DmC: Devil May Cry

DmC: Devil May Cry

Official cover art[1]
Developer(s) Ninja Theory
QLOC (PC)[2]
Publisher(s) Capcom
Director(s) Tameem Antoniades[3]
Producer(s) Motohide Eshiro[4][5]
Alex Jones[4]
Artist(s) Alessandro Taini[6]
Writer(s) Tameem Antoniades[3]
Composer(s) Noisia
Combichrist[7]
Series Devil May Cry
Engine Unreal Engine 3[8]
Platform(s) PlayStation 3
Xbox 360
Microsoft Windows[9]
Definitive Edition PlayStation 4
Xbox One
Release date(s)
Genre(s) Action-adventure, hack and slash
Mode(s) Single-player
Distribution Blu-ray disc, DVD, download

DmC: Devil May Cry is an action-adventure hack and slash video game developed by Ninja Theory and published by Capcom for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows.[9][11] It is the fifth installment of the Devil May Cry series, serving as a reboot. Announced in late 2010 during the Tokyo Game Show,[12] the game is set in an alternative reality in the Devil May Cry series.[13] It focuses on the player character Dante, a young man at the start of his saga.

The reimagination of the Devil May Cry series was requested by Capcom resulting in the game being made with a new story framework in contrast to previous games. Capcom chose Ninja Theory to develop the game, assisting them to ensure that gameplay was reminiscent of previous titles. Early reaction to the game was widely negative, somewhat as a result of Dante's redesign; nevertheless, DmC received positive reviews from gaming websites who praised the gameplay and story of the game.

A remastered edition, titled DmC: Definitive Edition, running at 1080p/60fps and including all DLC, new costumes and new gameplay features such as a manual targeting system, was released for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on March 10, 2015.[10]

Gameplay

Dante battling demons in Limbo using his semi-automatic pistols Ebony and Ivory.

Players take on the role of Dante as he uses his powers and weaponry to fight against enemies and navigate the treacherous Limbo. Like previous games in the series, Dante can perform combos by attacking with his sword, Rebellion, and shooting with his twin pistols, Ebony and Ivory. New to the series are modifiers to Dante's moveset, known as Angel Mode and Devil Mode, activated by holding down one of the trigger buttons. When in Angel mode, Dante's sword attacks change to the Osiris, a speedy scythe type weapon, whilst Devil mode uses the slower but more powerful Arbiter. These modes also alter Dante's mobility. Using Angel mode allows Dante to pull himself towards enemies and various points in each level, whilst Devil mode lets Dante pull enemies and objects towards him. Dante is also able to dash across large gaps in Angel mode. All of these moves can be used in conjunction with each other to perform massive combos, which are ranked based on the damage the player makes. When enough power has been gathered, Dante can activate Devil Trigger mode, which slows down time around him and levitates enemies into the air, allowing him to perform much stronger attacks. Like previous games, Dante can collect various types of souls which can be used to recover health, purchase items and upgrade Dante's moveset.[14][15][16]

Plot

The story takes place in Limbo City, a modern-day city secretly controlled by all-powerful demons, manipulating humanity through the comforts of life, with the demons themselves living in a parallel plane called 'Limbo'. Living on the fringes of the brainwashed society is Dante, a young man at odds with the demons who constantly hunt him, and the civilian authorities they control. Dante is warned by a young woman named Kat that he is in danger. After being pulled into Limbo, Dante is guided through the Bellevue Pier's carnival by Kat, who can see into Limbo with her psychic powers. After returning to the human dimension, Dante is asked to join Kat in heading back to speak with her boss.

Along the way, Kat explains that she is part of "The Order", a rogue vigilante organization led by Vergil intent on exposing the demons and releasing the world from their control. Vergil tells Dante that with his help the Order can bring down the demons. Dante learns that he and Vergil are the children of Sparda and Eva. Vergil reveals that Sparda and Eva were demon and angel respectively and bore Dante and Vergil. Dante and Vergil are Nephilim capable of killing the cruel Demon King Mundus, Sparda's former ally. Afraid of the Nephilim children, Mundus attacked the family and killed Eva. He then condemned Sparda to banishment and eternal torture after the former demon General spirited his sons to safety, wiped their memories for their own protection and gave each a sword (Rebellion for Dante, Yamato for Vergil). After learning this, Dante resolves to help Vergil bring down Mundus and his regime.

