Devil May Cry 5

From the start, the plot of Devil May Cry 5 demonstrates its fairly unconventional character by making you participate in a fight that you are supposed to lose, probably akin to the outcome of the game. After Dante intervened to allow Nero and to V, the newcomer, to escape from Urizen, overpowered demon king, the story returns to the events that have taken place during the last three months, passing from one protagonist to another in order to explain the reasons that pushed Nero and Dante to find themselves there, as well as the circumstances that led Urizen to take power and the mysterious quest for V to stop him.

A veil of mystery envelops the characters of Urizen and V. Like Nero, I was never really sure I could trust him, and I never stopped formulating new theories about his identity and his true motivations whenever I learned new information about it. At the end of the 10 to 12 hours necessary to complete the game, a few questions still remained unanswered, but overall, the adventure turned out to be particularly engaging, with its cohort of revelations concerning the intrigue of this fifth installment and the saga in general, and its incredible deluge of action on the screen, trademark of the Devil May Cry franchise.

In appearance, the combat system seems very simple: with a button for melee attacks, one for ranged attacks and another allowing you to activate the special ability of each of the three characters. And although the possibilities it offers are actually overwhelming, it is quite possible to complete the campaign in normal difficulty mode by simply alternating these different types of attacks. Knowing that an assisted mode automatically executing devastating combos when you press a key is also part of the game, and offers casual players an overview of what can be achieved when you master the gameplay of the title on the end fingers.

The grip of Dante is much more obvious, since the latter has a gameplay "Swiss army knife" extremely close to that of its counterpart of Devil May Cry 4. It can thus alternate on the fly between four fighting styles separate (Trickster, Royal Guard, Gunslinger and Swordmaster), four melee weapons, and four ranged weapons. Its arsenal manages to successfully mix tradition and novelty: the old weapons are still as pleasant to handle thanks to a certain number of adjustments and the arrival of new techniques, while the new ones offer him a whole range of new possibilities. Dante can for example use a motorbike to crush his enemies, which will then turn into spinning blades, all in the space of a single combo.

Finally comes the turn of V, which has a gameplay very different from that of any protagonist glimpsed in the previous parts, since the latter stands apart from the fighting and is content to summon three demons to do the dirty work for him. Griffon, a bird that can launch all kinds of electrical attacks and Shadow, a kind of cat capable of changing shape and melting on enemies, are similar to a ranged weapon and a melee weapon respectively, while Nightmare , is a veritable colossus that can be summoned by V minus three bars of its Devil Trigger gauge. This one fights in a completely autonomous way, and it remains particularly enjoyable to see it emerge from a wall or split the sky to annihilate your enemies.

It is important to note, however, that your summons cannot kill your enemies. Consequently, once the latter are sufficiently weakened, V will have to teleport nearby to give them the final blow with the help of his cane. This approach gives rise to particularly classy sequences, where your character passes from one enemy to another to administer the last sacraments to them, while your invocations continue the combat in the background.

Learning to master the gameplay is particularly difficult, even according to the high standards of Devil May Cry in this area, since you have no control over the movements of Griffon and Shadow. Getting them to attack a particular target is very complicated, as is knowing where they stand in relation to the enemy. However, you can use part of your Devil Trigger gauge to let them attack independently, allowing you to focus on dodging. Finally, be aware that when you benefit from a brief moment of calm, you can read one of V's favorite works to fill this gauge ... or play the violin to taunt your opponents.

Despite this novel approach, the missions in which you play V are by far the least interesting of the lot, mainly because its possibilities of movement are much more restricted than those of Dante and Nero. But that does not mean that these levels are bad. Once you have some improvements for Shadow and Griffon and you have made the particular rhythm of the clashes, the unique gameplay of V is even very pleasant, and the developers had the good idea to dispense these phases sparingly adventure thread to avoid overdose.

The visual and audio rendering of Devil May Cry 5 is simply to die for. The style and personality of the different characters shows through in the slightest animation, whether it be Nero's attacks that see him waltz through the levels, Dante's arrogant jokes targeting the different bosses he faces, or manners subtle of V which reinforce its mysterious side.

