DMC: Devil May Cry Definitive Edition Review: Definitively Not My Dante

DMC: Devil May Cry Definitive Edition
4.4
out of 5

This is not my Dante.

Having played the previous games in Capcom’s Devil May Cry series, I’ve grown attached to the platinum-headed bad-ass Dante. You know, the one who runs the Devil May Care paranormal detective agency and battles demons on behalf of his clients, usually cumulating in a conspiracy of worldwide biblical proportions to stop the demon Mungus from turning earth into hell.  My Dante is suave, and slick, and conflicted, and is a little bit of a smartass, and he bleeds coolness in every action.


DMC: Devil May Cry Definitive Edition

This is not my Dante.

In DMC: Devil May Cry, Capcom decided to reboot the series with a new Dante. He with the boring brown hair that looks like it was cut by a gardener on a smoke break, and outfits that look like he found them in the dumpster behind the local Goodwill. A new Dante who lives in a trailer near the pier and trades coolness for “attitude.” He may carry two guns — Ebony and Ivory — and sword he calls Rebellion, but it’s not the same.

This is not my Dante. And that’s actually okay.

DMC: Devil May Cry Definitive Edition for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 takes the 2013 Capcom reboot and pushes it to true 1080p, 60 fps proportions. The action is fast and fluid and while I admittedly have issues with this new Dante, the game is still as kick ass as before. Developer Ninja Theory, the creators of the truly sublime early PS3 classic, Heavenly Sword, have taken the characters and some of the mythos and brought them to a new generation. As mentioned, this new Dante is a loner, who lives in a trailer and is roped into fighting a war by the mysterious Virgil to stop a demon lord who killed Dante’s father.

DMC: Devil May Cry Definitive Edition

DMC: Devil May Cry Definitive Edition includes all the DLC costumes (and yes, I know I can make this Dante look like my Dante with a costume change, but dressing my dog like Chewbacca doesn’t make him a wookie), weapons, four new modes, including Turbo and Hard, and all upgrades, including the DLC chapter Virgil’s Downfall. The gameplay has been rebalanced and almost everything has been tweaked to present the definitive version of the game. And it all works to create an exciting journey through 20 chapters of demon-slaying fun.

In fact, Capcom and Ninja Theory left no stone unturned in this new version. At its core, the game seems familiar, but so much has been changed/corrected that it’s worth playing again. And again. And still again. leaderboards and style scoring pushes the player to do better, and early levels are full of collectables that cannot be collected until a new skill/weapon is acquired later in the game, meaning that to find everything, levels will have to be played and replayed.

DMC: Devil May Cry Definitive Edition

Luckily, the play control is smooth and the buttons can be adjusted to suit the player’s preference. I found this important, as the moves I used the most were mapped to the trigger buttons and had to be activated with a combo press. Being able to change the controller to suit my style was paramount in how I played. There was nothing wrong with the standard button mapping, but if Ninja Theory is going to give me that power, I’m going to use it.

The voice acting and character models look good, though the 60 fps keeps DMC looking more hyper-real and less realistic. It’s in no way a game breaker, but I wonder what a Devil May Cry game would look like with a lower frame rate. I mean, a game where the stylish evisceration of demons would be insane in a gritty, realistic setting.

DMC: Devil May Cry Definitive Edition is an upgrade of a reboot. While that may bend the mind, the end result is one helluva demon-killing game that pushes the boundaries of what the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 can do in terms of presentation. The game looked good on last-gen, but here it absolutely kills.

This may not be my Dante, but DMC: Devil May Cry Definitive Edition is still a wonderful game, and fans of the original games should definitely give this one a go. With all of the DLC unlocked and ready to go, this is THE definitive version of a new Devil May Cry.

DMC: Devil May Cry Definitive Edition is available now in both retail and download for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 systems. This review was based on a download code for the Xbox One version provided by Capcom.

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