Title : Devil May Cry 3 : Dante's Awakening
Platform : PlayStation 2
Genre : Hack and Slash, Action
Developer : Capcom
Publisher : Capcom
Rating : M (ESRB) , 16+ (PEGI)Devil May Cry 3, like the subtitle says is actually a prequel to all of the Devil May Cry video game series. Created by Capcom, who is quite known for it's Resident Evil series, a survival-horror fame, this game might look like the same way, but it's actually not.Devil May Cry is a game that focus more on Action and fast paced battles against hordes of Demon, the player takes the role of Dante, a half-demon and he's a devil hunter. Since this game is a prequel it features a younger and even more cockier Dante, mocking every demon enemies he met and shows no sign Fear of them.Story
The story isn't that hard to understand and it's quite straight, with an interesting twist too.
The story is told through cutscenes that appear before and after a level (the game called the levels as "missions"), in the Opening you see a battle between Dante and the Antagonist, Vergil, Dante's twin brother, Lady narrates the opening and explain that both of them are the Sons of Sparda, a Demon that fight against his own kind to save humanity.
The battle of the two brothersAfter the brief Opening cutscene, the story goes to sometimes before the fight happened with Dante still in his yet-to be-named shop. Having a visit from Arkham, Vergil's accomplice that said that he had "invitation" from Vergil to Dante, and then summon a horde of Demons to attack him.Suddenly, a tower appear in the middle of the city and apparently Vergil wants to re-open the portal to the Demon World through that Tower, and thus Dante's journey to stop his brother begin....
The appearance of the giant Devil tower, Temen-Ni-GruI won't spoil more than that but it is a quite good and touching story overall and a nice character development too, especially for Dante. :)Gameplay
For new players, the first thing they will notice is the game is Crazy hard, the cutscene shows that Dante is strong enough to survive getting himself slashed by some Demon, but it's not applied to real gameplay. Dante can easily died only by a few hits from the enemies.And the steep learning curve doesn't really help for new players, Dante has many arrange of weapons and moves that is different with each weapon, mastering how to use these weapons is the key to survival. The tutorial doesn't really help much.The game also present you with different "style" of fighting, there are 4 style that is available at the beginning.
- Trickster : For better Maneuverability
- Swordmaster : For better skill on Melee Weapons
- Gunslinger : For Better skill on Guns
- Royal Guard : It's not for defending mind you, skillful players can use this style to counterattacks the enemy.
The skill can be leveled up depend on how long you use it, and you can only change style at the beginning of the level or through the divinity statue founded in some area of the game's world.Despite the powerful names like Swordmaster and Gunslinger, it's highly recommended for new players to use the Trickster style due it makes it easier in moving and dodging attacks.But.... after getting passed all the hard learning, it's really worth it, because it's the time when you can really enjoy Devil May Cry 3's gameplay ! And which is one of the reason I give the gameplay a high score. ;D
The game it self focuses on the player doing a combo style, repeatedly pressing the melee button won't get you nowhere, and running away from help because the game focuses you highly on attacking and doing massive combo on the enemy while trying to avoid damage at the same time.
See the meter that says "Alright" there ? The game also rate how "stylish" you fight in battles by using different combo. This meter reange from "Dope" to "SSStylish" (Yup that's SSS there :) ) and keeping this meter high has it's own fun.One of the game's highlight is the boss battles, the boss is as dangerous as they look like and this may make many player stressed out and drop the controller in frustation, but once you get the hang of it you should know how fun the battle is.All the enemies has pattern and signal about when they are going to attack. You sense danger ? Trust that sense and try to avoid getting hit by the enemy, cause the damage they dealt is really massive.
See that big 3 headed dog ? Apparently that's your first boss. ::)Midway through the game, Dante will have access to his Devil form by Devil Triggering, this is when the difficulty will become bearable, the Devil Trigger makes Dante Stronger and faster and it is useful during a fight due to it's fast regeneration.
This form will help you a LOT !The game doesn't fully feature fighting, it also has some puzzle and exploration elements to it. The puzzle is quite easy to understand and it's a nice diversion from the battles you have been facing.You have to rest your hand you know ::)Graphic
The game features quite good graphics for the old PS2 console, the characters and enemies are nicely rendered.The game also give you a nice atmosphere of the areas you passed through, most of the time you will be spending your time in the tower of Temen-Ni-Gru, and the game gives you the noce gothic and demonic atmosphere to it.The game also flows smoothly, with using 60Fps the characters move and action is smooth to watch which makes the game experience even better.
The special effects also nice to watch too, demons turn into dust, Bosses's special effects, gun and sword shooting and slashing is nice to look :)Sound
You are fighting hordes of demon with style, so what music will suit it ?Apparently Capcom decided put a Rock/Heavy Metal music into it, and it's nice one and really suit the mood and feel of DMC's intense battles. They also features some nice Orchestrated music during some events on the game and the Soundtrack that play during the ending credits is quite nice.
Yup, he fights using a guitar there ::)The Voice Acting is nice too, they fit the personalities of the character quite well. From the cocky Dante to the Bosses (Yup, the demons can talk) Voice that suits them.The music only play during battles and for the rest you will only hear the silence and sound effects of the things in the Devil tower, it's nice and give you more evil atmosphere on it. And of course the sound effect of the moves and other special effect is nicely well done, gun shooting, sword slashing, explosions.... all can be clearly heard. :)Story 7/10 : Pretty straight, but have a nice plot twist in the middle, and nice character developmentGameplay 9/10 : It's fast, fun, and addicting once you manage to pass all the learning cures.Graphic 8/10 : Nice, and flow smoothly despite all the action in the screenSound 8/10 : Rock music is nice during battles, and most music suit the event they're in.Replayability 8/10 : Finished your first playthrough ? Go challenge yourself at harder difficulty or play the Bloody Palace.In conclusion, this game is a fun and addictive game once you get past all the learning curve and understand the basics for battling Demons in the game, it's fast action, stylish battles will make this game worth a while for the people who love action games :)That's it for my first review though, constructive comment are highly accepted :)