Devil May Cry 3 1/2

User Rating: 6.5 | Devil May Cry 4 X360
By AgentSoup | Review Date:
This game feels less like a sequel and more like an expansion pack. While there are a few solid improvements, overall it feels like Capcom didn't move forward enough to justify a sequel. Nero (the new protagonist) feels like a carbon copy of Dante; he looks the same, he's just as pompous, and he uses the same weapons (Distinction! Dante uses two guns that fire one bullet each while Nero uses one gun that fires two bullets). The only real difference between the two characters, as you play as both of them, is their use of the B button. Dante still has his different styles from DMC 3 with a few moves added to each, only now he can switch between styles at will (a nice bonus, but why not just do that for DMC 3?). The B button for Nero, however, serves 1: to grab enemies and bring them closer, and 2: as an automatic "kill" button for most enemies.
This leads to one of my two biggest beefs with this game: no strategy. Instead of trying to find a boss's weakness, it's now about waiting for the opportune time to hit B and watch Nero kick the crap out of it. Also, if you die more than three times, the game handicaps itself for you. I assume this is to throw the player a bone and allow them to continue the story, but isn't that missing the point of action games completely? Devil May Cry has always been a "no mercy" game, one that will kick your ass. Now it will kick your ass, but only until the fourth time, where it will break the boss's arm and then let you fight it, all so you can experience all the plot twists and turns before throwing your controller at the screen. Oh, I'm sorry; did I say plot twists and turns? I mean a plot so bad and straight forward, Squaresoft could have written it. The plot consists of you (Nero) leaving a city trying to save your girlfriend, and then Dante moving in half way through only to go back to the city to kill, all together now, a giant demon. How original. And when I said Dante has to go back to the city, I meant it. Dante plays the same levels that Nero just beat backwards, even the bosses. Only now there's no magic win button and you'll find yourself dealing with the same problem Dante's always had: maintaining combos while every attack blasts enemies 20 yards away.
If you're still not sick of the same old DMC formula, by all means rent this game. The minor tweaks to game play will be good enough to keep you interested. But unless this is your first DMC game, I'm going to guess that you'll be pretty sick of it by the end of your first run-through.

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