Much more linear than in the past and less focused on solving puzzles, the level design adopted by this fifth installment proves to be particularly appreciable, because it allows to maintain a certain intensity and emphasizes challenges based on your skills. in combat. For example, you will have to kill a group of enemies before their weight tilts the platform, to prevent their fall from condemning access to a secret room full of bonuses. In general, the environments are much less varied than in previous games, and the adventure comes down to a succession of urban areas filled with demons and other related infernal underground chasms.

If Devil May Cry games have always had a reputation for being difficult, ending the game by selecting the default difficulty mode is not insurmountable. In reality, it even turns out to be rather permissive, if you only want to see the end of the adventure. When you die, you can use a golden orb, which will not only resuscitate you, but also fill your health gauge and your Devil Trigger gauge. These are quite abundant: you find them by exploring the levels, get one a day as a daily connection bonus, or thanks to the strange cameo system, which records your character's ghost in certain levels and offers it to other players, who can rate your performance. In addition, if you run out of golden orbs (which happened to me towards the end of the adventure), you also have the option of spending much more common red orbs to resuscitate and fill your bar with health.

Staying alive isn't the main challenge in Devil May Cry anyway. As stated at the beginning of the article, it is not only a question of overcoming enemies, but of doing it in style. Achieving an SSS rank is an arduous and motivating objective, which more than compensates for the lack of basic difficulty of the title. To this end, I jumped at every opportunity to acquire new techniques, which is particularly rewarding, given that Devil May Cry 5 constantly offers you new abilities - be it a new form, weapon or Devil Breaker - and all can be improved. At the end of the adventure, my three characters were like almighty gods, and I still had a lot of improvements to unlock for the Son of Sparda mode, which is roughly akin to a New Game +, where the real difficulty of Devil May Cry 5 begins to reveal itself.

A good combat system is not worth much if the enemies offered are not fun to fight, and from this point of view, Devil May Cry 5 perfectly meets the particularly high standards established by the previous parts of the franchise. You have a whole bunch of basic enemies, which you can martyr at leisure and which allow you to develop your combos, tougher enemies requiring the use of a specific strategy to bypass their defenses, and adversaries generally not very resistant but capable of inflicting heavy damage on you with ranged attacks if you give them free rein. This observation is also valid for bosses, with some fights occurring late in the adventure appearing among the most intense that the series has known. The latter are also very varied, with gigantic and overpowered monsters, others agile and elusive, and frantic duels requiring excellent reflexes and a careful balance between attack and defense.

If you have never heard of the Devil May Cry series, I will try to briefly explain what it is, before moving on to the specific features of this new chapter (but you can also get help from our IGN Evolution). Released on PlayStation 2 in 2001, the first Devil May Cry (born from a project that was supposed to become Resident Evil 4, but turned out to be too different) introduced the concept of Stylish Action, a type of third-person action games in which it was not only important to mow enemies, but also to do it with style, elegance and spectacularity. In every fight, in fact, the player is "judged" by the game, in real time, with lots of legendary writings that appear at the top right of the screen, for his work. The final score assigned to the player for each fight can vary from D to SSS and to get the best scores there are several factors to take into consideration, such as the speed of execution, the constant rhythm (do not interrupt the combo), the variety ( it is wrong to always insist on the same move) and attention not to be hit.

To this we also add one of the most exaggerated, cool, tamarri and funny protagonists of the entire history of video games, or the demon hunter Dante, who has exalted an entire generation of players with his style, and an exceptional quality level for the first episode, and quite high for the rest of the series, with the exception of one episode, the second, less successful. And here that of Devil May Cry becomes one of the most popular series by gamers of the last two decades. This fifth episode stands firmly on what are the basis of the series and the genre, that is spectacular action without respite with a combat system of the highest quality, and offers from the point of view of technical realization a convincing adaptation to our days.

In fact, let's start with the graphics, of this Devil May Cry 5, which I really liked. The game uses the same RE Engine on which the recent Resident Evil 7 and Resident Evil 2 were made and which therefore proves to be an extremely versatile graphics engine, given the differences between the three games to which we have seen it applied.

