Devil May Cry 4 immerses gamers in a gothic supernatural world, where a new protagonist clashes with a familiar hero.
For a game that started off as an aborted Resident Evil sequel, the Devil May Cry series hasn’t done too badly for Capcom. The third game, in particular, was renowned as one of the very best action games of the last generation of consoles and this fourth iteration is aiming not to spoil that success. It is happy to mess with the story formula though, since you don’t actually control Dante the demon hunter at all, but a new character called Nero. Dante does make an appearance though, initially as an enemy, as well as a new love interest named Kyrie.
He may not be half demon, but Nero has a very similar range of weapons and powers to Dante, including a magical right arm that gives him his "Demon Bringer" powers. The series’ success has always been down to its incredibly deep combat system that mixes acrobatics, melee combat and gunplay into an almost balletic whole, which makes most rival games seem moribund by comparison. This has tended to make the games quite complex for first time players though, but this new sequel is promised to be more accessible and yet oddly possessing a higher difficulty level than earlier games (none of which were exactly walkovers).
Stunning graphics have also always been a hallmark of the series and in that area Devil May Cry 4 certainly doesn’t seem likely to disappoint. What’s been shown so far includes not only gigantic bosses and highly detailed characters, but also some pretty amazing gothic architecture – most of which is a lot more interactive (i.e. destructible) than usual. As an early visitor to the PS3 it looks like Devil May Cry will continue to be the premier action series on Sony’s consoles.
HARRISON DENT
