First Impressions: Devil May Cry 3 (PS2)

I picked up Devil May Cry 3 on the day I will label "yesterday" for the sake of convenience. It's at that late-night/early-morning stage of the day, so I have a hard time deciding if it's Saturday or Friday. As my state of mind might have you guess, I've been playing it for a while now; though I've been taking breaks to eat, let my nerve endings reconnect, and watch a bit of TV. Let my hands heal; help my brain regroup.

A little backstory here: The original DMC came out a few years ago. You played as the half-demon Dante, a wise-cracking, cocky bad-boy and son of the legendary demon Sparda. Sparda apparently fought alongside humans a good long time ago against his own kind during a big war; he knocked up some human lady and thus Dante was born. Present-day has Dante running a freelance business as a demon hunter, and one day he gets a job hunting the Big Evil from some chick that looks like his mom. Right. The game had you running around from a 3rd person point of view beating the crap out of demons with a variety of weapons; usually a sword and dual pistols (or another firearm of some kind). The thing that made this game unique was how stylish the action was, and how deep the battle system got as you became better at it. DMC was like a Badass Simulator; the controls were tight, and the action was awesome.

Then DMC2 came out. The story was both lame and underdeveloped, the controls were screwy, the graphics poorer, and the level designs boring. It introduced a second playable character whose name I've forgotten, and sucked the personality out of Dante completely (which, I was suprised to find, I missed).

Enter Devil May Cry 3.

This is a prequel to the first game. The story focuses on filling in the blank spots of the often obtuse plot of DMC1. Apparently, Dante has a twin brother named Virgil (whom we sort-of-meet in the first DMC). While Dante is hotheaded-but-kindhearted, Virgil is coldhearted and evil. Sibling rivalry is the story here, as Virgil is up to no good. As a younger, even more outspoken and reckless Dante than in the first game, you're treated to plenty of cheesy, ridiculous stunts and rudeness to authority figures (he openly mocks Cerebus, the three headed Hound of Hell, who stands a good twenty feet tall, by offering to take him for a walk, saying "here puppy!" and whistling). While being surprisingly story-based, the cutscenes are unintrusive, with generally pretty good voice acting. It should be noted that the action sequences in the cutscenes are spectacular, innovative, and amusing.

Which leads me to the gameplay itself. It plays very similar to the first game, yet it seems to pack in so much more. Like the first game, you can buy moves for your melee weapons with experience points (red orbs you collect from defeated enemies). Unlike the first game, you also have the choice of four "styles" (eventually six) that emphasize swordplay, gunplay, defense, or mobility. Each of these styles have different moves you can do with the circle button; these moves evolve as you gain experience with the style. You can switch styles at save points, so you're not stuck with one style for the whole game.

The combat is bar-none the fastest, most intense, and most stylish action to be found on the PS2. As with DMC1, you press triangle for your melee attack (i.e. sword) and square for your guns (i.e. twin pistols). Unlike DMC1, it's extremely fast and easy to switch weapons on the fly. Just press R2 or L2 to cycle through your melee or ranged weapons, respectively. So you can easily find yourself launching an enemy skyward with your two-handed sword, leaping up after him, ventilating him with your dual handguns, whipping out your shotgun while falling downwards, blasting him across the room - and finishing him off by bashing his skull in with your nunchuks.

DMC3's controls are precise, and they need to be, because the combat is insane. The fact that the game plays so well must have inspired an unearthly amount of confidence in the developers to assume that players would be having so much fun fighting for their goddamn lives that they wouldn't mind being so severely bootfucked by the enemies in this game. To put it simply, this game rewards attentiveness and skill by making you feel like an invincible badass; but it just as swiftly punishes weakness and ignorance by subjecting you to repeated severe ass-kickings until you learn your lesson. The real magic of the game is that balance right there.

Things I don't like about the game: The camera, while good enough, can be a problem at times. As with DMC1, you can save your stats at any time, but your progress is saved strictly on a beginning-of-stage basis. So that means if a boss kicks your ass (and it will), you'll have to go through the level again. On the bright side, if you save before you die each time, you can level up your abilities along the way. Still, it's easily the most frustrating part of the game. Speaking of frustrating, having an "Easy Mode" that was actually easy would be nice. The difference between "normal" and "easy" is pretty negligable, so far as I can tell, though "easy" is slightly more managable. The game's challenging nature is refreshing, but it would be nice to have the option available for people seeking a more relaxed experience.

*phew!* I think I'm done.
If I were to assign a score: 8.5/10, but only because it's a shade too tough (especially with the lack of checkpoints). Otherwise, a solid 9/10. Based on the first 4 hours or so of gameplay, that is.