In Devil May Cry 5 the character models, the settings, the possibility of interacting with a good part of the latter (even if only for aesthetics, however often with pleasant results) and the fact that everything revolves with a great be careful to keep the game fixed at 60fps, practically always succeeding, despite the many enemies on the screen and the abundant light and particle effects. In short, technically the game really delighted me. The test took place on Xbox One X and the results were of the highest level. I have not had the opportunity to try the game on PS4 Pro at the moment, but I know how it runs on standard PS4, where it seemed more than satisfactory, clearly in relation to the potential of the hardware.

But it is not quite enough for a new series highlight. It does not develop all the strengths of its predecessors consistently enough and even falls behind them in some areas.

The action triumvirate

But let's start with what Devil May Cry 5 does right, and that's by far the most important thing for this series: the battles! Seldom have we slaughtered so stylishly by hordes of demons in any video game with such interesting characters. When the hellish giant tree Qliphoth breaks out of the earth in Redgrave City, series protagonist Dante, his successor Nero from Devil May Cry 4 and newcomer V oppose the demon invasion.

The brilliant design of these three characters makes Devil May Cry 5 an unparalleled action festival. As always, Dante is the hero of choice for experienced professionals. He juggles freely with four styles of combat, four melee weapons and four spanking - some of which have more shapes in store! Those who master this arsenal whirl through the most chaotic inferno with incomparable nonchalance.

Vs repertoire is significantly less extensive, but he scores with a completely new style of play. As the first DMC hero, he is too frail for direct brawls and sends his demonic minions forward. With the melee button, we chase his panther at the enemy, with the ranged button, demon bird hurls Griffon lightning salvos. This doesn't work quite as precisely as Dante's direct attacks, but it offers a welcome change in between.

However, we liked Nero the best because the developers made his greatest weakness from part 4 his greatest strength with a clever trick. At that time, he faded alongside Dante because he only countered his huge repertoire of fighting styles and weapons with just a handful of special attacks against his demon arm. The simple solution: an entire arsenal of different robot arms!

One fires rockets that we can even ride on, the other slows down time, a third catapults us wildly through the air. Before each mission, we can choose which of these so-called Devil Breakers we want to take with us and then find more in the course of the game. This makes Nero much more interesting than before and finally takes him to a level of fun with Dante.

Style wins

All three figures not only reward good play with spectacular combos, they also punish missteps in an interesting way. Nero's Devil Breakers, for example, fly in the air when he receives a hit when deployed. We should avoid that at all, because, as we know, Devil May Cry is not just about winning - it's about being the coolest dog between heaven and hell!

Our style meter shoots up, the more varied we send our enemies on the boards and goes into the basement if we ever get caught. Incidentally, this is easiest with gamepad, so Devil May Cry 5 is the best way to go, despite the fully configurable mouse and keyboard.

Chasing the perfect SSS rating in a frenzy, frenetically avoiding every attack and pulling out all the stops in our arsenal is not only a fantastic feeling, it also rewards us with more red balls. With them we buy new skills for even more grandiose combos after a mission. A wonderful spiral of adrenaline and motivation!

In addition, there are impressive bosses and even normal demons with a wide variety of attack patterns that do not even allow blind button mashing. In short, every aspect of Devil May Cry 5's combat is masterfully crafted.

Or let's say almost everyone. Then there is a hair in the soup, and that's the camera. Precisely because a single hit shoots up our style rating, a perfect overview would be essential. Devil May Cry 5 cannot always guarantee this. Several times our character disappeared behind obstacles like book shelves or the perspective showed only a small part of the field, so that we lost sight of the majority of the opponents.

Between spectacle and sadness

But as long as the camera works, there is a lot to see in Devil May Cry 5! Incredibly detailed characters chase animatedly across the battlefield and burn off a firework of impressive effects - the fights are not only great in terms of game mechanics, but also appropriately staged.

It is all the more negative that Devil May Cry 5 rarely offers them an adequate stage. The levels themselves are surprisingly dreary and monotonous. Gray-brown cities, gray-brown tunnels and finally gray-brown hell mud make up the complete program. This may also be part of the classic Devil May Cry experience, reminiscent of the dark Temen-ni-gru tower where we spent most of Part 3. But that never paid for us as series strength, which a modern fifth part should definitely continue.

