Chaos Raiden
Avid Gamer & Reviewer
This is a review for Devil May Cry HD, which is a part of the games collection in Devil May Cry HD Collection.
Story
Dante is a Devil Hunter who works in a shop called Devil May Cry. In the middle of the night, a lady called Trish came to visit him. Suddenly, she attacked him, and Dante retaliated. Before he finished her off, Trish stopped him and told him that the ruler of Underworld, Mundus have resurrected and wanted him to stop Mundus. Dante was surprised to see that Trish looked exactly like his late mother, Eva, and reluctantly agree to the mission.
The story is short and simple, but has very effective and interesting storytelling that makes you want to know more about something in this game. It is not too complicated to understand, neither it was an outstanding story to tell. Few plot twists here and there made the game's story interesting at times.
Gameplay
This game is basically hack and slash action game. The game's structure is mission based, where you need to complete certain objectives to complete a mission, such as collecting an item to unlock a door, etc. Most of the time, the objectives are quite varied that it won't make you bored so much.
The puzzles in the game are rather well-designed and creative. Although most puzzles in the game require you to find an item and use it somewhere appropriate, the means of getting them are varied and creative. For example, in order to get a key item to unlock a door, you need to deflect a fireball attack back to the original source. Otherwise, you can't proceed to the next mission.
The exploration in this game is similar to Resident Evil series exploration, as you can backtrack to previous places that you have completed the missions before. After you have completed enough missions in the game, you won't be able to backtrack to certain places anymore. If you are lost in the game, you can always open your menu and check the Map where you are supposed to go.
The combat system is the best area in the game. Dante has access to his trusty sword, Force Edge and handguns called Ebony & Ivory. In melee, Dante can use various sword techniques to defeat your enemies. Handguns are not particularly useful in killing them, since they deal rather low damage, except other firearms such as Shotgun. However, Dante's handguns are useful to juggle enemies or to damage them far away if you are in danger of dying. As you progress in the game, you will find new weapons to augment Dante's attacks, such as the lightning sword Alastor and the powerful Shotgun. Stylish rank is measured as to how many hits you connect to enemies quickly and masterfully. If you defeat enemies with high Stylish rank, you will be rewarded with more Red Orbs, and vice versa.
Each type of enemies are unique in their means of attacking, behaviour and design. Memorising on how each enemy behaves is useful, and allows you to defeat them more effectively and faster. If you want to look ways on defeating a specific enemy, you can always go the menu and check the Enemy Files for more information on defeating them.
Enemy attacks are very dangerous, and they can kill Dante easily if you don't dodge carefully. Dante can either Side Roll to avoid his enemy attacks, or even Jump to avoid them as well. Using Jump is a must when you want to traverse high places. As you acquire certain weapons, you can transform using Devil Trigger. Devil Trigger boosts your attack power and gives you slight health regeneration while it is active. To fill your D.T. gauge, you need to attack your enemies consecutively. Alternatively, you can also Taunt them to increase it faster. Be aware that Taunting leaves you quite vulnerable to attacks,
The boss fights in the game are great and epic. As you all may know, bosses are much more tougher to beat than regular bosses, as they need more special methods to defeat them as they are more dangerous. As before, checking your Enemy Files on ways to defeat them is highly recommended.
While playing the game, you may encounter several types of Orbs. Red Orbs acts as the currency in the game and Green Orbs restore your health. Red Orbs can be used to purchase useful items such as Vital Star, or to learn more new techniques for your weapons. The purchasing can be done by interacting with objects called Divinity Statues, or by purchasing them at the start of a mission. Other two types of Orbs are called Yellow Orbs and Blue Orbs. Yellow Orbs grant you retries at the previous room where you died in the game. Blue Orbs will increase your maximum health, and most of it come in 4 fragments to be combined into one, where it can be found while playing the game. Choosing which stuff to purchase first will be either beneficial to your next mission or not, depending on your playstyle.
