Devil May Cry 4 Review
- Posted February 12th, 2008 at 10:22 EDT by
- 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)
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Comments
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DaveW
- 6:25am EST - 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
- 6:33am EST - February 12th, 2008
- 5
is this true, that the level of difficulty is to easy.
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woodcock_ps3
- 6:35am EST - 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
- 6:44am EST - 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
- 7:31am EST - 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
- 7:34am EST - 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
- 7:41am EST - 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
- 7:54am EST - 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
- 8:15am EST - 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- 10:00am EST - 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
- 12:33pm EST - 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.
This will permanently ban this user and delete all associated comments. This action is irreversible, are you SURE you want to do this?!
