This review contains spoilers
Fantastic blend of horror, comedy and SSStylish Action!
Devil May Cry is one of those hack and slash franchises I keep going back to, originally starting as an Alpha version of Resident Evil 4; capcom realized they had made something worthy of its own franchise which brought us here to Devil May Cry 1, which is probably the most unique one in the franchise. If you’ve never played DMC this is a good place to start.
Gameplay: DMC is a hack and slash, horror comedy game with over-the-top action both 3rd person and fixed camera angle perspectives. Like many hack and slash games you swipe at enemies with your sword or melee weapon to build up combos and can switch between swords to guns seamlessly to help juggle enemies with infinite ammo. There is a wide variety of weapons and move sets to really change up your fighting style, killing enemies gives you red orbs you can use to upgrade items and abilities in the stores around the game which are these divinity statues. You can also buy items to help you though out the game. Another core combat feature is your devil trigger ability, killing enemies in combat builds up your gauge that then allows you to turn into a demon and do much more damage, while restoring health. This game also has a wide variety of enemies from bugs to demons. There are enemies that pose a huge challenge while others are much easier, sub bosses and full-on multilayered boss fights can prove very difficult especially on higher difficulties. Most of the combat will come off as clunky compared to today’s games but for its time this game was a lot of fun. This version of DMC1 has somewhat improved controls and is visually better than the previous version. The weirdest part of this game’s combat is the underwater segment where you briefly fight enemies underwater with an underwater gun, though it’s a unique part of the game it’s also probably the clunkiest part. Aside from strange segments like this there are a few areas that involve platforming and prove to be quite frustrating due to the bad camera angles. Of course, all of this stuff gets better with time and sequels and considering this game came out in 2001 I won’t go too hard on it.
Graphics, Voice Acting & Music: The graphics are obviously outdated but for their time they weren’t too bad at all. I think the Music and environment still captures a spooky atmosphere anyone would enjoy exploring and killing demons in it. Speaking of the music, DMC is known for having sick combat themes while you kill demons, and this game is no different. The main theme of this game is one of my favorites in the franchise and invokes an unsettling spooky feeling that really fits the environment, fun fact it also shows up remixed in Resident Evil 4 as the save room theme. The voice acting however, goes from being Epic to painful as hell or just downright hilarious (since this was in the area where all games had bad voice acting).
Story/ some spoilers: (I’m going to spoil some of the pre lore to the franchise here since its confusing for a lot of people, some of which is said throughout the games but also not really.) The story of this game is essentially, in ancient times demons ruled over man and enslaved them, under one demon king named Mundus. He ruled with a powerful demon knight by his side named Sparda, eventually Sparda saw the error in his ways and turned on the demons to free the humans and sealed off the demons behind hell gates with magic swords, also trapping most of his power there too. He lived as a human for thousands of years and eventually fell in love with a woman named Eva (who was a Witch) He then had 2 twin sons with her, Dante and Virgil. Eventually the parents were killed, and Dante decided to avenge his mother by killing demons while Virgil wanted more power and resented humans as weak. Before the events of this game Vergil was defeated and a 30ish year-old Dante is the main protagonist of this game. He owns a shop called Devil May Cry where people can hire him to kill demons or whatever for money. Think of him as a mercenary that’s half Human half demon, basically a mysterious woman named Trish shows up at his shop offering for him to find and kill Mundus who I guess is hanging out on an island in a castle. That’s a very brief explanation of the convoluted lore to the original DMC games. DMC: Devil May Cry is a different thing all together and I’ll eventually cover that game as well. I don’t want to give much more away about the story in this game as there are some interesting twists but I remember playing this one and being confused by the pre-lore so I figured breaking it down here may help if you’ve never played DMC before, DMC 3 also takes place before this one if you want to start there you can for sure. For an old game this one was pretty sweet! It is a harder game than most for sure and has a bit of a learning curve if you’ve never played hack and slash games before, but I think for its time it was great and a lot of fun. It has a great atmosphere, and this game specifically has a lot of resident evil vibes with themes and key finding. If you played the original resident evils, you can really see it comes out in this game and how it was almost RE4 instead. The story and lore of DMC is certainly interesting, and the characters are always bada** as hell. People love Dante and Virgil and I’m sure you will too, Dante being one of the most likable main characters out there in gaming. If you really find this DMC unbearable well 2 gets easier and 3,4 DMC and 5 are all amazing games to play with 2 being the least favorited of the franchise, also this one is kinda short and you won’t need to play it long (about 6 hours) unless you want to get everything done in the game then you will probably end up putting about 18 hours in.