After completing each mission, you will be ranked accordingly on how fast you finish the mission and how many Red Orbs you have collected. The highest rank is S, which is granted by completing a mission quick enough and collect the amount of Red Orbs required for that rank. If you are not damaged while playing the game, you will be granted a special bonus that rewards you huge bonus of Red Orbs. Your Red Orbs reward will be varied accordingly to what rank you received at the end of a mission.
Control schemes are changed from the PS2 version. The X button is now used for jumping, and Triangle button is for melee attacks. I guess that the control schemes are changed in order to match with DMC3 and DMC4 control layouts more closely.
This is one of the best Devil May Cry game in the series. It's stylish action is what makes the game famous, and I personally believe that this is one of the best hack and slash game in terms of gameplay.
Graphics
As this is the first Devil May Cry game in the series, at 2001, this game definitely looks one of the best looking games in PS2 era. At this time, this game looks quite dated, even when it is remastered to HD.
The FMV scenes as well as certain in-game engine scenes are not remastered, and presumably lifted directly from the PS3 version without any enhancement. Furthermore, the screen ratio for those scenes will change from full screen into windowboxed screen, which is 4:3 screen ratio. However, the remastered graphics while playing the game is superbly done, as well as the most of in-game engine cutscenes.
As a HD game, this is lazily done by Pipeworks Software, the developer who is in change of porting all three DMC games to HD. I personally believe that Capcom should hire Bluepoint Games to do the remastering, and they did wonderful job in remastering many old games to HD, such as The Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection, Metal Gear Solid HD Collection, etc. Talking about Ico, that game is also made in 2001, but that game was remastered to HD perfectly. If Bluepoint Games can do it, why Pipeworks Software can't do a proper HD remastering?
Sound
Devil May Cry games are known for their amazing gothic soundtrack, which blends rock, metal, techno, and orchestral seamlessly. Most of the themes used in the game are well-made, and my personal favourite theme in the game is Nelo Angelo's battle theme, which is quite cutting edge song made when its first released in 2001.
The voice acting is a bit more than average, and it doesn't sound off at most characters in the game, although Dante had one or two cheesy lines that might make you cringe or laugh. Although, Dante has quite awesome lines while playing, such as one of my favourite lines by him: "Flock off, featherface! Or you can stick around and find it the hard way!".
Replay Value
Score
Story - 8/10
Gameplay - 10/10
Graphics - 8/10
Sound - 8/10
Final score: 8.5/10 or 34/40
HD Remastering score: 7/10
Pros
- The godfather of stylish action game is back in HD.
- Dante is awesome.
- Interesting and intriguing storyline.
- Still impressive combat system that will put current mediocre action games to shame.
- Excellent audio design.
- Impressive soundtrack.
- Creative and expertly designed enemies and bosses.
- Epic boss fights.
- Seamless blend of both sword and gun actions.
- Easy to learn controls.
- Impressive in-game remastering to high definition.
- Very challenging.
Cons
- Involves many backtracking.
- Slightly more than average voice acting.
- Some weird or bad lines spoken by the voice actors.
- Can be too difficult for average action gamers.
- Characters are not well-developed.
- Short completion time.
- Short storyline.
- Mild camera issues.
- FMV cutscenes and certain in-game cutscenes are not remastered in HD.
Story
Dante is a Devil Hunter that has demonic powers that allows him to decimate his demonic foes easily.
Dante is a Devil Hunter who works in a shop called Devil May Cry. In the middle of the night, a lady called Trish came to visit him. Suddenly, she attacked him, and Dante retaliated. Before he finished her off, Trish stopped him and told him that the ruler of Underworld, Mundus have resurrected and wanted him to stop Mundus. Dante was surprised to see that Trish looked exactly like his late mother, Eva, and reluctantly agree to the mission.
The story is short and simple, but has very effective and interesting storytelling that makes you want to know more about something in this game. It is not too complicated to understand, neither it was an outstanding story to tell. Few plot twists here and there made the game's story interesting at times.
