Devil May Cry 2

Devil May Cry was an incredible success, mainly because of the intense action gameplay, and also in part due to the flashy main half demon character, Dante. Dante couldn’t be cooler if you gave him some shades and put him in an ice cream factory. Renowned for his snappy one liners, huge sword and twin pistols (named Ebony and Ivory), he was naturally going to play a part in Devil May Cry 2, but joining him this time is a second playable character, Lucia who shares Dante’s ability to become a demonic creature at will to gain strength and various other attributes.

No-body likes change?

Being stuck in a lift with annoying people is bad enough, throw in a few demons too and it's a nightmare.

The gameplay remains consistent to the previous game, running around beating the ‘hell’ out of various underworldly fiends while building up your Devil Trigger gauge and collecting those strange multicoloured orbs. Red orbs can be used to buy weapon upgrades and items, Blue orbs increase your maximum health, Green ones replenish that health while Yellow orbs give you mid level continues. During the game you’ll pick up keys of varying sorts, new weapons and upgrades to your amulet, which alters the type of demon you’ll morph into when you hit the L1 button to become a devil.

Missions tend to be longer than the ones in the original game, and although there are fewer of them for each character (to play through Dante’s mode it took me little over three and a half hours,) to see the whole story you will need to play through with both heroes. In a similar vein to Resident Evil 2, each of the characters has their own disk to play from, and the stories interweave, taking place at the same time. Lucia’s missions are pretty similar to Dante’s but certain bosses are different and many levels have different goals, and sometimes different locations.

Sequels cannot win

Lucia, a relative newbie to the Devil May Cry world can leap like a frog on steroids and run like the wind.

Unfortunately the story isn’t as strong as before, with a very tenuous beginning and link between Lucia and Dante, the one-liners are minimal and the worlds aren’t as creepy. That said, those are the only aspects of the game that are worse than the original. Naturally when a sequel is announced, the general public expect a step up in quality, but generally even if the game is better than the original, it will be labelled as worse because it doesn’t live up to the heightened expectation. In this case, the game is definitely as good as the first, although in different ways.

The button bashing high octane action of the first has been retained, and undoubtedly since I began playing Devil May Cry 2 I’ve been moved forward a few steps towards arthritis. Enemies are more varied than before with plenty of fodder for your consistently upgradeable weapons. Lucia and Dante fight very similarly, but Lucia opts for throwing knives instead of guns and using a rather spectacular form of martial arts coupled with her fighting knives. The only noticeable differences are Lucia’s slight increase in speed over Dante, and Dante’s firing style after a double jump.

Who would live in a place like this?

There's a world of demons out there, just waiting for your bullets.

The variation of the missions that you will traverse are much greater than in Devil May Cry; Skyscrapers, city streets, subway stations, underwater caves, demon worlds, vintage villages and more will be the host to your violent tendencies. The puzzles are as simple as before, with one possible slightly harsh exception allowing for anyone to get right into the fun. The enemies appear out of nowhere in all of the worlds, but generally they have specific locations where you will meet them.

The plain locations seem to be restricted to boss battles, to give the player more room to leap around, and avoid any attacks that should be thrust upon you. One boss does come to mind where you are very limited and restricted in your movement, and it truly shows the added difficulty (especially since your enemy has a large sword).

Don’t you wish you could do this to your boss?

When vanquished bosses energy goes into future bosses, you know you're in for a nasty fight.

Devil May Cry thrived on its huge monstrous bosses that loomed over Dante with an ominous feel, and fortunately many of the same feelings have been recreated in the sequel. Huge building sized creatures emerge out of… well… buildings. Enormous goats, huge fish and a welcome return to an old ‘friend’ tie it all together beautifully. True, many of the bosses can be defeated by keeping away and firing your long range weapons, but if you want to retain any sense of feeling in your hands, another tactic is almost always available.

The bosses certainly look impressive, and are always preceded and concluded with a satisfying cinematic, but although you do meet some bosses multiple times, you don’t feel the same consistent threat from them all. Very rarely do they speak, and normally they’ll appear and start to hunt you down, but there are a lot of them, which keeps up the challenge.

Pushed to the limit

Become one with your weapon(s).

The graphics do look very similar to the original’s, mainly because of the same engine being used, but there are a few small enhancements that are noticeable. You can run the game in NTSC mode, which removes the black boarders that seem to plague European conversions of international games, and the frame rate is always smooth, so it does look as beautiful as you can expect from Capcom,

The sounds are all satisfactory, and although I didn’t hear anything that particularly stunned me, everything does seem to have a sound effect. Shell casings landing on the floor, Dante running on carpets, and devil versions of the heroes flapping their wings are all complemented by sounds, and the enemies do sound as dangerous as your health bar says they are. The music is effectively orchestral, with gothic undertones to keep the style of the original game. Unfortunately, the voices are lacking something, with two of the worst accents heard outside the amateur global actors’ society. Unfortunately, the team haven’t used the same voice actor to play Dante; Matthew Kaminski replacing Drew Coombs, and although it’s only slightly noticeable, Dante’s edge has been lost in the ‘upgrade’. Many of the characters seem weakly acted, in a similar way to the (intentionally) unemotional Silent Hill 2, although with a script lacking in many of the elements that made the original such a blast to play through, it is to be expected.

Does my gun look big in this?

Lucia and Dante in their Diesel sponsered costumes, unlocked by finishing the game.

As pernickety as I have been, the game is truly another superb action fest with more features than a winter season of a Digital Movie channel. After finishing the game with each character, a hard mode is unlocked, an extra game mode as well as each protagonist gaining a new costume (with a fashion link into the Diesel brand). Finish on hard and more costumes are unlocked including the much loved (and yet dreaded) Dante (or Lucia) Must Die mode.

The constant ability to continue your previous character in a new game, being able to keep upgrading until you’re an unstoppable killing machine will definitely help everyone keep playing until you’ve managed to overcome the Must Die modes, so even though the game will only take you a few hours to whack the first time through, there’s plenty of life in her yet.

It’s still the devil we know and love

If you want more Dante, treat yourself to this flame retardent newcomer.

Devil May Cry was begun originally as Resident Evil 4, but fortunately the development team was allowed to branch out to create the rather uniquely action based gameplay. The main worry for Devil May Cry 2 was that it would change too much of the formula. Fortunately, although there has been a lot of variation on the original, the gameplay is intact. If you’re a relative Devil May Cry virgin, I recommend picking up the original game to see if it’s your bag, since it has recently gone into the platinum (read: cheap) range. If you know what it’s all about, and fancy a new challenge for Dante, you could go far more wrong than grabbing a copy of Devil May Cry 2.