I have gone out of my way to try and treat this game as its own thing. The game regularly tried to fight me on this, making regular references to other DMC games that add nothing but comparisons to something better. And yet, even giving this game enough benefit of the doubt to make you weep, this game is just... not very good.
I'll start with the good; the visual design of the levels are often gorgeous, even while the actual level layouts are poor to mediocre. Limbo looks genuinely cool, there are some interesting setpieces, even when it's trying too hard by having blueprints for a heist appear over the level it's at least a nice idea. The highlight of the game are a scene where pizza covers Dante's dick, and the first few bosses, specifically the foul-mouthed succubus (who talks like a self-parody and is one of the only non-sexy succubi I've seen in media), and the Falcon News boss (who has aged like a fine wine). And sometimes, traversing environments with the grappling hooks and aerial movement can be fun.
And that is where me being nice ends.
The gameplay is... above average. It's better than most generic PS3 generic action games, but considering that's the core selling point it isn't really amazing. It's playable, when you aren't dealing with the more annoying enemies, and fortunately the combo meter is incredibly easy to get good scores on so not being good at it doesn't matter. I'd call it a good starting point for the series, but the plot is also repugnant. Dante is consistently a horrible, unfunny person, the plot is a mediocre "chosen one" story where another chosen one is constantly stood five feet off camera, usually not doing much until the badly-foreshadowed twist. The subject matter is often so edgy that it actually wraps back around and becomes funny, although sometimes it is just tasteless. Not even offensive, just... not adding anything of worth. I have been told it very much misses the point of the rest of the DMC series, but even in isolation it isn't a good story. It is very amusingly bad though. The game tries to take things clearly not intended to be taken seriously and then plays them completely straight, makes political commentary so laughably on-the-nose that I'm not sure they even realised it was political commentary in the first place, and gives characters no real traits, motivation, or anything to flesh them out beyond their shallow roles in the plot. It tries to reinforce the tension between the player and the main villains by regularly cutting away to them having sex or whatever they felt would be most shocking, but Dante doesn't interact with them until they're boss fights so there's no real connection beyond a vague feeling of "I should probably do revenge for my dead parents now I remember them, I guess". Even during my favourite boss fights, I could have cut out Dante and replaced him with a sexy lamp with a collection of weapons and it probably would have improved things.
But despite everything, I see potential here. The game should not be a Devil May Cry game, it shouldn't have these characters with no arcs, and they should really hire someone to make it so that I can go backwards in a level after I miss a collectable I just saw without falling through the world for some reason (I mean seriously, I can make the jump, why the hell did they remove collision? Like, I had to backtrack through that point later anyway and the collision worked then, so someone deliberately decided to fuck me I guess?).
But like... I can see something this game could be. A game where you kill demons while bad metal music plays, where the cool visual design combined with good level design, where Dante actually grew from being a dick to being nicer rather than just... getting a crush on a woman who looks like a teenager but still being a massive dick anyway? Hell, maybe a game where she's the protagonist? Or useful outside of a level which might as well have been a cutscene? Like, teenage me would definitely have seen her as goals if she knew she was a girl at that point.
...
Anyway, this Dante isn't a gay cowboy. This Dante is a closeted bisexual fuckboy who owes several people money for sexual harassment suits. This Dante would call me a slur, fatshame my baby, and then get surprised when I don't want to go on a date with him.
I'll start with the good; the visual design of the levels are often gorgeous, even while the actual level layouts are poor to mediocre. Limbo looks genuinely cool, there are some interesting setpieces, even when it's trying too hard by having blueprints for a heist appear over the level it's at least a nice idea. The highlight of the game are a scene where pizza covers Dante's dick, and the first few bosses, specifically the foul-mouthed succubus (who talks like a self-parody and is one of the only non-sexy succubi I've seen in media), and the Falcon News boss (who has aged like a fine wine). And sometimes, traversing environments with the grappling hooks and aerial movement can be fun.
And that is where me being nice ends.
The gameplay is... above average. It's better than most generic PS3 generic action games, but considering that's the core selling point it isn't really amazing. It's playable, when you aren't dealing with the more annoying enemies, and fortunately the combo meter is incredibly easy to get good scores on so not being good at it doesn't matter. I'd call it a good starting point for the series, but the plot is also repugnant. Dante is consistently a horrible, unfunny person, the plot is a mediocre "chosen one" story where another chosen one is constantly stood five feet off camera, usually not doing much until the badly-foreshadowed twist. The subject matter is often so edgy that it actually wraps back around and becomes funny, although sometimes it is just tasteless. Not even offensive, just... not adding anything of worth. I have been told it very much misses the point of the rest of the DMC series, but even in isolation it isn't a good story. It is very amusingly bad though. The game tries to take things clearly not intended to be taken seriously and then plays them completely straight, makes political commentary so laughably on-the-nose that I'm not sure they even realised it was political commentary in the first place, and gives characters no real traits, motivation, or anything to flesh them out beyond their shallow roles in the plot. It tries to reinforce the tension between the player and the main villains by regularly cutting away to them having sex or whatever they felt would be most shocking, but Dante doesn't interact with them until they're boss fights so there's no real connection beyond a vague feeling of "I should probably do revenge for my dead parents now I remember them, I guess". Even during my favourite boss fights, I could have cut out Dante and replaced him with a sexy lamp with a collection of weapons and it probably would have improved things.
But despite everything, I see potential here. The game should not be a Devil May Cry game, it shouldn't have these characters with no arcs, and they should really hire someone to make it so that I can go backwards in a level after I miss a collectable I just saw without falling through the world for some reason (I mean seriously, I can make the jump, why the hell did they remove collision? Like, I had to backtrack through that point later anyway and the collision worked then, so someone deliberately decided to fuck me I guess?).
But like... I can see something this game could be. A game where you kill demons while bad metal music plays, where the cool visual design combined with good level design, where Dante actually grew from being a dick to being nicer rather than just... getting a crush on a woman who looks like a teenager but still being a massive dick anyway? Hell, maybe a game where she's the protagonist? Or useful outside of a level which might as well have been a cutscene? Like, teenage me would definitely have seen her as goals if she knew she was a girl at that point.
...
Anyway, this Dante isn't a gay cowboy. This Dante is a closeted bisexual fuckboy who owes several people money for sexual harassment suits. This Dante would call me a slur, fatshame my baby, and then get surprised when I don't want to go on a date with him.