- The Saint Patty’s Day Massacre!
- God of War: System Seller Extraordinaire
- Freedom Force vs. The 3rd Reich: Proving Superhero Games Don’t Suck
- Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30: Once More Unto the Breach
- TimeSplitters: Future Perfect: Where’s the Love?
- Devil May Cry 3: Dante’s Awakening: Difficult Is an Understatement
- LEGO Star Wars: Even Jar-Jar Is Cool in Block Form
- The Matrix Online: Too Little, Too Late?
- Stealth Action Games: The Best Sneaker Series in the Biz
- Silent Hunter III: Return of a Classic
- PSP Game Explosion!: Top Shelf PSP Launch Titles
- Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat: Monkeys and Drums—For Joy, For Joy
- MLB 2006 Versus MLB 2K5: Baseball’s Best of the Rest
- Ultra-Violent Games: The Ten Bloodiest Games Ever
- Unreal Tournament 2004: It’s All About the Mods
- Whiplash: Closet Classic (1996)
- Metacritic’s Worst Xbox Games: Ten Titles That Embarrass the Box
- X-COM: UFO Defense: Closet Classic (1994)
- The V-Smile: Training the Gamers of Tomorrow
- The Hotplate Gourmet: Hey, It’s Food!...Sort Of
- Prince of Persia: Sands of Time: Bargain Bin Special
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Devil May Cry 3: Dante’s Awakening: Difficult Is an Understatement
Genre: Sadistically Hard Devil Hunt Publisher: Capcom Developer: Capcom Platform: PS2 Metacritic Metascore: 84
Sometimes I don’t always agree with the general critic’s consensus. Such is the case with Devil May Cry 3: Dante’s Awakening. It seems necessary to mention here because many fans and critics regard it as a fantastic game. Personally, I wanted to slice the DVD into bits with a wild stab of my Ginsu knife and bury the remains out in the woods...right next to my copy of Dukes of Hazzard: Racing for Home.
Devil May Cry 3 takes place before you, as the playable character Dante, become aware of his demonic heritage and before the formation of the Devil May Cry devil hunting agency. (Dante is the son of a human mother and a devil prince father named Sparda.) In addition to you, as the hero, the story revolves around Dante’s estranged twin brother, Vergil.
A Little DMC History
The original Devil May Cry is considered to be one of the most influential fighting games of all time. It’s not a fighting game in the way that Soul Calibur is a fighting game; rather it’s a third-person action/adventure in which you do a whole lot of fighting. The original pretty much invented the highly stylized, flashy combat that we see in many action/adventures today. It really was a landmark title back in 2001.
In 2003, Capcom released a sequel, Devil May Cry 2, which stunned the gaming world because it was really, really, bad. Okay, there are fans who think such statements are a bit harsh, but let’s be honest. The game was nowhere near as entertaining as the original.
Finally, in March 2005, Capcom went the prequel route in delivering Dante’s Awakening in an attempt to bring the game back to its roots.
Where DMC3 Falls Short
Devil May Cry 3 is one of the most beautiful games ever released on the PS2. Packed with oodles of wicked weapons, it is quite possibly the most difficult fighting game I have ever played. Seriously, if you’re the kind of gamer who does not like to be frustrated when playing a game, do not, and I repeat, do not buy Devil May Cry 3—rent it first to see whether you can handle it and then thank me for saving you $50. Much of the frustration comes from the fact that the combat system is both tricky and yet highly unforgiving.
If, on the other hand, you like a challenge and feel you’re up to the task of leading Dante through his rough and tumble journey, by all means have at it. I have never loved and hated a game as much as I did this one. It’s one of those games with long breaks between save game points, which tends to want to make me pistol-whip the designers so that they know how it feels.
If you’re standing in a game shop, staring at a copy of God of War and Devil May Cry 3, both action/adventure fighting games on the PS2, and you pick up the latter, well, you have been warned.
While there aren’t many substantive details about it, Devil May Cry 4 will be a PS3 exclusive title set for a late 2006/early 2007 release.