Reviewed by CL on 3/1/2006
Devil May Cry 3: Dante’s Awakening is Capcom’s formal apology for the piece of crap that was Devil May Cry 2. This game returns to the roots of the series and re-establishes Dante as the premier demon hunter in the videogame world. The sheer coolness of this game is hard to describe in words. Whether you’re beating down ten enemies at once or taking on huge bosses, Dante does it all with a cocky swagger that just makes you feel cool playing the game.
One defining feature of this game is its difficulty. The original Devil May Cry was renowned for being Ninja Gaiden hard. To address this issue, when this Special Edition of the game was released, it was retooled so that the normal mode here corresponds to the easy mode of the original game. Despite this, it is still pretty difficult. The game doesn’t pull any punches, if you’re not up to par, the game lets you know by beating you down severely. There were several boss fights that I must have tried five or six times before prevailing. A lot of the first few levels were spent dying and taking lots of damage. However, there was one point where everything just clicked and suddenly, I was effortlessly dodging attacks, engaging multiple enemies at once, and just having a blast doing it all at once. Few games I’ve played have been able to recreate this effect where you just feel cool by playing it.
There are tons of weapons to play with along with multiple different styles that you can adopt during the course of the game. The styles serve to add even more depth to an already impressive combat engine. For example, if you choose the Trickster style, you’ll find yourself dodging attacks and nimbly running circles around your enemies. By contrast, the Swordmaster style allows you to simply wade in and start beating down guys right away.
The Special Edition has several new features that the original game lacked. As already mentioned, it has a different difficulty setting. Perhaps the biggest addition is the ability to play as Virgil, Dante’s evil twin brother. Although he is Dante’s twin, he plays completely different, with a new style of play with different weapons. Other editions include a survival mode called the Bloody Palace and a movie viewer mode.
In conclusion, this is by far the best game in the Devil May Cry series. And since the retooled difficulty setting makes game accessible to most players, you really have no excuse to not pick this game up today.
