the unborn child and triggering Mundus' outburst leaves him vulnerable) despite Dante's protests, and...that's it! No further discussion! Next we see them, they're buddied up and taking on Mundus' base of operations together! It's a glaring hole in an already shaky narrative - and Ninja Theory agreed, because the remaster 2 years later added an entire new cutscene addressing exactly this. So I can't help but wonder exactly how deep into the worldbuilding they could have gone.

The story comes to a dreadful conclusion - after Vergil finally does literally anything at all and helps Dante kill Mundus, he pulls the ultimate gotcha - he was secretly planning on usurping Mundus and ruling humanity all along. Now, it wasn't exactly an out of nowhere heel turn, but the way he suddenly ramps it up at the very end feels like a desperate attempt to shoehorn in a Dante vs Vergil boss fight for the sake of it, rather than wait for a sequel (or god forbid, flesh the story out better). It's not even a good fight! But more on that later.

While going over the story, I just realised I never mentioned Phineas. He's the only named person of colour in the game, and he's an imprisoned demon who gives Dante a fetch quest, exposits, and is referenced exactly once afterwards. Everyone else I can remember was white. Between this and the whole anti-Japan stuff...man, this was a horrible time for gaming, huh.

I didn't think I'd have this much to be saying about the story, so I apologise for going on so long about it. But what ties all these elements together is the writing itself. I'm not sure what's up here, but I've never seen a script in my life that's so utterly British without trying to be - but it's being read by people doing American accents. I assumed the voice cast was American, but turns out Vergil's VA is from New Zealand and Dante's is Australian. Do you have any idea how much better these clunkily written swearing tirades would sound if they had kept their native accents? Alas, the voicework is stiff and uncharismatic. It doesn't help that Dante's "cool" insults and quips (which are way too frequent) don't land, but they're read in such an awkward matter, as the American accent does not lend itself well to British speech patterns. Seriously, I've never heard an American use "smashing" as a synonym for "good". For "having sex with", perhaps, but I digress. Vergil's VA gives a mostly lifeless performance, as if warming up while reading the script, and the director went "Perfect! Next line!". Mundus sounds deeply tired, to which I relate, but it's not a terrible performance altogether.

I really don't mind the concepts here, and the direction of certain cutscenes perfectly matches the tone they were aiming for, but it fails to total the sum of its own parts, either from neglect or whatever other excuse it could be. And one last little note about the story; throwing in a direct jab at the original games (A white wig lands on Dante's head, perfectly mimicing OG Dante's hair. He sees his reflection and discards it, claiming "not in a million years".) is a really, really dangerous way to start your story after the PR stuff. It's a cheeky jab that ends up being a brick joke, as Dante's devil trigger turns his jacket red and hair white, which later becomes his default look at the very end of the game. There's genuine appreciation for the original in there, but between Capcom's mandates and whatever the hell was up with the legendary "Dante is" conference, no wonder nobody stuck around to find out.

GAMEPLAY

Gameplay is what people mainly come to DMC for - not to downplay the story, but it was clear DmC put far more stock into its story than the classic DMCs. That said, it didn't entirely slack in the gameplay department either.

COMBAT

But hold your horses, don't praise Ninja Theory just yet. Their prior games are notorious for poor combat, so it was no surprise that Hideaki Itsuno, Mr. Devil May Cry himself, had to swoop in with a team of Capcom's finest and salvage the combat into something resembling the series. Dante still wields Rebellion, and swings are responsive. The moveset is expanded not through red orbs or the weird pride souls of DMC4, but a new skill point system earned for getting a certain amount of experience from kills and finishing levels. Its a decent system for unlocks, and you'll have most of each weapons' moveset unlocked by the end. For each weapon, Y is a light attack, and B is a heavy. A is jump, while X is a bit of a wildcard. While it's typically assigned to your firearm of choice, things get crazier when demon/angel mode are introduced.