Dante, with help from Kat, gradually takes down Mundus' operations. During the final stages of his campaign, Dante sees that the Order is being massacred. He returns and finds Kat and Vergil alive. While Vergil escapes with his brother, Kat is brutally beaten and dragged away by SWAT troops. Hoping to get Kat back, Dante kidnaps Mundus' demon concubine, Lilith, who is pregnant with his child. He offers to exchange, Lilith for Kat. However, Vergil kills Lilith and her child, triggering a firefight from which the three allies only narrowly escape an enraged attack by Mundus from his stronghold in Silverstack Towers. Kat, recovering from her injuries, tells them of a way into the Towers. With the remnants of the Order, Dante and Vergil infiltrate the Towers and confront Mundus, who is drawing power from the Hellgate, a portal to his realm within his office. The Demon King tries to kill Dante, but Vergil closes the Hellgate and stabs Mundus in the back. Mundus forms a new body for himself and attacks the brothers again. Mundus is eventually defeated, and with him the shield keeping demons across the world invisible dissolves, leaving the demons visible to humans and fusing the human world and Limbo together, creating chaos and pandemonium worldwide.

After Mundus' defeat, Vergil reveals his true intentions: with Mundus gone and their family avenged, he intends to rule humanity in his place. Though his brother claims that he will respect humanity as subjects, Dante is appalled at Vergil's callous attitude towards humans and opposes him. Before Dante kills Vergil after a climactic fight, Kat begs him to relent. Dante does so and Vergil leaves. Faced with a world now infested with demons abandoned by his own brother, Dante questions his own identity with Kat comforting him claiming he's "Dante, nothing more and nothing less". The game ends with Dante's eyes glowing Nephilim Purple.

The DLC chapter Vergil's Downfall follows Vergil after escaping from Dante. He finds himself in an unknown dimension, where he is guided by the voice of Eva to "head toward the lights". Vergil reaches the light area but is stopped by illusions of Kat and Dante, who stabs him again. Vergil is saved by a hollow version of himself and is transported to an area where he has to fight in order to heal his wounds. In his journey Vergil kills the illusions to heal his wounds, and left Eva to mourn after discovering what a monster he had chosen to become. Vergil later defeats his hollow counterpart and takes his amulet. Vergil then returns to the real world and encounters demons, who begin to bow at his feet. Confident in his future, Vergil becomes the new Demon King.

Development

The game was officially announced by Capcom at their press conference during the 2010 Tokyo Game Show in September, confirming an earlier rumor in the May 2010 issue of Game Informer which said that the fifth Devil May Cry game would be developed by Ninja Theory.[11][17] The Japanese Capcom staff told the Western staff to make a game with a different direction. Although their previous game, Devil May Cry 4, was a commercial success the staff thought about rebooting the series taking into account how other game series had better sales.[18] They chose Ninja Theory, impressed with their work on Heavenly Sword which the staff thought would work with a Devil May Cry game.[4] Ninja Theory's creative director Tameem Antoniades stated that DmC '​s combat system would contain mechanics that would set him apart from previous Platinum Games' titles with Platinum's Hideki Kamiya being the creator of Devil May Cry. Lead producer Alex Jones stated they still wanted to compete with Platinum in terms of gameplay and storytelling. The idea of a town being alive that wishes to kill the player was added a new element never seen before in the Devil May Cry series.[19] The actions of Limbo Town are inspired by previous Devil May Cry games, where the environments would close whenever Dante was surrounded by enemies.[14] Combat designer Rahni Tucker commented on how newcomers to the series have difficulties understanding how advance players from the classic Devil May Cry games could perform several combos that combined multiple skills and weapons. As a result, she designed the combat to be appeal to newcomers so that they could easily perform elaborated combos, while still offering gameplay that advance players would enjoy.[20]

Most of the game was finished as of April 2012 with Capcom aiding Ninja Theory in tweaking few aspects for the final product. Capcom became heavily involved in the combat system to ensure the character's responsive moves and add new air combos never seen before in the franchise.[21] The development team included over ninety members with nearly ten of them being from Capcom. While Capcom's Hideaki Itsuno oversaw the project, Jones and Motohide Eshiro acted as producers. They wanted to aid the Ninja Theory developers in making DmC play more like the previous Devil May Cry games.[5] The release of the PC version was delayed for a faster release of the console iterations. However, Ninja Theory was planning to start launching of the PC version shortly afterwards the console version, aiming for the shortest gap possible.[22] This depended on the time that the PC version finishes development.[23] As a result of speculation regarding Vergil being a playable character, Jones stated that Dante would be the only one controlled by the player.[22]

DmC is the first Ninja Theory game written by Tameem Antoniades.[3] Dante's original design was originally meant to be similar to the ones from previous games, but Capcom told the Ninja Theory staff it had to be completely different in order to appeal to a younger demographic.[24] While the original Dante was design from a Japanese perspective, the new one was made from a Western perspective.[4] The final model was inspired by Christopher Nolan's film The Dark Knight as Tameem Antoniades from Ninja Theory commented they wished to make the character realistic.[25] In an interview published by Official Xbox Magazine Jones explained that he has received numerous death threats in the form of comic books and a metal song due to the controversial decision to reboot the series.[26] Antoniades responded to criticism stating they would not change the design as the character is supposed to fit within the game's setting.[15] Nevertheless, Antoniades stated that the gameplay would be similar to previous Devil May Cry games.[16] In November 2011, an extended trailer and new concept art was released.[27][28] In May 2012, Capcom announced they expect the game to ship 2 million copies by the ending of this fiscal year without giving yet a proper release date.[29] The music for the game is being composed by electronic groups Noisia and Combichrist.[7] A playable demo was released on November 20, 2012.[30]

