April 7, 2008 |

Game review: Devil May Cry 4

By Triston McIntyre

Never let it be said that I’m unwilling to try new things. This week, I was able to get my hands on a copy of the much-anticipated Devil May Cry 4, and I’m going to bring the skinny on this high-intensity action adventure title.

First of all, I have to preface my review by saying that I have never laid hands on a single Devil May Cry title; this is my first go, and I have to say, I really had a lot of fun. If you’re looking for a synopsis of what I thought, easy fun is what comes to mind.

I’m going to choose not to get into plot and character details, because I think for a title like this, the real fun is in the gameplay. If you want to know what goes down, check out another review, because I’m not going to drop a spoiler.

The first thing that came to mind when I played this game was that it was of the age-old button-masher variety; you hit different buttons to soar through the air, swing your obscenely oversized sword around, and do day-to-day run of the mill things like deflect attackers’ bullets with your own.

Fact of the matter is that isn’t quite right; button mashing will only get you so far. If you really want to progress through the game, you’ll have to master different attacks and combinations. There’s a really strong RPG element as well; you can’t just expect to be the best right away at dodging, moving, jumping and spinning. An even spending of the different powerups you collect will ensure that you really do have a well-rounded fighting machine at your fingertips.

Though in some games, I don’t particularly enjoy cutscenes, I found myself looking forward to them in this particular title. The visuals are stunning, and the CG sequences really do hold a gamer’s focus.

Then there are the bosses — wow. Devil May Cry 4 gets the bosses way right. They are intense, exciting, and challenging, each posing a slightly different threat. You really have to study your opponent before you vanquish them. In that sense, you aren’t just dealing with a hack-n-slash title.

There are some parts I wasn’t particularly fond of. First off, you have to endure a series of weird puzzle-like challenges, typical to the action-adventure genre of Tomb Raider and the like. However, in this title they come off as more tedious than challenging. I can’t tell you how many times I struggled to complete a puzzle without dying, because every time I failed I was dropped into a pile of baddies that spontaneously appeared in the place I had just finished fighting other baddies.

The other thing that really drove me crazy was that every time there was an enemy to fight, a song kicked in to alert me to the danger. Nice feature, right? Not when you spend so much time fighting off demons that the song becomes ingrained in your mind, and you start dreading the next encounter for fear of falling victim to music-induced insanity.

This is a great title for the teenage boy in all of us; plenty of T and A (bosoms and buttocks, for the work-safe crowd) all around. Characters are fairly stereotypical, but what do you expect? Again, the game is plain good fun, so you won’t feel too let down that the plot won’t keep you up at night.

I think the best way for me to sum up my experience with Devil May Cry 4 as a DMC virgin is this: this game really allows you to unleash all the cool things you’ve ever wanted to do as an imaginative young dude. Tell me who hasn’t wanted to swing a huge sword, jump 40 feet in the air while deflecting bullets of attackers with your own bullets? You get to live out every wildest sci-fi dream in this title, and for me, it kept me excited and truly enjoying the simple fun of slashing my way through villain after villain.

If you are looking for a good title to hack and slash, do a few puzzles, and let that kid inside you out, this is definitely it.

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