Gameplay
Blast your enemies with your trusty firearms or cut them like butter using your sword.
This game is basically hack and slash action game. The game's structure is mission based, where you need to complete certain objectives to complete a mission, such as collecting an item to unlock a door, etc. Most of the time, the objectives are quite varied that it won't make you bored so much.
The puzzles in the game are rather well-designed and creative. Although most puzzles in the game require you to find an item and use it somewhere appropriate, the means of getting them are varied and creative. For example, in order to get a key item to unlock a door, you need to deflect a fireball attack back to the original source. Otherwise, you can't proceed to the next mission.
The exploration in this game is similar to Resident Evil series exploration, as you can backtrack to previous places that you have completed the missions before. After you have completed enough missions in the game, you won't be able to backtrack to certain places anymore. If you are lost in the game, you can always open your menu and check the Map where you are supposed to go.
The combat system is the best area in the game. Dante has access to his trusty sword, Force Edge and handguns called Ebony & Ivory. In melee, Dante can use various sword techniques to defeat your enemies. Handguns are not particularly useful in killing them, since they deal rather low damage, except other firearms such as Shotgun. However, Dante's handguns are useful to juggle enemies or to damage them far away if you are in danger of dying. As you progress in the game, you will find new weapons to augment Dante's attacks, such as the lightning sword Alastor and the powerful Shotgun. Stylish rank is measured as to how many hits you connect to enemies quickly and masterfully. If you defeat enemies with high Stylish rank, you will be rewarded with more Red Orbs, and vice versa.
Each type of enemies are unique in their means of attacking, behaviour and design. Memorising on how each enemy behaves is useful, and allows you to defeat them more effectively and faster. If you want to look ways on defeating a specific enemy, you can always go the menu and check the Enemy Files for more information on defeating them.
Enemy attacks are very dangerous, and they can kill Dante easily if you don't dodge carefully. Dante can either Side Roll to avoid his enemy attacks, or even Jump to avoid them as well. Using Jump is a must when you want to traverse high places. As you acquire certain weapons, you can transform using Devil Trigger. Devil Trigger boosts your attack power and gives you slight health regeneration while it is active. To fill your D.T. gauge, you need to attack your enemies consecutively. Alternatively, you can also Taunt them to increase it faster. Be aware that Taunting leaves you quite vulnerable to attacks,
The boss fights in the game are great and epic. As you all may know, bosses are much more tougher to beat than regular bosses, as they need more special methods to defeat them as they are more dangerous. As before, checking your Enemy Files on ways to defeat them is highly recommended.
While playing the game, you may encounter several types of Orbs. Red Orbs acts as the currency in the game and Green Orbs restore your health. Red Orbs can be used to purchase useful items such as Vital Star, or to learn more new techniques for your weapons. The purchasing can be done by interacting with objects called Divinity Statues, or by purchasing them at the start of a mission. Other two types of Orbs are called Yellow Orbs and Blue Orbs. Yellow Orbs grant you retries at the previous room where you died in the game. Blue Orbs will increase your maximum health, and most of it come in 4 fragments to be combined into one, where it can be found while playing the game. Choosing which stuff to purchase first will be either beneficial to your next mission or not, depending on your playstyle.
After completing each mission, you will be ranked accordingly on how fast you finish the mission and how many Red Orbs you have collected. The highest rank is S, which is granted by completing a mission quick enough and collect the amount of Red Orbs required for that rank. If you are not damaged while playing the game, you will be granted a special bonus that rewards you huge bonus of Red Orbs. Your Red Orbs reward will be varied accordingly to what rank you received at the end of a mission.
Control schemes are changed from the PS2 version. The X button is now used for jumping, and Triangle button is for melee attacks. I guess that the control schemes are changed in order to match with DMC3 and DMC4 control layouts more closely.
This is one of the best Devil May Cry game in the series. It's stylish action is what makes the game famous, and I personally believe that this is one of the best hack and slash game in terms of gameplay.
