Devil May Cry: Definitive Collection: PS4 Review

Devil May Cry: Definitive Collection: PS4 Review

Released by Capcom

I have to confess to have never heard of Dante and the Devil May Cry series prior to this outing - apart from the PS3 release last year.

This latest is a spit and polished PS4 reboot and has become the more stylised DMC, from Ninja Theory, collecting together the main game and the DLC. A hack and slash'em up, it's centred around Dante, who's under attack from a series of demons who are currently beseiging Limbo City.

It begins with Dante awaking from a heavy night out, only to discover a demon's hunting him. Warned by a mysterious hooded woman figure that he's in danger, he grabs his trusty sword, Rebellion and pistols (Ebony and Ivory) and sets off to find out exactly what's going on.

Set in this parallel universe, the action of Devil May Cry is certainly full on.

Mashing buttons together, you get to perform various different hacking and killing combos as you take on various demons plaguing the world. The more incisive and violent your take downs are, the more points you rack up through the levels, thanks to an onscreen grading system which helps guide you through the kills.

As you explore the world, you learn tips and tricks of vaulting through the air, flying, pulling out blocks et al to your advantage. But there are also little bits to do within each world - secret missions, missions to save various lost souls trapped around limbo (which need to be killed to be freed).

The gameplay in Devil May Cry is relatively simple to be honest - with a narrative scattered through looking at Dante's past and his timeline, there's enough to keep you invested. The emo punk Dante looks impressive and is perhaps a little too pretty boy for those who've experienced Dante before - but certainly, graphically, it handles all of the requirements of the screen time.

Devil May Cry is not without its faults though - occasionally, the camera refuses to centre where it's needed, rendering combat a little too tricky when it shouldn't be and exploring the worlds with a weird camera can sometimes be annoying as well.

The biggest mis-step of Devil May Cry though is the music. Whoever decided that heavy metal should play as you deal in combat has made a serious miscalculation. It's annoying, grating and distracting - thankfully the option is there to remove the soundtrack, for which I'm eternally grateful.

Chained combos, along with the ability to upgrade weapons and various abilities being unlocked along the way, plus three settings mean Devil May Cry has a degree of re-playability - and shows that the naysayers who dismissed the reboot may be eating their hats once they sit down and take it on.

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