DmC: Devil May Cry

[One-armed dwarf]

So I don't know how much interest there is on this forum for the new DMC reboot (if any), but there's a demo for this out today. I don't have the link on me right now but they usually put them up mid-afternoon time I think.

DMC3 is one of my all time favourite games so naturally I have my reservations about the combat. But I'm still greatly interested to see what this new take on DMC looks and plays like. I've never played anything by Ninja Theory before, other than a 10 minute Heavenly Sword demo.

[Shadowman]

I've got it in my download queue, I'm interested to see how it plays after all the previews the game has had. Honestly I'm not expecting much, just that its better than Devil May Cry 2

[Blakey]

I've got a very bad history with the DMC series, played the first (and quite liked it) but eventually got bored about 2 hours in.

Never played DMC2/DMC3 as I decided after playing the first that the series just wasn't my cup of tea.

Then DMC4 came out, I ummed and arred about whether to get it or not, but eventually I folded (of course) and got it, played about 3/4 hours of it and once again got bored.

Then a little game called Bayonetta came out, and changed my mind about the whole bat-shit-crazy-hack-n-slash genre, I absolutely LOVE Bayonetta, its easily in my top 5 games of all time.

But will 'DmC' be as good....hmmmm, I'm intruiged to see how this turns out, I love Ninja Theory as a studio and enjoyed their last release Enslaved very much but still have reservations about this new DMC game, purely because it's still a DMC game.

At the moment it's on my pre-order list but I may cancel it before its mid-January release date.

I played the Bayonetta demo and thought 'oh this is shit, just not my cup of tea' and didn't pre-order buy it on day 1, got it a few weeks later by trading in something and as I said above, it's easily one of my favourite games of all time.

So, I'll try the demo, and hope it's a decent representation of the game (which the Bayonetta demo wasn't) and see how it goes, if I don't rate it I'll probably cancel my pre-order and buy it if a later date if I've got any reservations.

[Andy Kurosaki]

I love DMC. I really enjoyed Enslaved. So even though the "emo" path is a bit troubling, i'm still well up for this.

[Shadowman]

Well, it exceeded my expectations already, its better than DMC2 Combat is a mix between classic DMC and the more mash happy approach of God of War - very stlyish and easy to pull off flashy moves but I don't know how deep the combat system goes. You have a deditcated "launch" button now that sends enemies into the air (reminded me of the changes Capcom made to MvC3). Press launch to knock the enemy into the air, press and hold it to knock the enemy in the air and jump up after them, basically the same way air combos work in previous DMC games but mapped to its own button now.
You also have two other melee weapons that are activated by pressing the left or right triggers + attack button. You can effortlessly change weapons mid combo which was a lot of fun. One is a nifty sythe the other a slow hammer (cliche slow attack speed but insanely damaging).

I only played a couple of minutes but I liked what I played, not as good as the original or DMC3 in my opinion but not close to being as bad as DMC2 either...

[One-armed dwarf]

In spite of myself I really enjoyed it. But I have conflicting feelings. The combat is fun but with 3/5 available melee weapons already in the demo I don't anticipate any huge surprises out of the game's combat when it does come out, even taking upgrade points into consideration. The boss fights could be this game's greatest weakness I reckon. The fights against Vergil/Nelo Angelo in the old games were intense. But the fight against the big vomitting scrotum thing in this felt more GoW-like and scripted.

Combat shortcomings aside however, the in-betweeney sections look a lot better than DMC3. The puzzles and platforming sections in the old games were always the poo-encrusted filler bits that you just got on with to get to the combat. DmC will have a little more balance, probably. The game also has a great visual style with its environments that hasn't really been present in the series since Mallet Island in DMC1.

I'm really interested to see what this new direction will bring, but I don't think I want this to become the series' norm. I hope they get Itsuno back on for DmC2/DMC5

[bellow]

Why cant I find it on psn or xbox live? Infuriating.

[bellow]

Really. It's just not there. How have u guys played it.
I love me some DMC.

[Maryokutai]

Have you checked the new releases in the demo section on Xbox Live? Should be right there on the first page.

[bellow]

Finally got it on psn. Downloading now.

[Blakey]

Haven't downloaded the demo yet.

For those that have played it, how does it compare to Bayonetta?

[bellow]

Yeah, pretty good. That whip is a little bit confusing, but I think I had it sorted by the time I'd done the level twice. Basically you have Nero's devil arm in whip form, which obviously entails lots of juggling possibilities. In fact i was pulling off rather impressive juggles with a whip, sythe, gun combo. Too impressive, in fact. You see, I love the game but I'm pretty useless at it. Those incredible jump cancels to keep tougher enemies in the air long enough to finish them off are the reserve of expert players. I reckon with this whip, and a moderate bit of practice you could keep just about anything in the air for as long as it takes - unless there's some design trick in the full game to stop that happening.
Purists ain't gonna go for that, I reckon. Of course it's great for casuals like me, who dream of those monumental juggles but lack the dedication to actually get them off!

Haven't downloaded the demo yet.

For those that have played it, how does it compare to Bayonetta?

It felt rather like Bayo, as though Dante was in that other world realm, with ghosts from another plain drifting in and out. Looks quite good, but rather too grainy for me. I went into options to see if you could turn off that grainy filter and get a DMC4 look. No, so there you go. This is dumbed down. It's obvious. That whip makes Dante into Nero, frankly. Good for me, like I said, and I'll buy this cos I like the series - but this has gone the way of all things.

[One-armed dwarf]

The aerial combat is weird. Dante floats around like a helium balloon.

[Shadowman]

Right, finally sat down and played through the demo (once on normal then hard modes). I like it, the combat actually feels really fun going by the demo. The weapons all seem useful for different instances and being able to switch from one to the next is incredibly slick and easy. It took me a while to get down all the moves so that I could effectively do them in combat but once I did I was loving this, switching from one enemy to the next in one long fluid combo. I gotta say at this stage I'm genuinely surprised as I was expecting a massive disappointment but this is quite the opposite. I do thInk that the devil trigger powers up too slow though going by the demo, it felt almost useless and I'm still not digging the Dante design but I can look past that...

The city transformations are pretty much what I wanted from the trailers I'd seen. Graphically impressive and fun to jump through. I hope they can keep them fresh thRoughout.

[bellow]

The new enemies are good too, aren't they - chainsaw guy and the little angels that target you with a laser. Great stuff. Let's face it, these games are out there on their own, and if you want a break from the norm (FPS TPS RPG) it's Dante and Bayonetta who are gonna bring it. And yes, I will be buying a WiiU for Bayonetta 2. Bugger.