On December 2014, Capcom announced that the definitive edition of the game is being released for the PS4 and Xbox One. The game will contain numerous new improvements and features such as the 1080p resolution and 60 fps frame rate, rebalanced gameplay, all downloadable content available to the previous generation versions, a new Bloody Palace mode for Vergil, a Turbo Mode which gives a 20 percent boost to game speed, Hardcore mode which is designed for players who are looking for the classic challenge, Gods Must Die difficulty level wherein enemies have Devil Trigger and deal 2.5 times the normal damage, Must Style mode wherein enemies can only be damaged when the style rank is S and above, new costumes unavailable to the previous versions, updated trophies and achievements, and new leaderboards for Hardcore mode.[31]

Downloadable content

A few days after the release of the game on PC, the first "Costume Pack" downloadable content (DLC) was released for all consoles. The packs contains several outfits for Dante to use in the main game, which includes a Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening outfit, a "Dark Dante" outfit and a "Neo Dante" outfit.

On February 20, 2013, the second DLC for the game, called Bloody Palace, was released.[32] The free DLC is a survival mode, pitting players against 101 waves of enemies and bosses.

Along with Bloody Palace, there is also a "Weapons Bundle" DLC, which includes three sets of skins (Bone, Gold and Samurai) for three in-game weapons (Arbiter, Osiris and Revenant). The bundle also unlocks two in-game perks, Orb Harvester and Item Finder, plus gives the player three upgrade points. The skin packs were previously available as store-exclusive pre-order DLCs for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions.

On March 6, 2013, the fourth DLC, Vergil's Downfall, was released. The DLC adds a new section in the main game, giving players a new single-player campaign featuring Vergil as the main character. The DLC has its own leaderboard, stats and set of achievements. This DLC is available for free for those who have pre-ordered the game on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Reception

Critical reception

Reception
Aggregate scores
AggregatorScore
GameRankings(X360) 86.33%[33]
(PS3) 85.75%[34]
(XONE) 85.31%[35]
(PC) 85.10%[36]
(PS4) 85.00%[37]
Metacritic(X360) 86/100[38]
(XONE) 86/100[39]
(PS3) 85/100[40]
(PC) 85/100[41]
(PS4) 85/100[42]
Review scores
PublicationScore
1UP.comA[43]
Eurogamer8/10[44]
Famitsu34/40[45]
Game Informer9/10[46]
GameSpot8/10[47]
GameTrailers9/10[48]
IGN(PC/X360) 8.9/10[49][50]
(PS3) 8.5/10[51]
Joystiq[52]

Before the game was released, early reception to the new design of Dante and change in direction of the series was negative.[25][53][54] The series' original creator, Hideki Kamiya, was negative about the game's direction and stated he was "missing" Dante although in later tweets he expected people to try the game.[55][56] Video game publications 1UP.com and GamesRadar found such claims exaggerated, with the former finding the demo's gameplay and humour enjoyable and the latter being optimistic about how the release of the game could affect the franchise.[16][57] Various other sites also listed it as one of the most anticipated games of 2012 stating that, despite the controversy the game caused, it looked promising, owing to the presentation and the fact the gameplay had yet to be tested.[58][59][60] On September 2012, Capcom US producer Alex Jones claimed that some of the negative response had turned positive.[61] Dante's voice actor from Devil May Cry 3 and 4, Reuben Langdon, while expressing disappointment with Dante's characterization, had positive impressions about the game and urged fans to try it.[62]

DmC: Devil May Cry received positive reviews from critics. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the Xbox 360 version 86.33% and 86/100,[33][38] the PlayStation 3 version 85.75% and 85/100[34][40] and the PC version 85.10% and 85/100.[36][41] Jeff Bakalar of CNET awarded the game number 14 on his best games of 2013 list.[63]

DmC: Definitive Edition also received positive reviews from critics. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the PlayStation 4 version 85.00% and 85/100,[37][42] and the Xbox One version 85.31% and 86/100.[35][39]

Sales

Capcom initially hoped to ship 2 million copies by the end of its financial year; later, it revised its predictions to 1.2 million copies shipped.[64][65] As of June 2014, 1.6 million copies have been sold.[66] Capcom noted that the game did not catch Eastern gamers' attention and made less than its previous iteration, Devil May Cry 4.[67] Capcom also mentioned other reasons for their poor sales in 2013 including a "delayed response to the expanding digital contents market," "insufficient coordination between the marketing and the game development divisions in overseas markets," and a "decline in quality due to excessive outsourcing", though whether or not any of the comments were applicable to DmC: Devil May Cry was left ambiguous.[68]

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External links