Devil May Cry 4 Review
- Posted February 12th, 2008 at 10:22 EDT by
- 22,893 views
- 43 Comments
Review Score
- PSU Review Score
- 8.0
- Avg. user review score:
- 8.6
Summary
Devil May Cry 4 delivers on every front possible. With great voice acting and immensely addictive gameplay elements that will rarely get old as long as you change it up from fight to fight, it is one of the definitive must buys for the PlayStation 3.
We like
- Mesmerizing voiceovers
- Addictive gameplay
- Great control setup
We dislike
- Lack of difficulty
- Camera can sometimes obscure your view
See PSU's review on Metacritic & GameRankings
Sometimes when you’ve fallen in love with a franchise, it can be saddening to witness the quality drop with each subsequent installment. You saw it happen with Friday the 13th, NBA Live, and even Medal of Honor. Despite that, you’re still usually there on day one of release ready to watch or pickup that latest version, only to be disappointed and broke a little later. Thankfully, this wasn’t the case with Devil May Cry 4, as Capcom has delivered not only the goods but the gaming experience that users have been waiting for.
Capcom gave their followers the opportunity to see the world from an entirely new character’s eyes, Nero. Nero is just an arrogant young kid who knows he’s the man. Equipped with a double-barrel firearm of his own, pristine sword, and a demonic arm that adds an entirely new repertoire of moves, Nero is nothing less than a great addition to the franchise. Don’t worry though; the son of Sparda, Dante, plays a significant role as well.
This button-mashing masterpiece starts off with an incredibly beautiful cinematic scene filled with solid harmonic bliss and deep-rooted action. Straight out of the gates Dante confronts you after he’s done something horrible, having assassinated His Holiness. Nero, who just happens to be ignorant to the entire environment around him and what is really going on, is faced with the task of stalling Dante as more troops are gathered to fight.
During this episode, you’ll be given the opportunity to do a simple walkthrough tutorial that will prepare you for the new elements of the game. This is a great way to melt newcomers into the series without taking away anything from the action itself. After somewhat subduing Dante and watching him inevitably escape, Credo, the older brother of your love interest, bestows upon you the responsibility of chasing Dante down and bringing him to justice. You’ll then find yourself outside of the church and on your own with a slew of demons awaiting you ahead.
If you’ve never played Devil May Cry before you won’t have much to worry about. On top of the integrated tutorial, Capcom has added in an “Automatic” feature for you as well. When “on,” this feature will allow you to do tricky combos as well as other maneuvers that you may not have the time to memorize or perfect. This will give you the capability of enjoying the game to its fullest, without having to spend hours perfecting your button mashing.
You’ll spend the majority of the game in control of the newly introduced Nero. However, Dante fans do not need to fret for you’ll be given the opportunity to utilize the son of Sparda just as the game’s story hits the point of epic proportions. One issue that may arise from this is the fact that by the time you are finally able to utilize Dante, you’ll be so used to the button mapping of Nero that you may get confused at the start. This will quickly subside, as you’ll find yourself getting into the groove as you smash your way through the demons that are waiting in line.
The button mapping has been implemented perfectly. You’ll have no trouble pulling off some of the best combo moves known to the genre itself. Whether you’re looking to slam your demonic arm right into your opponent’s chest in order to throw him to the ground or just simply trying to carve your name into their already disfigured body, the ability to do so is a breeze. With each weapon mapped to a specific button, it makes moving from weapon to weapon an effortless task.
Followed by the easy to use mapping is the base mechanics at heart. The game controls just as great as it plays. Your movements will always be fluid and you’ll always be able to control what you’re trying to do perfectly. If you’re trying to attack to the right, you’ll surely do it. Unlike some button mashers where you’ll sometimes find your character attacking slightly off target, this isn’t the case for Devil May Cry 4. Capcom did a great job in making sure everything flowed together perfectly. DMC 4 also features a great lock-on ... (continued on next page)
Comments
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DaveW |
enacku- 11:25am GMT - February 12th, 2008
- 4
I'm not a stranger to the Devil May Cry franchise, Enacku. I played 8 missions through standard "Human" difficulty with "Automatic: on", to give an idea on how beginners could come into the title.. and I beat the game all the way through on Demon Hunter with Automatic set to off in order to write the entire review.