By the end of the first third, Dante will have access to Demon and Angel mode, and a respective new weapon for each. Accessing these modes is achieved by holding Left Trigger for Angel mode, and Right Trigger for Demon mode. This changes Rebellion for one of the two weapons of each types you unlock over the course of the game, and can be switched between with the D-Pad. Angel weapons hit weaker and faster, with a wide range suited to crowd control. Demon weapons, meanwhile, are slower and heavier, and reward precise timing. It's a pretty clearly laid out system, if sacrificing the more personal feel for weapons in traditional DMC games. That being said, having to hold down the corresponding trigger whenever you want to use the weapon felt a little disorientating. This only gets more complicated when the grapple hook is factored in.

Early on in the game, Dante gets a grapple hook, clearly inspired by Nero's stretchy arm from DMC4. Functionally, it serves a similar purpose - pull enemies around, and grapple to parts of the level. Implementation, though, was not exactly great. As far as combat goes, what grappling does depends on which trigger you hold. It replaces the firearms button, and if used in Angel mode, it pulls you towards the enemy - the reverse is true for Demon mode. So you really need to think about which type of grapple you want to use - want to grapple towards the enemy to deliver an uppercut with Eryx? You've gotta switch triggers crazy fast. Other than the awkward trigger shifting, it's fun to use in combat, but, well, I'll get into the rest when I discuss level design.

One last thing about the combat is using the bumpers for a quick dodge. DMC traditionally either lacks this, or locks it behind a specific style. So to have this ability always available ...takes virtually all the challenge out of the combat. As soon as you nail how to dodge every attack, you'll never get hit enough for it to matter (and there are plenty of measures even if you get in danger). You can even combine it with the triggers to trigger effects like slowdown when executing a perfect dodge, Bayonetta-style. It's a fun addition, but completely overpowered.

One last thing to note is Devil Trigger - when activated, it causes Dante to regen health for the duration, and immediately suspends all non-boss enemies in mid-air, taking increased damage from aerial combos. I found this utterly bizarre and used it more for the health regen than for killing enemies, as I never saw the need to have to kill enemies by entirely taking away their abilities to fight back.

Overall the combat is fine, it's fun even, but the enemy quality leaves little in the way of variety to how you approach fighting them, and having so many crazy abilities at your disposal without restrictions leaves it feeling like a pale imitation of what Devil May Cry combat really means. Sure, it holds up on its own, but it's not as satisfying. I mainly used Eryx because the long wind-up versus the massive damage felt the most rewarding of all the weapons. If nothing else, they nailed how DMCs gauntlet weapons traditionally feel.

LEVEL DESIGN

As for level design, well. Let's push aside the visuals for later, and talk purely about how they're arranged as areas for the player to traverse. In a word? Thoughtless. Every now and then there may be a decent gimmick, but it's mostly corridor after empty corridor. Sometimes there are hidden paths that lead to collectables, but it's mostly just basic areas that offer no interesting terrain or hazards. I'd say the highlight is right near the start of the game, where there's an amusement park ride that you can uppercut demons into, and later on where there's a passing train that serves the same purpose.

Things become more depressingly repetitive once the grapple is unlocked; now, half of the mundane corridors are replaced with what are essentially quick-time events where Dante grapples from point to point, often switching between the Demon and Angel modes mid-swing. Fun the first time? Sure. How about the tenth? Fiftieth? Two hundred and seventy sixth? Boss fights aren't safe from overuse of the grapple either. I'm pretty sure I ended up using it more than any other weapon, through mandatory platforming alone. Certain ENTIRE LEVELS are just extended quick-time events that blend cutscenes with constant grappling, all the way to the end screen. Come to think of it, this might be the first Devil May Cry game to NOT stop you from throwing yourself into a bottomless pit - previous games always had an invisible wall against any ledge that doesn't lead to another area. This time, you can (and probably will) fall during combat, at the cost of a small chunk of health. It's not a big deal, but it felt a bit annoying when arenas contain such bottomless pits.

