Devil May Cry 4 Review, Continued
Outside the main story and cinemtic sequences, Devil May Cry 4 is visually stunning. Capcom promised 60 frames per second throughout the entire game, and they upheld that promise - even during high-traffic scenarios - without any drops in frame rate. That says a lot about the DMC graphics engine itself, as the highly detailed environments feature wavering shadows, flickering candles, swinging chandeliers, and incredibly realistic lighting that just may be convincing enough that you mistake the computer generated visuals for live video footage. Landscapes are simply breathtaking, featuring snowstorms, sunsets and viewpoint distances that should tax the console's hardware, but doesn't. Textures are detailed and crisp, leading to virtually believable environments that are seemingly photo-quality. Games like Devil May Cry 4 make you appreciate the next-generation consoles - the Xbox 360 in this case - despite their hefty prices. "Wow" or "Holy Crap" just doesn't express the impact these visuals of Devil May Cry 4 make.
The only beef about the Devil May Cry 4 visuals is with the camera itself, as it tends to be a nuisance by not relinquishing control and forcing gamers to hope for the best when bosses corner the protagonist - the camera refuses to rotate around the wall or around a fairly huge ass. It's the typical 3rd-person camera scenario where player control is a secondary thought, where players have no "camera lock" features that keep the environment at bay rather than the environment becoming the real enemy. There are times when the engine only allows for one camera view, turning off the rotation controls completely, but in those scenarios, the point of view is understandable (usually when you're entering or leaving a large structure). But, in the heat of the moment when you need to pan around a monster of a boss (literally), and the camera gives you the big middle finger saying "nope, I'm not moving," you simply have to wonder: how that's fair to the gamer? Camera lock, people. Why is camera lock so hard to implement?
Devil May Cry 4 has some excellent boss battles and fantastic visuals.
Of course, that's an old complaint, but unfortunately, the involuntary positioning of cameras can really degrade the quality of a game. This theory also holds true with game controls: if they suck, then the game usually sucks as well. Fortunately, Devil May Cry 4's heavy action makes up for the camera shortcomings, cranking up the adrenaline and making your fingers turn bone white. As a special bonus, gamers actually get to take control of two characters: Nero and Dante. The former character is new to the franchise, and packs quite a punch with his demonic arm. The catch here is that it's quite an adjustment when switching from one to the other: you get used to Nero's Devil Bringer Snatch, and then must re-learn combat using only Dante's swords. Nero is actually the ideal character to play if you're new to the franchise or haven't played one of the games in ages; he's simply awesome to control.
But in the case of Devil May Cry 4, you're required to play both characters; it doesn't become an option until you complete the campaign. The story actually seems to end rather quickly with Nero, as he takes down the protagonist in Mission 11. You think okay, we just play the game again using Dante. That's somewhat true, but by the end of Mission 11, you're watching the surprising events unfold, and you suddenly discover that Dante then becomes the protagonist for most of the remainder of the game (it's hard not to reveal the details, but we're under an NDA). Once you're at the helm of Dante, the game suddenly becomes somewhat repetitive: you backtrack through all the areas Nero just explored, you fight all the stage bosses once more. Again, it makes sense according to the story progression, but honestly, repetition can get really boring. Just play the original Halo campaign and you'll get loads of repetition.
But even while the repetition can get boring, the root action never does. If anything, it'll boil your blood and break the springs in your favorite seat. Your toes will curl from the tension and you will walk away from each session with swollen knuckles and the feeling that someone just kicked you in the crotch. The hard part about this review is describing all the various combos and character movements each character possesses, from the various weapons to jumping and dodging and anything else that gets the job done. Gamers can upgrade both characters' abilities and styles using collected Proud Souls (offered to the Divinity Statues), thus presenting a huge load of attack and defensive possibilities. The game will score your abilities at the end of each mission, grading your performance based on how many style points you accumulate, Red Orbs collected, time taken and items used. These scores come in handy outside the single-player campaign.
Unfortunately, Devil May Cry 4 doesn't offer much on the multiplayer side of things. In fact, it doesn't offer anything at all outside the Xbox Live Leaderboard. You will find only 10,000 ranked gamers listed, sorted either by best to last, or you can check out the worst of the batch through a filter. If connected to Xbox Live, the game will upload your scores to the international Leaderboard. However, it can be intimidating checking out all those high scores stemming out of Japan.
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