On the contrary, Devil May Cry 4 took a sensible step in the right direction and offered significantly more variety with impressive castles and ice and jungle areas. It only nullified that with all of its backtracking. From Devil May Cry 5 we would have wished for the next development: Towards real variety without backtracking. Even the Reboot DmC showed much more interesting level optics.

When it comes to level design, coolness flutes

The stakes of Devil May Cry 5 are also unimaginative in terms of game mechanics. Most of the time we run through simple tube levels that guide us from one fight to the next. In between we collect demon larvae or chop blood vessels to get Qliphoth roots out of the way, but there are never real puzzles like in previous series parts. And also almost no change from the standard fights.

Sure, they are the heart of the series, but how about more battles under special conditions, for example? There are a few of them in the game! We can discover a handful of secret missions, in which we have to sweep a room in a certain time. But they only make up a tiny part of the game, and Devil May Cry 5 would have liked to get more of these special orders!

Otherwise there are only red balls and occasional buffs for life or special ability energy in small alcoves along the way. If it weren't for the (really good!) Boss fights in the end, we couldn't tell some levels apart afterwards, they are so monotonous - the predecessors got it better across the board.

Back to the original story

And what about the story? Some might say here that an action game like Devil May Cry doesn't need any - but veterans know that this series at its best can even tell damn entertaining stories! Sure, Devil May Cry 3 was more anime than world literature , but an astonishingly good anime: wonderfully wacky cutscenes, surprising twists, and enormously cool characters that grew silently and secretly close to our hearts during all the action.

Devil May Cry 5 is nowhere near this series highlight. In the first half, his story is even really boring in places, because we just cut off the roots of the demon tree step by step. It is only in the second half that the plot picks up speed and even serves up some really cool moments. For veteran fans, it fulfills its most important task: It picks up on the most important loose threads of the predecessors and continues them, instead of pulling completely new figures out of the hat like Devil May Cry 4 and indulging in vague hints.

However, the game takes so long to reach these highlights that there is hardly any time left to do a lot with them. Some old acquaintances like Trish and Lady are almost completely left out if they are not used for clumsy nude scenes. Serial newcomers, on the other hand, can hardly do anything with the best moments of the story. But even for die-hard fans, despite some highlights, there remains the feeling that significantly more could have been done here.

Play it again, Dante

After a good twelve hours you will be through with the story - but then the game really starts. Only two of the six levels of difficulty are available from the start, and we unlock the rest of them successively. As is typical for series production, they do not simply screw up opposing values, but actually offer an ever new gaming experience. We keep all of our unlocked skills and in return we now encounter monsters in the first missions, which we only had to face towards the end the first time. What's more, some levels of difficulty even give enemies completely new skills! After all, "Heaven or Hell" lets us and the demons bite the grass with just one hit - and "Hell or Hell" even just us.

So far, so commendable! However, the first run is much less satisfactory this time than in Devil May Cry 3. Because the fifth part packs three playable characters into the same campaign time, we have much less space to learn the nuances of each one. Devil May Cry 5 compensates for this by making his missions a whole lot easier, even at the higher of the two starting levels. Only three times a demon knocked us out of the mountain pines, who wasn't a boss! The first run feels a little too much like a warm-up exercise.

This is a double-edged sword. If you are not interested in playing the same story multiple times, you should bump into it. Devil May Cry 3 managed a better balancing act, demanding a lot of finesse from the first time and thus giving us a feeling of achievement and still leaving a lot of room for improvement to deepen our expertise with further runs. But if you were going to go through all levels of difficulty anyway, you will also get to master three characters instead of just one! Only those hardcore gamers would have been happy about more demands during the first run. Especially since the weak level design of Devil May Cry 5 does not necessarily increase its counterplay value. We found the missions too monotonous the first time!

So Devil May Cry 5 is not the best Devil May Cry, as a complete package it cannot outperform its predecessors in all disciplines. Still, the bottom line is a fun action game, simply because the core of the combat system is so incredibly well done. This does not eliminate its clear weaknesses - but if you are just looking for good action, you will get your money's worth here.