I'm not the only one who felt the game lacked a sense of difficulty and challenge to an extent. Quite a few people on our own forums as well as others have brought up the easiness that released with this title.
Also, reviews aren't always going to be agreed with. It's an opinion just like yours, so I can't really tell you that you're wrong. Because you're not. -
TekkenLord |
HitMan00- 11:33am GMT - February 12th, 2008
- 5
is this true, that the level of difficulty is to easy.
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woodcock_ps3 |
WALL-MARTshinobi- 11:35am GMT - February 12th, 2008
- 6
IDk this game was terible i liked the old DMC games and this one did not live up to its hype and i agree it was to easy pluse who the hek thought of auto combos arnt DMC games suposed to have difficult combos and hard difficulty's i call shinanigans.
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Falanx13 |
Falanx13- 11:44am GMT - February 12th, 2008
- 8
@DaveW - Wow, that was quick. Thanks for getting that review up so quick.
Was it just me, or did DMC4 go in an almost opposite direction of DMC3 in regards to difficulty? The DMC series seems to do a back and forth between hard and easy. But DMC4 did manage to polish everything that made DMC great without completely re-inventing the gameplay of the entire franchise. If it's not broken, why fix it?
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PS3-The Ultimate Machine
- 12:31pm GMT - February 12th, 2008
- 10
The best thing about dmc3 was it's UBER difficulty,that's what this franchise is about!
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Enacku |
enacku- 12:34pm GMT - February 12th, 2008
- 11
Well thanks for clearing it up Dave. Because you didnt mention what mode or if you played on automatic to give the conclusion to us that it wasnt difficult. This is my first dmc game, i beat it on human/automatic and it wasnt to tough. Bout to have my go on demon hunter, with automatic off.
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SmokeyDPS3
- 12:41pm GMT - February 12th, 2008
- 13
I can't believe they didn't fix the camera yet, 4 games and the camera is still the biggest complaint. They really should have fixed that instead of whatever it is they did to mess with the difficulty settings.
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BlueSteel18 |
BlueSteel18- 12:54pm GMT - February 12th, 2008
- 14
great review for a great game! Thanks DaveW. I'm glad that i bought this game.
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iplayonlysony
- 1:15pm GMT - February 12th, 2008
- 15
@ wood, auto combos were on the very first DMC, so this one is no different. I think the game looks and plays great. Better to be able to complete the game than to be frustrated half way through it and stop playing.
Edit: I could not say your whole name, because PSU banned it :p
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RedDragon7 |
Pheonix7- 3:00pm GMT - February 12th, 2008
- 18
I guess I'm a casual gamer, as it took me 10-13 hours to beat the game on Human mode. I haven't gotten past the halfway mark on Devil Hunter yet. Point being, I don't think its too difficult, I was finally able to try and fight well instead of just surviving onslaughts. Everyone has their opinions and that's perfectly fine. I just hope that if there's a DMC 5 its not massively amped up in difficulty or at least Human mode is left untouched and maybe Devil Hunter mode can be made harder. And I never finished DMC 3 because it was too much of a headache. I really like this series and its a lot of fun. I just hope I'm not forced to stop playing because its too difficult (if its changed in the future). Anyway, point of this comment is that I actually thought this game deserved a slightly higher score for a "must-have" game. 8.5-8.9 would be about right in my book.
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Moebius |
Moe_Ikezera- 5:33pm GMT - February 12th, 2008
- 20
Game really isn't that easy ... and playing the game on Human, then progressing to Demon Hunter only skews the review because all of your orbs and proud souls carry over, not too mention whatever skills you picked while playing (combos developed, map memorization etc) starting the game on an easy difficulty makes the entire game easy not just the play through.
I agree with camera being a bit weird but i can also understand why capcom decided to use it. I think without the camera system players would probably missout on alot of details and it would also be harder to convey the same sense of scale and granduer with a free camera system. I think the game would probably suffer without it.
The Demo is utter trash ... it pails in comparison to the full game.
