DMC: Devil May Cry — The Game You Won’t Hear About
With the release of Devil May Cry 5, there are a lot of people researching the story behind Devil May Cry. Some people are brand new to the franchise while others are trying to remember where the story left off after Devil May Cry 4 (2008). What you won’t hear about is the DMC: Devil May Cry reboot that Capcom and Ninja Theory released in 2013.
Why is this? Well, there are several reasons for this.
The 2013 game was an attempted reboot of the series that involved many new story elements and twists, that were not in the original franchise. Though the reboot received fairly positive responses from reviewers, it received an initial outpouring of negative reviews from the hardcore player base that grew up playing the DMC franchise. If you go through the many reviews and Reddit posts, there are several perspectives.
A few thoughts people shared were:
- Dante went from a cocky badass to a cocky overly-edgy womanizing jerk
- The fighting combinations were too simple
- Ninja Theory went a little too gritty, especially if they were trying to get a younger generation to try the game
- The humor in the game felt a bit forced and just didn’t really connect
- The story, as a whole, just didn’t knock it out of the park the way you would hope for a reboot
With the above points (and others) being shared online, it ended up having CAPCOM switch directions. This switch was to figure out a way of revitalizing the franchise while keeping true to the original core elements. In the end, they decided to make the next installment take place after the events of DMC 4.
Does that mean that DMC: Devil May Cry (2013) was a bad game? No.
With time, the game has greatly improved on the user responses with it currently receiving positive reviews on both Metacritic and Steam. People have begun to appreciate the game beyond the DMC Franchise
In my mind, the artistic choices are some of my favorite in a game. It was darker and grittier but it had a great graphic novel feel. Many of the environments were rich in detail and very trippy. They even had a unique usage of typography appearing on the environment that added an extra creative flair.
The sounds in the game are satisfying and the action is layered with a truly badass soundtrack thanks to Combichrist. The action itself was fun and cool looking with some very brutal weaponry. The combat actually felt solid and complicated enough for those looking to try their hand at a melee heavy game. What I appreciated the most from the combat was that as you learned new skills, you could see the doors of opportunity open for your weapons.
It gave a good sense of putting the “combat pieces” together with the more you learned. Though, one thing that did work against your combat constantly, was the camera.
For example, it was so frustrating when you go right but the camera forces you to look left. This negatively impacted movement, staying on target and being able to read any incoming attacks.
The design of the bosses was grotesquely beautiful (yup, that can be a combo)! Each boss felt unique and came with their own strengths as well as weaknesses. And talking about bosses, the Mission 10 boss fight against Bob Barbas, was one of the most creative fights I’ve faced in a game (Well done Ninja Theory).
Also, I do understand the issues others saw with the Dante character in the reboot. They wanted a character that they could imagine being, rather than imagine babysitting. But I will say that Ninja Theory does do a good job of giving enough exposition to let you know why this Dante is the way he is. It was told well to build up his psychology but that doesn’t always translate well to the psychology behind gaming.
In the end, it’s a really fun game that I actually want to see a sequel to (and I’m not alone in this either). I don’t want them to replace what they’ve worked on in the past or what they’ve done with Devil May Cry 5 by any means. But I do think they could make a successful sequel to this reboot if they can play with a potential alternative universe spin to it and rework the likeability on Dante. The alternative universe concept has been utilized a lot in comics and I think it could have a place here as well.
Will this sequel actually ever happen? Most likely not.
As we know, Ninja Theory has moved on to take on other games, such as Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice and is also now a part of Microsoft. I feel that with these factors, mixed with the initial reviews of this game, a sequel will not see the light of day.
But luckily you can still check out DMC: Devil May Cry (2013) for yourself on both a console and PC.
