The Devil May Care

I don’t post much about video games, in part because I don’t post much at all, but also because I don’t play enough of them to really talk about them in any helpful way. I also don’t really care about them and think that paying more than 20$ for a game is ridiculous, and so I never really enjoy new releases, at least not until they reach a bargain bin price and talking about them makes you look like a grumpy old man.

There are, however, a few exceptions, most notably the Devil May Cry series. I have probably invested as much money in the Devil May Cry games as I have in all the other games that I own combined. I have bought Devil May Cry three times (bought it once new after renting it 3 times, lent it to a friend who didn’t give it back so I bought the  “Greatest Hit” version, then re-bought the HD remake for the XBox 360), Devil May Cry 2 twice (pre-ordered it, was disappointed, then technically bought it again when I bought the aforementioned HD collection), Devil May Cry 3 five times (I imported the Japanese version, then bought the American version when it came out, then bought the special edition, then bought it for PC, then bought the HD remake), and Devil May Cry 4 twice (XBox 360 and PC versions), for a total of approximately 450$, not counting the latest DmC reboot.

I’m not counting DmC because I don’t consider it a Devil May Cry game, which is fine, I guess, because I don’t think Ninja Theory, the developers, did, either.

By that I don’t mean that DmC is a bad game. I think it’s a good action game; I had more fun with it than any God of War game, Dante’s Inferno or the latest Castlevania games. It’s a pretty game with some excellent visual design, it’s long enough without overstaying its welcome, the levels are varied, the voice acting is excellent… it does a lot of things right, and I personally consider it the best game Ninja Theory has made so far. It’s just not a Devil May Cry game.

Which kind of pisses me off, honestly, because if it were, it would probably be the best of them all. As much as I love the Devil May Cry series, even I have to admit that the voice acting swings from bad (“She yearns for your touch!”) to atrocious (“I should have been the one to fill your dark soul with light!”), and that it had become a staple of the series to make the environments for half a game and then re-use them for the second half. The series had quite a few flaws worth fixing; they just weren’t worth sacrificing everything else for.

Ninja Theory‘s first mistake was that they didn’t just fix any of the weaknesses of the original series, but instead built an entirely new game with the idea firmly in mind to avoid these weaknesses, which in my eyes is kind of like building a new house with the idea firmly in mind to change the wallpaper. Ninja Theory tore down some damn good foundations that they didn’t have the ability to recreate, all for an end result that definitely feels different than its predecessors and, in my opinion, nowhere near as good.

Again, this, by itself, wouldn’t be too bad. DmC was supposed to be a reboot all along, not just in terms of story (where there admittedly is very little to reboot) but also in terms of style and mechanics, and I don’t outright hate the new, more urban setting, the younger, asshole Dante or the aggro-wub soundtrack, but Ninja Theory made a second mistake…

Anyone who followed the pre-release hype train for DmC knows that the early teasers and trailers garnered a lot of… ahem, negative attention from fans about Dante’s new look, especially his hair.

For those not in the know, here’s the short version: Dante used to have white hair. Now he doesn’t. Drama.

The mistake wasn’t the redesign. As I said, the whole point of the reboot was to do over with the game. No, the mistake was to completely mishandle the backlash from the teasers, insult both the fans and the original games, and to make juvenile and immature jabs at the whole thing in the game itself.

With that, I was done. And I’m still done. Yes, the game is competent, it does some things fairly well, even, in some cases, better than the original trilogy (yes, a trilogy, fuck DMC2), but it’s a shallow, superficial game that favours spectacle over balance and theatricality over  gameplay. It took an amazingly over-the-top, campy Dante and turned him into a douche about as rebellious as a 16-year-old trying to buy beer. Yes, Ninja Theory, Dante looked silly with his 16 belts, his red chaps and his spurs. That was the point, you nincompoops. I don’t mind that you tried to make a grittier, more stylized, browner game, but you shouldn’t have dismissed the originals so readily, and especially not dismiss them for their writing when yours is even worse. No matter how well-acted it is, there’s no saving a line like “The world is now your bitch, as am I”.

Devil May Cry set the bar for action games. It had horrendous voice acting, but it had responsive and intuitive controls, very good balance and very fun fights. Too bad you spent the second half of the game revisiting the same levels in a different order.

Devil May Cry 2 sucked. And when you played with the second character, you went through the same levels as with Dante, in a different order. Fuck Devil May Cry 2.

Devil May Cry 3 polished what made Devil May Cry great. It refined the controls  a bit, added a number of weapons with different but balanced techniques to each of them, took what little good there was in Devil May Cry 2 (the ability to switch between firearms, some moves, most of the trickster style), added the incredible style system and, eventually, added a second character and the bloody palace. Too bad you spent the second half of the game revisiting the same levels in a different order.

Devil May Cry 4 brought the series into a new generation, with the usual results; prettier, but not as good. I personally love it, but I can see that it’s weaker than its predecessor. Still, the game is gorgeous and silky smooth, Nero is very fun to play as and Dante is at his best, with on-the-fly style switching and almost all of his old tricks. Too bad you spent the second half of the game revisiting the same levels in a different order.

DmC: Devil May Cry is another beast entirely. It didn’t try to tighten the controls, instead, it gave Dante sluggish, delayed moves. Instead of finding ways to give the player more options, it took away game mechanics and limited gameplay options.

At least they didn’t reuse any level…

You want my opinion; if you’re looking for an action game, look into God Hand, Bayonetta, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance or The Wonderful 101. if you’re looking for the Call of Duty of button mashers, get DmC:DmC.

That tip might have been helpful a year ago…