Graphics
Impressive remastering to the game's gameplay stages and in-game cutscenes, but some cutscenes are not remastered properly.
As this is the first Devil May Cry game in the series, at 2001, this game definitely looks one of the best looking games in PS2 era. At this time, this game looks quite dated, even when it is remastered to HD.
The FMV scenes as well as certain in-game engine scenes are not remastered, and presumably lifted directly from the PS3 version without any enhancement. Furthermore, the screen ratio for those scenes will change from full screen into windowboxed screen, which is 4:3 screen ratio. However, the remastered graphics while playing the game is superbly done, as well as the most of in-game engine cutscenes.
As a HD game, this is lazily done by Pipeworks Software, the developer who is in change of porting all three DMC games to HD. I personally believe that Capcom should hire Bluepoint Games to do the remastering, and they did wonderful job in remastering many old games to HD, such as The Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection, Metal Gear Solid HD Collection, etc. Talking about Ico, that game is also made in 2001, but that game was remastered to HD perfectly. If Bluepoint Games can do it, why Pipeworks Software can't do a proper HD remastering?
Sound
Great gothic soundtrack coupled with slightly more than average voice acting.
Devil May Cry games are known for their amazing gothic soundtrack, which blends rock, metal, techno, and orchestral seamlessly. Most of the themes used in the game are well-made, and my personal favourite theme in the game is Nelo Angelo's battle theme, which is quite cutting edge song made when its first released in 2001.
The voice acting is a bit more than average, and it doesn't sound off at most characters in the game, although Dante had one or two cheesy lines that might make you cringe or laugh. Although, Dante has quite awesome lines while playing, such as one of my favourite lines by him: "Flock off, featherface! Or you can stick around and find it the hard way!".
Replay Value
Low replay value due to it's short completion time. Moderate replay value if you decided to play it again at harder difficulties.
After completing the game, you can resume it and start from the first mission again. This time, your difficulty will be increased to Hard, as the default difficulty in the game is Normal. Hard is slightly more difficult, and tougher enemies will be encountered much more earlier in the game compared to Normal playthrough. If you complete Hard playthrough, you can continue it again in Dante Must Die mode, the most difficult mode in the game where enemies can now Devil Trigger and deals you insanely high damage. There are also Secret Missions to be completed in the game, but can be only done by achieving certain objectives. Completing them will reward you Blue Orb Fragments, which will turn into a complete Blue Orb once you have found 4 fragments of it.
Conclusion
One of the best DMC games in the Devil May Cry HD Collection, but is parred by poor quality job of remastering.
I have a rather mixed feeling with Devil May Cry HD. The core game itself is splendid, with certain nice changes at button layouts. However, the graphical area is not impressive, as many cutscenes in the game are remastered in high definition properly. Capcom chose the wrong developer to do this job, and they should have hired Bluepoint Games to remaster Devil May Cry to it's full glory of high definition. Anyway, this is the first Devil May Cry game in the series, and any players who are interested with Devil May Cry HD Collection should try this one out first before playing other two DMC games.Score
Story - 8/10
Gameplay - 10/10
Graphics - 8/10
Sound - 8/10
Final score: 8.5/10 or 34/40
HD Remastering score: 7/10
Pros
- The godfather of stylish action game is back in HD.
- Dante is awesome.
- Interesting and intriguing storyline.
- Still impressive combat system that will put current mediocre action games to shame.
- Excellent audio design.
- Impressive soundtrack.
- Creative and expertly designed enemies and bosses.
- Epic boss fights.
- Seamless blend of both sword and gun actions.
- Easy to learn controls.
- Impressive in-game remastering to high definition.
- Very challenging.
Cons
- Involves many backtracking.
- Slightly more than average voice acting.
- Some weird or bad lines spoken by the voice actors.
- Can be too difficult for average action gamers.
- Characters are not well-developed.
- Short completion time.
- Short storyline.
- Mild camera issues.
- FMV cutscenes and certain in-game cutscenes are not remastered in HD.