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edward_moffet |
edd- 6:30pm GMT - February 12th, 2008
- 22
same game different graphics at least thats what i think i mean i dont thin they should completely redo it i mean like someone said above me if its not broken dont fix it but i want some innovation maybe to the puzzle aspect or a deeper combat system with counter attacks and stuff just you know more to the gameplay not neccesarily a change and the lack of difficulty and alot of repetitiveness kills it i think it would have been alot better if the ai was smarter or you really had to think how you used combos and stuff because it gets a little boring after a while luckily the bosses put some spark back into it
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Gen.Penguin
- 8:05pm GMT - February 12th, 2008
- 23
lack of difficulty huh?
funny because the 3rd one was f****** hard.
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Thunder860 |
Bwiz860- 8:17pm GMT - February 12th, 2008
- 25
The demo was retarted, but the game is awesome.
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gksamsgolf |
gforcedynasty- 9:41pm GMT - February 12th, 2008
- 27
I DON'T KNOW WHAT THESE PEOPLE ARE TALKING ABOUT. DMC4 ROCKS!!!!!!!
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gamewaffle
- 10:41pm GMT - February 12th, 2008
- 28
Alas, This wasn't as much of a disapointment as Tools of Destruction.
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DeadOnArrival06 |
DeadOnArrival06- 11:38pm GMT - February 12th, 2008
- 29
The difficulty wasn't bad at all. I eased through the entire thing without having to use a Gold Orb or Holy Water except for the Last Boss (Which is funny cause I couldn't even beat the first Boss without items in DMC3) I'm going back through it on Son Of Sparda mode now. I love this game.
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GunsOfLiberty |
GunsOfLiberty- 4:32am GMT - February 13th, 2008
- 31
Should I buy this game? I love this franchise. i'm abit concerned about the repetitive levels...
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darksora |
Rav_M- 3:32pm GMT - February 13th, 2008
- 33
you failed to mention the unlockable difficulty modes. There are around 6 difficulty modes and from what ive heard the second hardest difficulty seems to be almost impossible to beat let alone the hardest difficulty. So with that in mind i kinda disagree with the con of having "a lack of difficulty".
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huZba
- 1:41am GMT - February 14th, 2008
- 36
The demon hunter difficulty was too easy i agree and i felt a bit bored playing, but now starting again with "son of sparda" difficulty it felt just right, refreshed the game a lot and i'm having a blast!
They should've had a way to unlock "son of sparda" earlier in the game if "devil hunter" felt too easy.
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Heavenly_King |
Heavenly King- 5:11pm GMT - February 18th, 2008
- 37
I think this game should have been rated with a 9.0; considering it is better than Heavenly Sword (it has 9).
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Heavenly King- 11:33pm GMT - March 1st, 2008
- 38
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XtremeCoaster |
XtremeCoaster- 4:00pm GMT - March 3rd, 2008
- 39
I will be the first to admit that yes Devil May Cry 4 was easier on normal (human) mode than Devil May Cry 3. I do remember that when Devil May Cry 3 came out MOST people complained that it was to hard. I liked the challenge Devil May Cry 3 presented. Every game out there on the market should not have to be "dumbed down" just so everyone can beat it. You really had to practice to beat Devil May Cry 3 and I think more games should incorporate that.
PSN ID: XtremeCoaster
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electricvortex |
cookiehour- 5:59am GMT - March 15th, 2008
- 40
Never finished DMC3 because I found it to be too hard. DMC4 is good, pretty solid but I wouldn't say it's easy completely. If you don't know what you're doing, you can die pretty quickly. xP
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cuban_mutt15
- 8:24pm BST - June 25th, 2008
- 42
i thought the game was awesome. id say it diservs at least a 9
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deathkrutcher
- 4:19am BST - August 9th, 2009
- 43
awesome game!! hey everybody, let's get united and claim for trophy support for this title, cuz is really stupid tht for xbox 360 version has achievements and for ps3 it doesn't, for those who agree tht devil may cry 4 must have trophies, please keep posting comments so our voices could be heard and gives us some hope, because having trophy support motivates us more to play the game cuz we struggle a lot to beat games in the hardest difficulties and we all should be rewarded with something, anyone who agrees with me, keep posting here claiming for devil may cry 4 trophy support, at least i know there's gamers out there who wants it as much as I do, I WANT TROPHIES!!
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