DmC Devil May Cry (Gameplay #2) - A Trip Down Memory Lane
0While I'm more than a little troubled by the fact that a lot of people these days seem fully prepared to accept middling gameplay mechanics as long as the plot is "good", I've always had a soft spot for the British developer Ninja Theory. They clearly put a lot of effort into characterization, dialogue and story-related world building and the end result is usually unique and memorable even if the gameplay can leave a little to be desired. The early PS3 action adventure Heavenly Sword wasn't exactly the best God of War clone ever, but main character Nariko's bittersweet saga fascinated me and her twisted antagonists were presented as this incredibly sad, dysfunctional family instead of being mere villains. Enslaved: Journey to the West (developed in close collaboration with noted screenwriter Alex Garland) told another engaging story about a rather complicated relationship between a man and a woman trying to survive in the post-apocalyptic jungles and wastelands of North America, and its shortcomings as a linear action game were more than made up for by solid dialogue and great (not to mention impressively mo-capped) performances by Andrew Serkis and Lindsey Shaw.
When Ninja Theory took on Capcom's hallowed hack'n slash franchise Devil May Cry, fanboyism reared its ugly head in one of the silliest expressions of sheer reactionary outrage the Internet has seen since, well, yesterday. Perhaps as a result of me being an (even) more PC-oriented gamer back when the earlier DMC games were at the height of their popularity, it's very difficult for me to wrap my head around what, exactly, is so damn shocking about a change of hair color and a slightly different look. This forumite hysteria is especially hard to grasp given that the stylized adolescent silliness and serious attitude problems which are so emblematic of both Dante as a character and the Devil May Cry franchise are clearly still there even in the reboot (as should become painfully obvious by watching just a few seconds of this video).
Leaving this completely irrelevant controversy aside, regardless of Ninja Theory's involvement the new DmC appears to be a third-person action game in the Japanese school of hack'n slashers just like the previous entries in the series. I'm personally not very good at these rather technical, combo-driven adventures (and usually prefer the less complex God of War formula), but from what I've seen so far I do appreciate the fast-paced, stylish combat and artistically refined environments of DmC. As always with Ninja Theory, though, what's most intriguing about the whole setup is how the story - outrageous as it might be - grapples with far bigger issues than you'd expect a video game to deal with. The mythotypical war between angels and demons has been augmented with a fascinating political (not to mention unapologetically leftist) twist inspired by real-world economic calamities, and such an approach to the subject material surely takes the series in bold new directions which dear old Capcom would never have come up with on their own...