Video Game Vintage Title: DmC: Devil May Cry

DmC: Devil May Cry

DmC: Devil May Cry is an action-adventure hack and slash video game developed by Ninja Theory and published by Capcom for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Windows. It is the fifth installment of the Devil May Cry series, serving as a reboot. Announced in late 2010 during the Tokyo Game Show, the game is set in an alternative reality in the Devil May Cry series. It focuses on the player character Dante, a young man with supernatural powers who finds himself under attack by a seemingly sentient town known as Limbo City populated by demons.

The reimagination of the Devil May Cry series was requested by Capcom resulting in the game being made from a Western perspective in contrast to previous games. Capcom also assisted Ninja Theory in the making of the gameplay in order to be reminiscent to previous games. Initial reaction to the title was widely negative as a result of Dante's redesign; nevertheless, DmC received positive reviews by gaming websites who praised the gameplay and story.

DmC: Devil May Cry Plot

The story takes place in Limbo City, a modern-day city secretly controlled by all-powerful demons, manipulating humanity through the comforts of life, with the demons themselves living in a parallel plane called 'Limbo'. Living on the fringes of the brainwashed society is Dante, a young man at odds with the demons who constantly hunt him, and the civilian authorities they control. Dante is warned by a young woman named Kat that he is in danger. After being pulled into Limbo, Dante is guided through the Bellevue Pier's carnival by Kat, who can see into Limbo with her psychic powers. After returning to the human dimension, Dante is asked to join Kat in heading back to speak with her boss.

Along the way, Kat explains that she is part of "The Order", a rogue vigilante organization led by Vergil intent on exposing the demons and releasing the world from their control. Vergil tells Dante that with his help the Order can bring down the demons. Dante learns that he and Vergil are the children of Sparda and Eva. Vergil reveals that Sparda and Eva were demon and angel respectively and bore Dante and Vergil. Dante and Vergil are Nephilim capable of killing the cruel Demon King Mundus, Sparda's former ally. Afraid of the Nephilim children, Mundus attacked the family and killed Eva. He then condemned Sparda to banishment and eternal torture after the former demon General spirited his sons to safety, wiped their memories for their own protection and gave each a sword (Rebellion for Dante, Yamato for Vergil). After this, Dante resolves to help Vergil bring down Mundus and his regime.

Dante, with help from Kat, gradually takes down Mundus' operations. During the final stages of his campaign, Dante sees that the Order is being massacred. He returns and finds Kat and Vergil alive. While Vergil escapes with his brother, Kat is brutally beaten and dragged away by SWAT troops. Hoping to get Kat back, Dante kidnaps Mundus' demon concubine, Lilith, who is pregnant with his child. He offers to exchange, Lilith for Kat. However, Vergil kills Lilith and her child, triggering a firefight from which the three allies only narrowly escape an enraged attack by Mundus from his stronghold in Silverstack Towers. Kat, recovering from her injuries, tells them of a way into the Towers. With the remnants of the Order, Dante and Vergil infiltrate the Towers and confront Mundus, who is drawing power from the Hellgate, a portal to his realm within his office. The Demon King tries to kill Dante, but Vergil closes the Hellgate and stabs Mundus in the back. Mundus forms a new body for himself and attacks the brothers again. Mundus is eventually defeated, and with him the shield keeping demons across the world invisible dissolves, leaving the demons visible to humans and fusing the human world and Limbo together.

After Mundus' defeat, Vergil reveals his true intentions: with Mundus gone and their family avenged, he intends to rule humanity. Dante is appalled at Vergil's callous attitude towards humans and opposes him. Before Dante kills Vergil, Kat begs him to relent. Dante does so and Vergil escapes. Faced with a world now infested with demons, Dante questions his own identity with Kat comforting him claiming he's "Dante, nothing more and nothing less". The game ends with Dante's eyes glowing demonic red.

The DLC chapter Vergil's Downfall follows Vergil after escaping from Dante. He finds himself in an unknown dimension, where he is guided by the voice of Eva to "head toward the lights". Vergil reaches the light area but is stopped by illusions of Kat and Dante, who stabs him again. Vergil is saved by a hollow version of himself and is transported to an area where he has to fight in order to heal his wounds. In his journey Vergil kills the illusions to heal his wounds, and left Eva to mourn after discovering what a monster he had become. Vergil later defeats his hollow counterpart and takes his amulet. Vergil then returns to the real world where he becomes the new Demon King.

DmC: Devil May Cry Gameplay

Players take on the role of Dante as he uses his powers and weaponry to fight against enemies and navigate the treacherous Limbo. Like previous games in the series, Dante can perform combos by attacking with his sword, Rebellion, and shooting with his twin pistols, Ebony and Ivory. New to the series are modifiers to Dante's moveset, known as Angel Mode and Devil Mode, activated by holding down one of the trigger buttons. When in Angel mode, Dante's sword attacks change to the Osiris, a speedy scythe type weapon, whilst Devil mode uses the slower but more powerful Arbiter. These modes also alter Dante's mobility. Using Angel mode allows Dante to pull himself towards enemies and various points in each level, whilst Devil mode lets Dante pull enemies and objects towards him. Dante is also able to dash across large gaps in Angel mode. All of these moves can be used in conjunction with each other to perform massive combos, which are ranked based on the damage the player makes. When enough power has been gathered, Dante can activate Devil Trigger mode, which slows down time around him and levitates enemies into the air, allowing him to perform much stronger attacks. Like previous games, Dante can collect various types of souls which can be used to recover health, purchase items and upgrade Dante's moveset.

Reception
Before the game was released, initial reception to the new design of Dante and change in direction of the series was negative. The series' original creator, Hideki Kamiya, was pessimistic about the game's direction and stated he was "missing" Dante although in later tweets he expected people to try the game. Video game publications 1UP.com and GamesRadar found such claims exaggerated with the former finding the demo's gameplay and humor enjoyable and the latter being optimistic about how the release of the game could affect the franchise. Various other sites also listed it as one of the most anticipated games of 2012 stating that despite the controversy the game caused, it looked promising owing to the presentation and the fact the gameplay had yet to be tested. On September 2012 Capcom US producer Alex Jones claimed that some of the negative response had turned positive. Dante's voice actor from Devil May Cry 3 and 4, Reuben Langdon, while expressing disappointment with Dante's characterization, had positive impressions about the game and urged fans to try the game.

DmC: Devil May Cry received positive reviews from critics. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the Xbox 360 version 86.33% and 86/100, the PlayStation 3 version 85.75% and 85/100 and the PC version 85.10% and 85/100.