This is going to be a brief set of early impressions because I’ve barely played the game in question. That said, I still very much wanted to write about DmC Devil May Cry because of how much fun I’ve been having with the game, ever since I booted it up earlier this evening.
Now, I’m no Devil May Cry expert, but I do love action games in general, and games where you’re afforded a high degree of agility. DmC is one such game, judging by the hour-and-a-half I’ve spent with it so far. Dante feels incredibly smooth to control and has so many different kinds of moves at his disposal that it’s sort of amazing they all fit on a single controller.
DmC started off fun enough, but the point that the game really sank its claws into me is when I found two new weapons in addition to the sword Dante always carries around with him. The first weapon is Arbiter, a demonic axe that’s good for hitting things really hard.
Arbiter feels different from Dante’s regular sword (which is named Rebellion) because it feels like a much heavier weapon. Where Rebellion feels like a precision weapon that you use to slice up enemies, Arbiter is this gigantic heavy thing that makes the ground tremble every time you hit it against the floor. (Oh, and it’s on fire! :D) Up against an enemy with a shield? Use Osiris to break through the enemy’s guard.
The other weapon is Osiris, which is an angelic scythe. Now, don’t ask me why the angels were running around with scythes, but they did a real number on Osiris. This is a weapon meant for crowd control. It doesn’t make hit as hard as Arbiter (nor does it make the ground tremble), but because of its enormous size, it usually makes contact with a whole bunch of enemies at once, and lets you juggle them. If you position yourself correctly, you could probably juggle six or seven enemies at once.
And this is where DmC Devil May Cry gets reeeeally fun. Normally, pressing the ABXY buttons (I’m using an Xbox 360 pad) makes Dante hit enemies with his sword, Rebellion, along with his two guns. Holding down the R2 trigger, however, instantly replaces Rebellion with Arbiter (the axe). Letting go of R2 immediately reverts back to Rebellion (the sword). Meanwhile, holding down the L2 trigger puts Osiris, the scythe, in Dante’s hands. Letting go of R2 instantly reverts back to Rebellion.
This makes it possible to do crazy things like launching an enemy into the air with Rebellion, following them up and juggling them mid-air with Osiris, then using the Arbiter to slam them back down on the ground. And that’s just one of the most basic bread-and-butter combos in the game. I’m still getting accustomed to the concept of comboing using all of these different weapons but already, I feel great while playing the DmC because the basics are just so easy to get the hang of. Even the simplest combos make you feel really good while performing them, and yet, they aren’t too simple to perform either, so when you do something impressive, it’s because you earned it. And that feels great.
Something else that bears mentioning is that DmC is great at conveying information to the player. You know how stylish-action games can be. You have the simple combos like YYY, and then the more annoying ones like YY (pause) YYY. The latter is annoying because it's easy to mess up the timing of your pause, and that often gets in the way of what should otherwise be a fairly straightforward combo. Well, in DmC, that isn't the case. After the YY, you pause, and your weapon will gleam ever so slightly, letting you know that it's time for the next three button presses. I really do appreciate that visual feedback.
Platforming in DmC Devil May Cry is fun, too. Arbiter and Osiris both have the ability to shoot out a grapnel of sorts and latch on to objects or enemies. Latching on to something using Arbiter pulls it to you, while latching on to something with Osiris pulls you toward it. In an early stage in the game, DmC has you jumping from one floating platform to another, constantly pulling things toward yourself or pulling yourself towards them to help make your way across. It isn’t a very difficult stage, but it’s a fun and effective way of getting the player used to the idea of using their demon and angel weapons in conjunction with one another.
Oh, and it happens during a stage where Dante has just discovered that his father was a demon and his mother was an angel. He inherits Arbiter from dad and Osiris from mom, so it’s rather poetic, too, to watch him using the two weapons in conjunction as only he can, being the spawn of a demon and an angel that were in love.
The pulling ability isn’t used just during platforming either. Arbiter and Osiris can both be used to latch on to enemies as well. Just like with objects, Arbiter pulls them to you and Osiris pulls you to them. Once you start learning how to use the pulling ability in the middle of your combos, it can be used to make sure enemies don’t ever get too far away from you, or as a way to get yourself out of hot water if you’re find enemies ganging up on you in the same spot.
And that's about all I can say about DmC for now, but I'm barely two hours in and I already love the game. As as sign off note, here's a basic little combo using Rebellion, Arbiter and Osiris:
No comments:
Post a Comment