Devil May Cry 4 Revisited (PC Version)

Recently I managed to find some time to play the new reboot of Devil May Cry, DmC. The combat in the game was good but there was something missing from the original series of Devil May Cry games. The old series was really over the top with some amazing cutscenes of high octane action (such as Dante vs The Savior) and Dante was a tough boss fight!

In a trip down memory lane, (plus I wanted to see whether I still remembered how to play Devil May Cry 4, or for short DMC4) I quickly noticed that the boss fights in DmC:Devil May Cry, or for short DmC)were somewhat lacklustre compared to the variety of bosses in DMC4. Credo and Dante are absolutely a blast to fight (Dante uses the pandora box gundam cannon on higher difficulties!)

Missing Features

One feature that was missing from the new reboot was the taunt move which could be used to build your devil trigger meter (some of the taunts especially on the higher stylish ranks are really funny and improve the overall experience in my opinion)

The Devil May Cry has always been known for letting their players play on even until the ending (you get a bonus ending scene if you pass the combat challenge during the ending credits!) which was noticeably missing from the new reboot DmC

Storyline

The storyline in the reboot was somewhat thin with only a few main characters (Dante, Kat, Vergil and Mundus) taking up nearly all of the plot with the supporting cast being relegated to minor roles as story fodder (Succubus and Lilith come to mind), compared to DMC4 with Nero, Dante, Agnus, Credo, Kyrie, Trish/Gloria and Sanctus making for a much more interesting story (switching characters from Nero to Dante also helps to keep the gameplay exciting and fresh)

Special Difficulty Mode in PC Version

Best thing about the PC version would be the Legendary Dark Knight mode (I hereby attach a video of mission 8, only a PC can put so many enemies on the screen at once!). To illustrate, here a few screenshots, the designers have a pretty interesting way to making things complicated (as if the numbers were not enough!).

Improvements made in DmC:Devil May Cry

After playing through DMC4, there is something that DmC has definitely managed to improve compared to its predecessor: the combat camera. The old camera in DMC4 was wonky and would shift perspective without any warning so kudos to Ninja Theory for finally getting the combat camera right (feels a lot smoother to fight without being burdened by a camera that likes to turn 180 degrees at certain points of the map). The combat difficulty seems to have been toned down slightly so the game should appeal to more gamers (at the risk of alienating the original fan base, who play Devil May Cry 3 at the highest difficulty without any problems).

Conclusion

In the end, there are some things that were not carried over to the new reboot DmC from DMC4 probably through design decisions but I will have to say that DMC4 (or even Devil May 3) ends up being more fun than DmC. There are some things that the new reboot has done well though(they finally fixed the annoying camera) and I enjoyed the DLC Vergil’s Downfall (Vergil is an absolute monster compared to Dante!). Hopefully Capcom will make a proper sequel to DMC4, also it would be a good idea to let Ninja Theory develop their own sequel to the reboot too and make it a separate “competing” series like what Infinity Ward and Treyarch do for the Call of Duty series. DMC4 is the series best-selling title for a reason and hopefully Capcom can take feedback from the fans and make some improvements for the next title.