Reviewing weak games or titles that disappointed us a lot is a simple matter. A list of defects and problems, a mention of unrealized promises, a few words about few advantages and a low rating - good, the matter is done. It's even easier with hits - just put your enthusiasm on paper. Trouble begins between these two situations. Until now I thought that there is nothing worse to evaluate extremely average games and nothing special not distinguishing, about which it is hard to write anything longer.

Devil May Cry V proved it to be different. Honest assessment of the game, in which all the components were implemented at least in order, and most even great, but in which one element effectively receives pleasure from fun, turned out to be even worse. I would add that this spoon of tar tar spoils the taste to a much greater extent than it would seem. That is why the assessment from the side does not fully reflect my impression of communing with this title. It is the result of two approaches. The game deserves a higher note. But only at the second pass. At the first and even lower.

The devil is walking through the park

The Devil May Cry series has been based on two foundations since its debut - a great, satisfying combat system and a high level of difficulty. In the first and third installments of the series, the duels with opponents resembled an extremely effective dance of death, but just like in real, most advanced choreographic systems, even a small mistake could prove to be very painful - in dance it meant pain or injury, in games, if not death, at least significant depletion of the life bar. Initially, it was much easier in Devil May Cry 4 , but with each subsequent mission it got harder and the last tasks were as great a challenge as the duels in the previous parts.

Meanwhile, Devil May Cry V on the equivalent of the "normal" difficulty level "demon hunter" is a walk through the park, during which we break through groups of opponents like through butter, and most of the bosses are overcome by treating them with their favorite attacks. If we want a challenge, we must find it ourselves, for example, trying to maintain the SSS rating for the style of attacks at all costs, because duels as such will not be a problem for us. And even if the enemies manage to hit us, their damage will prove to be extremely low.

Of the twenty main missions available in the game, eighteen were a loose run, during which I probably died about twice. And not because it suddenly got harder, but because of my own stupid mistakes - I've already got used to the fact that I can have my guard down all the time and I don't have to worry about anything. The last two fights in the game turned out to be slightly more difficult , but at this stage I had a dozen or so special bullets stored from earlier levels, allowing me to immediately return to life in a place of defeat, so here it was without any frustration.

In terms of difficulty, Devil May Cry V stands dangerously close to the second installment of the series, which, among others due to the lack of challenges, it is considered to be the worst part of this cycle today. There would be no problem if the game offered higher levels of difficulty from the beginning. But this is not the case - to unlock more difficult variants of fun, we must first break through the easier . As a result - about half of the game I started ... bored. A great combat system doesn't let you enjoy it properly when there are no worthy opponents to try it on.

I really did not have fun until the second passing of the game, when I could finally expect a greater challenge. But how many people will be able to spend about ten hours on a one-off, moderately fun way to complete this position, so that it will fully spread its wings only on the second approach? I very much hope that complaining about players and reviewers will prompt the publisher to quickly release the appropriate patch. From a technical point of view, fixing this situation should be trivial.

The devil is fighting well

Well, the description of Devil May Cry V's biggest problem is already behind us, so we can focus on more pleasant things. Such as e.g. the combat system, which works perfectly well. Devil May Cry V is a purebred slasher, in which skirmishes are the most important aspect of the game and it is mainly in clashes with enemies that we spend time here. And not counting the already mentioned too low level of difficulty, this aspect of fun is really hard to accuse something more serious.

At our disposal we have three very different fighting styles of heroes - known from Devil May Cry 4 Nero, the icon of the entire Dante series and the mysterious V. We play the first few missions as Nero, then we have the opportunity to try V, then we control both alternately, finally comes Dante , and sometimes we can also choose ourselves who we want to direct - we are not threatened by staying with one character for a long time. Each of the protagonists was given more or less a similar amount of "airtime", each of us managed to "enjoy" and not feel that one was treated worse than the others.

Nero uses a sword, a revolver and a novelty in a series of hand prostheses with various possibilities in battle. The range of attractions they offer is very diverse - from making a flying skateboard from your hand, through a whip to whack your opponents and a device throwing Nero or his opponents over long distances, to a tool to slow down time. However, so that it is not very beautiful, although the hero is allowed to carry several prostheses at the same time, he can not freely change them. We use the one we have at the moment until we destroy it, by falling while attacking it or making a more powerful blow, or until we find a newer one.

