As I write this article I am watching the cutscenes of one the most frustrating games I have ever played Devil May Cry 4. But I’m getting ahead of myself,
Two thousand years ago a demon knight called Sparda rose up and fought against his brethren and drove them out of the human world for the love of his mortal lover. Flash forward and in the castle town of Fortuna this dark knight is worshipped like a God and a new band of knights known as the “Order of the sword” carry on Sparda’s legacy and fight back demons that break through the gates of Hell into our world.
The game begins when during a ceremony praising Sparda, Dante (the son of the dark knight and hero from the previous games) crashes through the roof and puts a bullet in the head of the high priest. Taking control of a young arrogant demon slayer known as Nero, with a very cool looking demon arm that comes in handy, you must fight off Dante long enough for the congregation to escape then pursue him once he flees, slaying demons and solving puzzles on the way.
This series from Capcom is similar to their other big franchise the Resident Evil games with its puzzle based levels and massive amounts of enemies trying to kill you, the difference with this is you can kill all the enemies, and are encouraged to do so with points being awarded for the most stylish of combos and unlimited ammunition and a sword so large it wouldn’t look out of place in a Final Fantasy game. The sword appears to have an engine, which seems unnecessary, in the cutscenes Nero rev’s the handle and the sword glows. After reading the manual i found that doing this increases the power of the next attack but i didnt use it once in game it took to long. To rev the sword up to full power takes roughly the same amount of time as landing ten hits so i prefered to land those ten hits then wait so i could have one big hit.
DMC4 is a beautiful game, but then what next gen games aren’t these days. The CGI cutscenes are movie quality and the backgrounds look great. All the enemies look good as well as do the main characters. The game cant be flawed on its looks, or even its controls, theres an easy level for beginners and even an automatic setting so advanced combos can be performed by the simple pressing of one button. What got me so frustrated over this game? I played for a day, fought through the levels, solved the puzzles (eventually) and unlocked the new combos at the end of each level, I got all the way to the final boss. The cutscene played, I watched, hands gripping the controller tightly ready to send the demon back to hell only for my character to be nullified (I wont tell you how, play the game!) and I had to fight my way back through EVERY level, fighting EVERY boss AGAIN!!! As Dante!!!!. I literally had to go through the whole game in reverse order to get back to where I started to fight the final boss as Dante!
So after another days playing, fighting the final boss, cutscene kicks in and I think its all over I switch back to Nero and have to fight my way through a board game similar to Mr Blacks level in Gunstar Heroes on the Genesis/MegaDrive, rolling a die to determine how many spaces I go and fighting the bosses AGAIN!!!! I fought the same four big bosses, three times!!!! Surely the game developers could have cooked up a new one I already knew how to beat them after the first fight!!! Hells big there’s got to be more than four demons that can fight me!
I beat them eventually and sat down to watch the beautiful ending cutscene feeling very frustrated. It wasn’t just the repetitive levels or boss fights that got me. It was the item shop as well. At the end of each level and at some points during I can use Orbs that I have collected from randomly smashing up furniture and killing demons and Proud Souls that I got from completing levels to buy items that can increase my health bar or my Demon bar so I can turn the whole of Nero into a demon for a period of time and kill demons quicker or buy more powerful combos and powerups for my sword or my guns. The problem with this shop, they work with “supply and demand” not a problem you might think when I’m their only customer but when I buy something the price goes up for next time. I buy a combo all the other combos prices go up. I budgeted so I could buy the item to extend my health bar, I bought one then couldn’t afford another one for two levels. Another thing, to show those beautiful cutscenes the game needs to take a break and load them, it felt like every five minutes or less I saw the loading screen. This is a fast paced high action game, or at least its meant to be but it doesn’t feel that way when it stops for a breather every few steps.
I managed to beat out my frustration in the face of whatever demon happened to be in my way and played on though, and when I was calm I thought that DMC4 was pretty good on the most part.
It’s a good game to play through once then leave for a month before doing it again, it looks great, the soundtrack is great, there is a lot of mindless violence and plenty of weapons to play with. Just be prepared to go through the same area again and again.
