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"Devil May Cry"
Developed and Published By: Capcom Slick. Stylish. Short. I think these three words most accurately describe Capcom's combat-oriented, quasi-survival horror game Devil May Cry. Originally intended to be yet another title in the bloated Resident Evil series, part of the way through the developers of DMC realized that they were on to something far different from what they had set out to create. Something infinitely more dynamic, with a stronger focus on smooth controls and pulse pounding action. And they achieved exactly that. Having played through it twice now since it's release a year ago, I can confidently say that Devil May Cry is still every bit as fast-paced, adrenaline-pumpingly bad-ass as it was the day it came out.
 Two millenia ago, deep within hell, a demon swordsman by the name of Sparda decided to switch sides in the eternal war between good and evil, and fought instead to defend the human world from the great devil Mundus. After winning (albeit, only temporarily) his one man crusade against darkness, Sparda settled down to knock boots with a human woman, who eventually gave birth to the hero of this tale, a half human, half demon ass-kicker named Dante. Well, Mundus had the last 2000 years to sit around being a bitter prick, and has now decided to recommence his plans to conquer/destroy the human world. Dante takes up the mantle as humanity's official defender, though he does so for his own personal reasons, and sets off for Mallet Island, which is essentially the gateway to hell. Backed by a mysterious, yet vaguely familiar woman named Trish, he plans to hack his way through an entire army of evil nasties, before battling Mundus himself. While the story behind Devil May Cry could hardly be considered riveting, or entirely original, it does what it sets out to do well enough. That said, as far as in comparison to Capcom's other survival horror titles, DMC's story stands above the Resident Evil series, but it's not quite on par with Onimusha and it's sequel. Besides, once the opening cinematics come to a close, and you're finally allowed to experience all that this game has to offer, the plot won't really make much of a difference to you, anyway. All that matters then, is when the next batch of monsters will arrive, so that you can eviscerate 'em. Everything else takes a back seat to the constant action, and Capcom has unveiled a whole damn arsenal for strictly that purpose. Dante starts his quest armed with only his home made handguns, dubbed Ebony and Ivory, and a sword called Force Edge, which he keeps as a memento of his father Sparda. Before the curtain comes up on the final act though, he'll be packing a shotgun, a grenade launcher, an underwater needlegun, and more. Aside from those conventional firearms though, Dante will pick up two other weapons, the lightning-based sword Alastor, and the fiery gauntlets of Ifrit. What makes these weapons worth using, you ask? Well, I'll tell you what, sparky. Other than being very cool looking, they both allow him to store up energy, and eventually gain access to his Devil State, which is best decribed as a sort of temporary transcendence where he changes into a demonic form, and goes on an ass-kicking rampage. Now, as excellent as Devil May Cry is, it has a few minor flaws. Namely, the overall length of gameplay, which seems to be my biggest complaint about all Capcom adventure games. Usually I'm not one to bitch about a game being too short, but in this case, I really felt like the whole experience ended just as soon as I got warmed up. Both times I completed the game, it took less than five hours. Perhaps I've been spending a bit too much time with roleplaying games, where anything under 40 hours is considered heresy, but DMC feels short all the same. To be fair though, Devil May Cry is one of those games you can beat, put away for a little while, then come back to and enjoy again. So all in all, this issue can be overlooked. Just don't expect this game to keep you busy for much more than a weekend at a time, because it won't. My only other gripe was with a few of the static camera angles, in some areas of the game. In particular, it seemed like anywhere you were expected to complete a series of jumping puzzles, the view was less than perfect. The semi-invisible platforms near the "dragon" during Mission 17 come to mind most of all. This was really nothing more than a minor annoyance for me though, so feel free to disregard that as being nitpicky. When you take a step back and observe the whole package that Devil May Cry encompasses, it's impressive. Is it a perfect game? Absolutely not. Will you enjoy it? That depends on your own personal tastes. Those of you looking for a deep, thought-provoking adventure spanning dozens of hours will be disappointed. However, I can say without a doubt that this is one of the finest action games I've ever played. Personally, I see it as the next rung on the evolutionary ladder of the old "beat 'em up" style of games. Whether you consider it Double Dragon for the next generation of videogame nerds, or Resident Evil for people with short attention spans, it's all the same. Devil May Cry is excellent.
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