Heven and Hell. Angels and Demons. Saviors and Destroyers. In the world over Devil May Cry, these omniant creatures are everywhere. Some come to destroy while others will save the human world. For our new hero Nero, he just wanted to chill with his friends, and possibly slay a few demons on the way. I guess it always have to be complicated when youre the hero!
Devil May Cry 4 is the newest installment of the DMC series, Dante for once isn't the main protagonist this time, now the role has been bestowed upon newcomer Nero to save the day while looking stylishly cool. Out story begins in the city of Fortuna, a city that is governed by the Order of the Sword and praise the Legendary Dark Knight, Sparda. If you didn't know, Sparda, is Dante's father and he is also a Demon. The Order of the Sword and the people of Fortuna revere Sparda to be The Savior, the one who will vanquish the demons and bring light to the whole world. Nero, honestly doesn't even care about the religious group and thier belief, for his attention is on his long time friend, Kyrie [hearts hearts hearts.] During the religious group's ceramonty, thier leader is attacked and slained in cold blood by the red trenchcoat assassin. His face smeared in blood, the assassin happens to be Dante, as he began his assualt on the Order of the Sword slaying soldier after soldier. Nero and Kyrie tries to escape, but somehow Kyrie is caught in the crossfire. Nero saves her and tells her to leave with her brother Credp [who is the Captian of the Order.] From there Nero and Dante are at a standoff. The fight seemed to never end, even with Nero having the upper hand on Dante here and there. Just when the fight seemed over, with Nero impaling Dante with his own sword. Dante is still alive and tells nero that, they are the same. With questions, and Dante with the answers, Dante disappears and the journey begins to seek out the truth.
Feeelin' lucky punk? Well, DO YAH!?
Newcomers to the series will feel right at home once they start the game. You can choose from one of two difficulties; Human [easy] or Demon Hunter [normal.] Not only that, but you can also choose from a Manual combo system or Automatic combo system that allow newbies to execute cool combos in style
almost. Think of the system you see in Marvel vs Capcom where you could easily execute cool combos with just one button. But unlike that system you can still do combos manually without any assist from the computer. So its a cool way for all people to get into the game and feel as if they are stylishly cool like Dante and Nero.
The controls are actually quite fluid in terms of going from one combo to another using Nero's weapons: Red Queen [sword], Blue Rose [gun], and his Devil Bringer [sweet lookin arm.] Also Nero [and Dante] can lock-on to one enemy at a time to concentrate his attacks on more deadlier enemies. The most interesting part about Nero is his Devil Bringer Arm. Which is more of extention of his arm. He can "snatch" far away enemies from a distance and bring them in for another beat down. Or execute more dramatic squences to utterly humilate or destroy is enemies. By far that is my favorite of Nero. Picture this: you just landed a 4 hit combo and slan your enemy in the air and continued a 2 hit combo to send the demon hurling into the ground, but youre still in the air. What to do? Use that Devil Bringer arm to snatch him back to the air to finish him off! SWEEEET.
Dante on the other hand is completely unchanged from his DMC3 look interms of moveset. Dante has his signature weapons; Rebellion [sword] and Ebony & Ivory [dual pistols.] Lets not forget his badass styles: Trickster [evasive], Swordmaster [close range], Gunslinger [long range], and Royal Gaurd [defensive.] The best thing about Dante this time around is that at anytime you can switch, weapons, swords, and styles at anytime. Mid Air? Finish a horde of demons off with gunslinger with Ebony and Ivory!
After playing as Nero for the first half of the game, playing as Dante for newcomers will feel extremely different. It will take a few minutes to adjust but you feel completely lost without that Devil Arm to snatch enemies. Dante's styles completely make up for that, and his new ability to "swtich" styles on the fly. Overall Dante felt a bit toned down from his DMC3 feel to me. He was also given some special treatment that you get as you progress through the game with Dante, that Nero doesn't recieve. =]
SWORDMASTER!!!
Visually, DMC4 is just absolutely gorgeous. The levels may seem very empty, not really scary like DMC1 felt, but the sheer amount of detail for each level is just truely nex gen for the series debut. The loactions varies from exotic junple temples to ghastly churches. The enemies are also amazing to look at and kill too. The Blitz demons and the Alto/Blaco Angelo Knights look by far the best.
As far as bosses.
DMC4 have very few "large" bosses. There are a total of 4 large bosses and 3 smaller bosses. And by large i just mean in sheer size. Some of them aren't even on epic status. Easily disposable, but they can get super cheap when they need to [main on Demon Hunter and Son of Sparda modes.] They will spam the hell out of you if youre playing withe Nero. Unlike Dante who can evade more effectly in the air or on the ground. Nero can only do so much, since he is very limited to evasive menuvers. But Nero can deal more damage to boss weakpoints with his Devil Bringer unlike Dante.
HIT THE WEAK SPOT FOR MASSIVE DAMAGE!
The music is DMC4 is just sheer awesomesauce [can i really say that in a review? YES!] The in game fight music can get annoying at times. Considering that the it will be the same fight music for generic enemies all the time for both Dante and Nero [they have two different songs.] Boss fight music are perfect and the ambiance in may of the levels are perfect as well. But it's the cinematic music that is really captivating. "We Shall Never Surrender," is the theme song in many of the sad scenes in DMC4. It's absolutely touching in terms of how it matches perfectly into whatever scene you may be watching. There are other songs, but I rather you play and hear for yourself!
What I didn't like about DMC4? Oh yes, there are quite a few. If you saw the TGS gameplay trailers and gameplay videos, Nero looked super powered on Dantes level of swordplay. Mostly the skill to impale an enemy and ride on top of him like a skateboard. Either, I didnt find this move to purchase, or it just wasn't added in? Disappointed. Period. Nero just felt as if he relied too much on his Devil Arm to do cooler combos that Dante could pull off in DMC3. Maybe it was to gapen the differences between Dante and Nero, nonetheleast it was something I was looking forward to.
Oh Nero will ever be able to wield Red Queen like you used to?
The camera controls. Yes. You can finally control the camera. TO SOME LIMITED EXTENT. Sometimes, I found myself in need of adjustment and the ability was often disabled out of nowhere. I know DMC4 takes alot from the sister game, Resident Evil in terms of cinematic camera angles, but there were just too many times when I was blind sided by enemy attacks and almost killed just because I couldn't see that last Blanco Knight rushing at me from the other end of the corridor. =/
Pros
- Easy to pick up action for newcomers.
- Nero/Devil Bringer is a refreshing feel to the series.
- Tons of Collectibles and Replay Value; Blood Palace
- Visually Amazing
- Story is a bit cliche, but the cinematics leading it is just amazing [nearly 120 mins worth]
- Dante returns! New moves on the fly!
- HAWT CHICKZ [lawlz]
Cons
- It can feel a bit, empty at times.
- Too few epic bosses.
- Nero/Dante felt a bit watered down.
- Camera Control is very flawed in certain areas.
Whaaaaaa???
- How the heck Nero get that arm? And how is he connected to Dante?
- Not enough Trish and Lady. Period.
- Where will the series go from here? DMC5 this gen or nex gen?
Rate: 8.5/10
Either then that, DMC4 is balls to the wall action. Easy for newcomers to the series to just pick up and play without looking like a n00b. Plenty of difficulties to keep seasoned vets playing over and over, with tons of extras and collectibles. With Bloody Palace, XBOX LIVE and PSN players and post stats and pit against your friends and people all over the world.
Two Heros. One Fate.
JuniorMints
