For the uninitiated, Devil May Cry was among the earliest PS2 titles, and is nearly as old as the console itself. It was far too short, its mission lengths were oddly balanced (some took less than two minutes, others dragged on for around half an hour), and the voice actors' emotionless monotones and their forced dialogue were ham and cheese respectively. It was also the most outrageously fun roller-coaster of a thrill ride in years. And it rocked - baby.
On a console overrun with endless and identical film tie-ins commissioned by companies who see games only as merchandise opportunities and not the art form they truly are, Capcom's DMC stands out as a challenge worthy of hardcore gamers. It's an atmospheric adventure showcasing great set-pieces and strategic boss-battles, all set throughout demon-infested castle grounds resembling Antoni Gaudi's Casa Battlo.
Responsible for this doomfest is one Dante Sparda, who must finish the job his demon father started by laying waste to the dark emperor Mundus. He's helped in his quest by swords, guns, hellfire, and the fact that he's such a double-hard bastard he can survive having a sword rammed through him.Despite the subdued palette, DMC's graphics mopped the floor with those of its contemporaries, and most of the in-game engine still looks good today (it was originally penned as one of many Resident Evil 4 prototypes, before it took a dramatic change of style). The camera is fixed-perspective - a technique which means that developers are able to put more detail than usual into the scenery, because it'll only ever be seen at one angle.
This removes draw distance problems and where there's fog in the game, it's for atmospheric effect and not to hide pop-up (if only the effect wasn't spoiled somewhat by the rubbish blood effects and the laughably jagged cutscenes). The camera also plays up a little in boss battles by choosing to focus on a random pillar and not the enemy. Most of the time, though, the way it jumps from viewpoint to viewpoint is more cinematic than irritating.As you'd expect from Capcom, the enemy design on show is very imaginative. The first time you meet the Sin Scissors is likely to be genuinely unsettling - they never stop laughing even when they're being hacked to death.
Some of Gamestyle's most enjoyable fights have been against the Shadows: shapeshifting smilodons, who repel all melee attacks and adroitly morph into spinning blades and spikes. They must be shot at - in between frantic dodging and evasion - until they expose their cores. After destroying these (with blades and not bullets this time), you then have to get out of the way before they explode. As you'll soon learn, simply going into a fight all guns blazing (or all swords slicing) will often get you killed, or at least earn you a shameful mission grade. The bosses, too, are very memorable: the elite hellspawn sent by Mundus to kill you include a spider made of lava and a T rex-sized bird with four beaks. Best of all is the Nightmare: a huge pile of demonic snot that shoots ice spears and slugs, and teleports you to another dimension where you must fight copies of earlier bosses; providing one of the most frustrating, intense and rewarding boss battles in any game ever.
So well-crafted is Devil May Cry that it doesn't feel repetitive even though it really should. It's very linear and packaged into discrete missions, and most of the gameplay (bar a few deviations) is in the mould of kill baddies, then find this key to open that door (or win it by killing more baddies), then kill even more baddies. But it's too expertly done for you to mind, or probably even notice. Combat (set to pounding J-rock by the talented Masami Ueda) is a genuinely enjoyable affair rather than a tiresome obstacle, and engulfs you in a positive feedback loop, as the more ridiculously flamboyant your moves, the more red orbs you gain, which you can then spend on even more powerful moves. You're also never left wondering what to do next, as the next objective is always displayed on your map - giving a much tighter experience than the dull sprawling mess that is the sequel (which Capcom seem to have repudiated).
In its time, this game was hailed as the best title PS2 had to offer. Its great commercial success in the face of being so inaccessible to the casual gamer is evident from the three sequels, the mounds of borderline-crass merchandising and the fact that Dante has guest starred in at least three other games, one of which is non-Capcom. You can get Devil May Cry for around a fiver now, which is most excellent value considering the replayability in its multiple difficulty modes and twelve secret missions. Old though it may be, this blast from the past is a little piece of PS2 history that all Sony gamers should own. Capcom, we salute you.
