Devil May Cry(2001) Review

Playing DMC1 for the first time in over a decade, playing so many 3D beat em ups since then and playing games prior to it especially really gives me a soft spot for the game. However, there are a number of issues with it but at the same time there is a lot of charm to the game too. DMC1 in many ways is "first intallment weirdness" in it's most raw form. I can get why someone wouldn't enjoy it but as a guy who has played so many games and knowing DMC1's place in gaming history does help me appreciate it.

First thing that is awkward about it is that the default button layout on PS2(played it on PCSX2) is not good especially after playing modern games and even games a few years after it's release. Triangle is jump, circle is to attack, and the game has shoot and interact on sqaure and cross as a dedicated interact button, why the game has two interact buttons I don't get. You also can't use firearms unless if the lock on button is held. Had to do quite a bit of settings tinkering to have the buttons placements be more comfortable for me.

Next up is the story and the thing is I don't mind that it's basically an excuse plot but at the same time, it's attempts at trying to have emotional moments really falls flat for me. Trish is a pretty bad character, she barely shows up in the game to have any kind of attachment towards her. She barely does anything for the 2/3s of the game then suddenly wants Dante dead then scarifices herself for him in the following scene. There is barely any interactions between them to form a geniune bond so Dante getting depressed for her "death" falls flat. Mundas barely does much of anything to warrant me wanting to dislike him. The only really good thing the cutscenes even have is the music.

This has been stated over again but the camera is just awful, combine that with the lack of a dedicated dodge button and it doesn't always feel like I can reliably dodge attacks and defeat enemies with efficiently. The camera can change angles out of nowhere in the middle of combat, you can get attacked from offscreen especially with projectiles and as a whole it never does a good job at framing the moment to moment action, sometimes you can attacked and then the angle will change into something so different and not only do you realign the analog stick to a new direction but the dodging also becomes a game of hoping you activate the dodge roll and not have Dante do a flip or jump.

Compare this to the older God of Wars' camera or how those games have a dedicated dodge command can't help but remind me that those games handled it better than DMC.

As a result, much of the combat can be cheesed by using Alastor, activating Devil Trigger, fly and then start spamming air raid. Devil Trigger can heal you too.

The save system is arahiac with the lives system, you could buy new moves and they are expensive.

The bosses range from okay like Phantom, Griffon and Nelo Angelo to bad like Nightmare and Mundas. Nightmare you have to fight 3 times and Mundas you have to an extremely out of place shoot em up mini game before getting to the actual fight where the real combat mechanics are used.

Okay, I've been complaining about the game a lot, but there is things the game does well, in terms of atmosphere and level design, the game is solid, it can be a little hard to tell where to go but that is due to respawning enemies but the it's older Resident Evil DNA can be found here all though there is no inventory managment, you can to collect items and put them in certain places to activate doors and open new paths.

It's really fun to see how Dante will go to new places in Mundas' Castle but will ultimately end up to where he started, there is some nice narrative foreshadowing too like how the entrance to the castle has a stautue where Phantom gets impaled on or how by the end of the game, the plane you see in the first few rooms of mission 1 is the plane Dante and Trish uses to get out of in the ending.

Mundas Castle is dripping with gothic horror atmosphere combine that with music as well as the game always spawning in enemies when Dante takes something of importance really sells the idea of he is in a place where he isn't supposed to be.

The combat when everything aligns can be enjoyable even if the game's style point system is never forced on the player but it is nice to shoot enemies from far away, then crowd control them with million stab, dodge out the way and occasionally launch them in the air and hit them down again. After playing some earlier games with 3D beat em up combat, this level of control for it's time was pretty novel.

Overall, DMC1 is a game that has many issues but I do find it to be a charming game but apart of me just wonders how much of this is just due to how many games I played over the years and certain things about it stand out more to me more than it will with others. If you don't enjoy it, I understand but I find DMC1's first installment weirdness to be so fascinating.