Overall Fun game 8.5/10
Devil May Cry is one of those hack and slash franchises I keep going back to, originally starting as an Alpha version of Resident Evil 4; capcom realized they had made something worthy of its own franchise which brought us here to Devil May Cry 1, which is probably the most unique one in the franchise. If you’ve never played DMC this is a good place to start.
Gameplay: DMC is a hack and slash, horror comedy game with over-the-top action both 3rd person and fixed camera angle perspectives. Like many hack and slash games you swipe at enemies with your sword or melee weapon to build up combos and can switch between swords to guns seamlessly to help juggle enemies with infinite ammo. There is a wide variety of weapons and move sets to really change up your fighting style, killing enemies gives you red orbs you can use to upgrade items and abilities in the stores around the game which are these divinity statues. You can also buy items to help you though out the game. Another core combat feature is your devil trigger ability, killing enemies in combat builds up your gauge that then allows you to turn into a demon and do much more damage, while restoring health. This game also has a wide variety of enemies from bugs to demons. There are enemies that pose a huge challenge while others are much easier, sub bosses and full-on multilayered boss fights can prove very difficult especially on higher difficulties. Most of the combat will come off as clunky compared to today’s games but for its time this game was a lot of fun. This version of DMC1 has somewhat improved controls and is visually better than the previous version. The weirdest part of this game’s combat is the underwater segment where you briefly fight enemies underwater with an underwater gun, though it’s a unique part of the game it’s also probably the clunkiest part. Aside from strange segments like this there are a few areas that involve platforming and prove to be quite frustrating due to the bad camera angles. Of course, all of this stuff gets better with time and sequels and considering this game came out in 2001 I won’t go too hard on it.
Graphics, Voice Acting & Music: The graphics are obviously outdated but for their time they weren’t too bad at all. I think the Music and environment still captures a spooky atmosphere anyone would enjoy exploring and killing demons in it. Speaking of the music, DMC is known for having sick combat themes while you kill demons, and this game is no different. The main theme of this game is one of my favorites in the franchise and invokes an unsettling spooky feeling that really fits the environment, fun fact it also shows up remixed in Resident Evil 4 as the save room theme. The voice acting however, goes from being Epic to painful as hell or just downright hilarious (since this was in the area where all games had bad voice acting).
Story/ some spoilers: (I’m going to spoil some of the pre lore to the franchise here since its confusing for a lot of people, some of which is said throughout the games but also not really.) The story of this game is essentially, in ancient times demons ruled over man and enslaved them, under one demon king named Mundus. He ruled with a powerful demon knight by his side named Sparda, eventually Sparda saw the error in his ways and turned on the demons to free the humans and sealed off the demons behind hell gates with magic swords, also trapping most of his power there too. He lived as a human for thousands of years and eventually fell in love with a woman named Eva (who was a Witch) He then had 2 twin sons with her, Dante and Virgil. Eventually the parents were killed, and Dante decided to avenge his mother by killing demons while Virgil wanted more power and resented humans as weak. Before the events of this game Vergil was defeated and a 30ish year-old Dante is the main protagonist of this game. He owns a shop called Devil May Cry where people can hire him to kill demons or whatever for money. Think of him as a mercenary that’s half Human half demon, basically a mysterious woman named Trish shows up at his shop offering for him to find and kill Mundus who I guess is hanging out on an island in a castle. That’s a very brief explanation of the convoluted lore to the original DMC games. DMC: Devil May Cry is a different thing all together and I’ll eventually cover that game as well. I don’t want to give much more away about the story in this game as there are some interesting twists but I remember playing this one and being confused by the pre-lore so I figured breaking it down here may help if you’ve never played DMC before, DMC 3 also takes place before this one if you want to start there you can for sure. For an old game this one was pretty sweet! It is a harder game than most for sure and has a bit of a learning curve if you’ve never played hack and slash games before, but I think for its time it was great and a lot of fun. It has a great atmosphere, and this game specifically has a lot of resident evil vibes with themes and key finding. If you played the original resident evils, you can really see it comes out in this game and how it was almost RE4 instead. The story and lore of DMC is certainly interesting, and the characters are always bada** as hell. People love Dante and Virgil and I’m sure you will too, Dante being one of the most likable main characters out there in gaming. If you really find this DMC unbearable well 2 gets easier and 3,4 DMC and 5 are all amazing games to play with 2 being the least favorited of the franchise, also this one is kinda short and you won’t need to play it long (about 6 hours) unless you want to get everything done in the game then you will probably end up putting about 18 hours in.
Overall Fun game 8.5/10