Devil May Cry has been one of the best selling game series released by Capcom and a success both in Japan and around the world, spawning an anime series and a loyal fanbase. When Capcom announced a special edition of the popular Devil May Cry 4 game, they offered a game full of DLC, new features and crisper visuals, running at 60fps in 1080p. Now not only do you play as the game’s main protagonists, Nero and Dante, you also play as Virgil, Lady and Trish. For those who played the original version and want more of a challenge, Capcom added the new punishing difficulty, Legendary Dark Knight Mode, testing the mettle of seasoned DMC players to the max!
When you start this new edition, you can already see a difference to the original of 2008. The new 1080p visuals give the game a crisper, sharper HD look without losing the speed of play associated with DMC, all the while keeping true to the original aesthetic but with a modern flair. Now as you hack and slash enemies, you can enjoy every kill to the extreme and all the cutscenes are visually more appealing. The 60fps is a great addition to the game, but unfortunately doesn’t save the game enough from looking outdated and sub-par to other HD remakes, such as The Last Of Us. The camera still has a mind of its own, which can be a nuisance when you are zipping round the map with silver-haired Nero ready to strike. All the flawed elements of the original have just been re-wrapped in better graphics without being fixed to make the special edition something truly special.
The new characters add a new level to the game, especially if you are burned out on Nero and Dante’s escapades. Each character brings new skills and weapons to the game, and are playable from the start. Lady’s love of projectiles keeps distance from the danger, while Trish and Virgil excel in speedy hypersonic attacks, I loved Virgil most cos there was no wasted time between combos. He would zap to the next victim thanks to his jumps. The new Legendary Dark Knight Mode brings a whole new level of nightmare to DMC, giving enemies more power and a higher respawn frequency, making you go big on combos or go straight to the game over screen. Unfortunately the characters didn’t bring new levels, just the same repeated locations that will probably have bored any long term DMC4 gamer by now and some characters don’t get the HD cutscene treatment as much as you would like, I think Virgil had maybe 2 cutscenes total.
All in all, to a new Devil May Cry 4 player, this edition would be perfect – a story with two interesting characters, each with their own agenda, in 60fps with additional characters to use and difficulty levels to keep the game challenging. For the players of the original 2008 version, all I can say is chose whether or not to leap into buying this title, it could be a big hit or a miserable miss.
