Devil May Cry 5 (PlayStation 4)

Reviews

"My review" by Dante B. - 14 March 2019

About 6 years ago, we were graced (or disgraced, as is the popular consensus and I will probably be crucified for enjoying DmC: Devil May Cry) with a soft reboot of the Devil May Cry franchise. This reboot angered a lot of die-hard Devil May Cry fans, mainly due to the polar opposite personality of the re-imagined, tacky-haired, alcohol-swilling, cigarette-smoking (although Dante in DmC was never shown smoking, it was pretty obvious with ashtrays littered in his filthy caravan home) Dante. The game got very good reviews, but sales were extremely poor and it was believed the book on the Devil May Cry franchise was closed. Fast forward to 2019, a full 11 years after the release of Devil May Cry 4 (which featured the pizza-loving, white-haired half Demon we all know and love) and we have a direct sequel to Devil May Cry 4, and this time not only features a bearded Dante and a grown Nero, but a Criss Angel-lookalike new character known as V. I have to admit, the announcement and press around Devil May Cry 5 had me worried. And rightly so. The game is powered by the extremely beefy RE Engine, which powers the brilliant Resident Evil 7 and RE2 Remake. Those two games are quite realistic in terms of graphics, and I was afraid the style of the DMC series will be lost amidst all the realistic graphics. And then there are the Micro-transactions, which I will get to in a moment. Fortunately, this is definitely not the case. DMC 5 is gorgeous, with incredible facial animations, lovely crumbling skyscrapers, grotesquely detailed demons that look like they were pulled straight out of Resident Evil and morphed into demonic counterparts of themselves, and some pretty badass weapons. It is amazing that Capcom managed to pull off such an incredible amount of detail without losing the art style of the DMC series. Long-time fans will be extremely pleased to hear that the combat formula hasn't changed a bit, but improved tremendously. The game can be finished by only pressing one attack button, but the true joy comes from the stylish moves that can be pulled off, and trust me, you will be training to get those SSS ranks once you get the hang of the combat system and witness the incredibly stylish combos you can pull off. This brings us to the three playable characters in the game. Nero, Dante, and the newcomer V. Nero wields his sword Red queen and double-barreled handgun Blue Rose. The Red Queen can be revved up before or during combat, powering up your next attack or special move, up to three attacks depending if you upgraded to that level or not. The Blue Rose can be used to juggle enemies in the air, charged up for a powerful shot and to keep the combat counter up as you close your distance between Nero and the next demon added to the combo fodder. Nero has an incredibly conventional move-set, unlike V. V is weird, and not because of his name alone. V doesn't fight. He only dodges and executes. He has three demons at his command, Griffin; a cheeky crow-like demon that he can use to dodge out of danger and attack enemies from afar. Then there is Shadow; A demonic panther that pulls off some pretty disturbing shape-shifting moves that have to be witnessed instead of explained. In contrast to Nero and Dante's Devil Trigger, V can activate Nightmare, which turns his hair white and summons a large golem-like demon from the sky. These demons all serve one purpose: to soften up enemies for V to deal a finishing blow, which he performs with his cane. This brings us at last to Dante. He is without a doubt the easiest character to pull off multiple S-ranks with, but definitely the hardest to master. This is due to the fact (as long-time fans will know) due to his extremely varied move-sets, multiple weapons and fighting styles. The most interesting to note is a bike Dante eventually obtains that can be split in half and used to cleave through hordes of demons. All in all, Devil May Cry 5 packs a punch in terms of gameplay. There are never dull moments, the pacing is excellent and the Nu-Metal-semi-techno soundtrack complements the game nicely. The online component is a nice touch, and allows players to connect to someone else's game where there are than one character present in the mission (Nero and V for instance will work together in one mission, and both will be controlled by actual players) With that being said, let us move on to the negative. DMC 5 has a very basic storyline that lacks the sort of depth we see in most blockbuster action games of today (God of War 2018 to give an example). But a worst offender than this, is the completely unnecessary micro-transactions. You can buy a pack of red orbs (currency used to buy skills and upgrades) for R32. That is no small amount, considering that some skills can go up in price in tens of thousands(red orbs terms, not in Rands). Now I have to state the fact that you will have to be really bad or really lazy to want to purchase these, as I never felt as if I was up against impossible odds with the skill-set I could afford at the time, and I played it on Devil Hunter mode. So it stands to question as to why these MTs exist in the first place. Now one might ask... "Which version should I buy?" For an individual that just wants a kickass game, buy the standard edition, For collectors, there is a very gorgeous steelbook to be added to the collection in the Deluxe edition of the game, which comes with a plethora of bonuses such as extra skins, 100000 Red Orbs and more importantly; Battle tracks from the first four DMC games. These tracks can be changed each time in the main menu before a mission starts, and it's an absolute delight hearing those tracks from DMC3 and 4 during battle sequences. Rating (rated without Deluxe Edition content in mind) = Graphics 9/10 Sound and music 9/10 Story 7/10 Gameplay 10/10 Total score: 9.5/10