Refine search for Gaming

  Leave a comment      Email this to a friend TrustedReviews Newsletters

Click to Enlarge
Click to Enlarge
Click to Enlarge
Click to Enlarge

Have you ever played air-guitar? Did you ever sit in a pub, nodding in time, as Back in Black, Paradise City or whatever the 21st Century equivalent might be played out on the jukebox? Did a huge grin spread across your face during that bit in The Matrix where Neo and Trinity tackle a lobby full of armed goons? Do you feel a certain affinity with Spinal Tap’s Nigel Tufnel when he explains exactly why his amp goes up to eleven? If so, then you’re in the right place – the series that puts the rock in baroque is back, and it has finally hit its full peacock-strutting stride.

You see, a large part of the charm of Devil May Cry 3 is that any pretensions to seriousness have been thrown clean out of the window. With his flowing white mane, red-leather waistcoat and peculiar aversion to shirts, the series’ hero, Dante, always had a little Justin Hawkins about him, but making Dante’s Awakening a teenage coming of age saga has given Capcom license to tip the series into something approaching high camp. This time, Dante’s less the Byronic antihero, more the party dude, out to impress all the chicks with his gun-twirling, wall-running antics. This is a game where one of the power-up weapons is a demonic electric guitar won by battling a half-naked vampire babe with only bats to cover her modesty. This is a game where a dramatic entrance means popping out of a giant monster’s eyeball. It’s lucky it has the sense to laugh at itself, because while this stuff can be seen, it certainly won’t be believed.

Depth? Intelligence? Forget it. Like so many Capcom games, the puzzles never get beyond finding a clearly labelled object to open a similarly labelled door or power-up a similarly labelled elevator. It has a range of secret missions, hidden areas and unlockable game modes to add replay value, but Devil May Cry 3 sticks fairly rigidly to a regime of a) putting the smackdown on a horde of demons in a linear series of set pieces then b) battling a boss at the end of every few levels.

That doesn’t mean the combat is devoid of tactical complexity. Dante can now select between four styles of gameplay, each one putting the emphasis on acrobatics, swordplay, gun fighting or defence. Developing experience in each discipline adds to your powers, and you can also exchange red power spheres – earned in combat – for new, spectacular special moves that you can use to tactical advantage. This means you can choose your own way of fighting, mixing Dante’s trademark somersaults, wall-hikes and high-jumps with potent close-in combos or double-fisted gunplay. Finding the right combination is the key to survival.

This is partly because demons come in all shapes and sizes, some more or less vulnerable to certain types of attack, some better tackled from a distance, and some best left until the small-fry have been shown the sharp edge of your blade. And that’s just the foot-soldiers. The bosses vary in scale and spectacle, not to mention the methods used to batter you into submission, but this isn’t a game that ever gives you an easy ride.

Add your comment