Dentures are an interesting and well-thought-out system. On the one hand, they give powerful and various possibilities, on the other - due to the restrictions described above - they force you to master various fighting techniques instead of sticking to one favorite. They also teach the player to adapt to the rapidly changing situation on the battlefield.

Dante hasn't changed much compared to what we remember about Devil May Cry 4 , and has a small arsenal of iconic firearms and melee weapons, which, as the game progresses, is expanded with more destruction tools - including the well-known demonic motorbike, known from trailers. The hero is also characterized by four different fighting styles and the ability to change into a demon, which for years has been a set of skills sufficient to satisfactorily spread destruction - and this is also the case here.

Fight, run, repeat

As I mentioned, the fight is salt Devil May Cry V - in duels we spend the lion's share of fun here, and the time between them basically amounts to ... running towards the next clashes. I am not exaggerating, at least not very much - the levels have a simple corridor structure, there is no need to look for any major environmental puzzles or unusual sequences in them . By exploring all the nooks and crannies thoroughly, at most we'll come across one of a dozen special missions or health upgrades or a demon transformation bar. There aren't even any finds here.

On the one hand, it's refreshing after the modern games full of unnecessary additions - the DMC5 knows why people play them, and focuses only on that. On the other hand, there is a slightly lack of slightly more variety - a scripted escape sequence from a collapsing building or a more interesting level design, for example in the style of the castle from the first part of the series, would really work wonders here. However, I can praise the fact that this time the "four" error was not repeated and backtracking was significantly reduced - almost every level is a completely new location.

Hell of a good story

Let's not kid ourselves, the story has never been a strong point in this series - in the best cases being a tolerable excuse to show as many spectacular cut scenes as possible and to justify the chaff of legions of demons, in the worst being a hard-going nonsense. The developers of Devil May Cry 5 have tried to do something about it and in many ways they have succeeded. The story served here engages, intrigues and refers to the sentiment of many-year-old fans. Of course, it's hard to call it ambitious - it's actually a story about three guys sometimes throwing a witty text and a sword, firearms and magic saving the world from an army of demons - but what he wants to present presents very well and easily makes the latest part of the cycle its best in terms of scenario, unveiling.

Pull my devil's trigger

Devil May Cry 5 is powered by RE Engine, a proprietary Capcom engine, the effects of which have recently delighted us in the game Resident Evil 2 . The city of Red Grave, which is attacked by demons, where the DMC5 takes place, does not look as impressive as the zombie-controlled Raccoon City.

Monster and character models look great (except maybe for Trish, something strange and very bad happened to the face). Attack animations and accompanying effects are poetry, until you want to pause them to watch the demolition from different perspectives in photo mode. Also, the choreography of the intermittent scenes can not be faulted - the game remains true to its roots and offers a lot of absolutely exaggerated, unearthly effective scenes that one wants to watch.

The environment itself is worse. We often come across less well-made textures, but the bigger problem is the imaginative style of the locations , which do not stand out and do not go to places intriguing with the sacred aura of the "four" or taken out of some horror island from "one".

In Devil May Cry 5 we visit alternately the characteristic ruins of the town and the "demonic" levels resembling the insides of some giant creature (don't be afraid, no spoiler - the first visit to such a place is already in the prologue), which visually blend together and they begin to resemble one huge, long corridor. Not to mention the fact that we have already seen the same in several previous games of the series. The town of Red Grave will not be remembered for long.

The sound layer turns out to be great . Each of the heroes has their own theme, matching themes, which resounds in the background of the duels - the louder, the better we are doing, which is a great additional motivation for slashing enemies as efficiently as possible. However, if for someone the sound of the song "Subhuman" chosen for Dante turns out to be too heavy, nothing prevents you from changing the options to the phenomenal "Devil Trigger", by default designed for Nero. Other music in the game is no longer as characteristic as the three themes, but it also works. The voice acting characters are also great - the actors did a great job.