Demons are the least of
Dante's problems. In Devil May Cry 4, the surly slayer gets sidelined by a young gun.
He should be worried: Nero isn't so much a new character as an emo update of Dante.
With similar white hair, flowing jacket, and penchant for mixing swordplay and
sidearms, the near-doppelgänger bogarts a good part of the game, leaving Dante
to mop up during the game's third act. When the veteran finally takes center
stage, he's treated to a dull serving of sloppy seconds, backtracking through
familiar ground to put down all the hell-raising bosses that Nero didn't manage
to send packing.
Devil May Cry 4's character tweaks are
misplaced effort—the series' gameplay, tone, and mise en scène are what really need
contemporizing. The game has a nasty habit of reserving all its awesome for
moments when the player has no control. Over-the-top CG animated sequences
portray characters performing insanely stylish kills and bad-ass escapes, the
kind of feats people play video games to perform, not just watch. God Of War and Prince Of Persia found a balance between
empowerment and button-mashing that Devil May Cry 4 has yet to discover. A
maneuver that ought to take a simple push of a button calls for two or three
here. The affair isn't as combo-conscious or infuriatingly difficult as Ninja
Gaiden,
but it certainly plants its red suede boots on the old-school side of the
spectrum. And then there's the issue of style. It feels like the creators of Devil
May Cry 4
are trapped in the summer of 1999, when The Matrix was still the pinnacle of
otaku-informed art. The game's battle music is the kind of faux-industrial
cheese that would make even Rammstein blush.
Beyond the game: Capcom appears to be flirting
with the idea of making games with more Western appeal. Dead Rising and Lost Planet eschewed the cosplay
aesthetic for more takes on George Romero and John Carpenter.
Worth playing for: Forget the fights and take
in the scenery. Baroque architecture and rusty shipping ports look lovely in
the post-sunset magic hour.
Frustration sets in
when: The
PlayStation 3 version of the game has to be installed on the system hard drive
before playing, which takes around 20 minutes.
Final judgment: Time for a reboot.