Also, remember puzzles? Yeah, there's like...one in the entire game, and not a hard one by any stretch. I see where they were coming from, gamers HATE puzzles, but including a single one feels weird, like it's almost a cheeky reference and not something actually thought out. The REAL challenge is finding those collectables - lost souls that give red orbs, secret doors that lead to secret levels that reward Dante with a health upgrade...and the keys to unlock those hidden doors with, because that's what the game needed. Extra busywork for the things that are already hidden to begin with. Finding them would provide the game with much needed replay value - WOULD. Instead it doesn't - these things are typically hidden at a point where the path branches. However, the instant you unknowingly head down the path that leads to the next part of the level and NOT the collectible, the path will almost immediately be blocked off for the rest of the level. There are these untelegraphed points of no return absolutely everywhere, and it sucks the fun out of hunting for these secrets.

BOSSES

Bosses in DMC came in two flavours - Epic, or What the Fuck Am I Doing With My Life. DmC has but a single flavour; "cinematic". You're basically asked to hit the glowing weakspot over and over, until you can trigger a cutscene that deals the REAL damage. People seem to really praise some of the bosses here for reasons I cannot entirely comprehend. Chief among them is Bob Bargas, the demon in charge of the Fake News. Now, his fight is visually great and all, but like...it's not good?? He simply spews parkour challenges out while you manoeuvre around to the glowing weak spot and get 10 seconds to spam Rebellion before the pattern repeats. This is occasionally broken up by having to wait through a horde of basic mooks while unskippable dialogue plays out. This is actually a common problem with the bosses of this game - segments where you basically have to wait through a segment that you can't deal damage in, that takes little to no skill to get through - simply stalling for time and padding the fight.

I think that actually sums up my main issue with the game design here - it's built like a rollercoaster. Sure, all the scripted sequences will get you the first time, and it'll seem like a blast when you don't know what's coming, but it'll turn into annoying and unskippable padding on future playthroughs.

VISUALS

I finally get to talk about a part of the game that I actually, genuinely like. This game looks fucking sick. You've got all the grimy urban locales, and as basic as they are they fit the vibe of the game perfectly. But then there's Limbo, the fucked-up demon version of the world, and it kind of blew me away when I first started playing. The oppressive red glare, the swirling effects that surround Dante, the way objects shrivel upon approach, and that's before they start fucking with the geometry. Levels often suddenly splinter and break apart into floating chunks of concrete, rocks and sometimes entire buildings, and the amount of care and detail that went into animating every inch of these hellscapes never got old to me.

Perhaps a more repetitive part of the imagery within Limbo are the weird, glossy black rocks that appear all over the place. While it does form a decent layer of the corrupted and deformed design of Limbo, a lot of sequences will involve running down a corridor only for the route to immediately be blocked off by these rocks that suddenly spike up out of nowhere. As such, it's easy to associate one with the other, and they become like a kind of sub-plot device to stop the player from going out of bounds.

Graphics in general are pretty good, for a game of its age. There are a few issues with texture pop-in within cutscenes, and the game will swap between in-engine and pre-rendered cutscenes on a dime, which is impressive if not for the sudden halved framerate. While I have grievances with the character designs themselves, the graphical fidelity with which they are realised is pretty good. The way in which the artstyle shifts in Devil Trigger is also pretty mesmerising. I have to hand it to Ninja Theory, they really did cook here. I'd love to see a non-DmC game that uses this kind of style - I've heard Hellblade has a decent amount to offer on that front? But that's for another time.

CONCLUSION

DmC is frustrating in that it's built on a bad foundation, but with genuine attempts to build something great on top of it. Unfortunately, it doesn't live up to its namesake in terms of style or substance, but substitutes this for some pretty wonderful positives of its own. It's cursed to forever live in the shadow of its namesake, but to be fair it did very little to successfully break out of that shadow by itself. Ultimately, DmC: Devil May Cry is not a bad game, but it absolutely lacks the elements that could ascend it to be a truly great game. I'd take this any day over DMC2, and even over DMC4 personally, but an embarrassing story and limited upper potential for the combat holds it back hard. I feel like I could talk more about this game if I thought long and hard, but this review is long enough as it is and I wanna stop thinking about it already...and move on to Vergil's Downfall, which I'll review separately. I can't imagine how that waste of space sinks any lower, but I'll certainly see.