Devil May Cry 5 is a Action Hack N Slash game was originally released in 2019 for PS4, XBONE, and PC, and it was later expanded for PS5 and XSX/S released in 2020.
It was both developed and published by Capcom, and it is the 5th mainline installment in the series.
Before I begin reviewing the game, I wanted to discuss at the beginning of the whole franchise that was started back in the early 2000s days of gaming.
First of all, the creator Hideki Kamiya was attempt to create his prototype of Resident Evil game for the PS2 console as he develops focusly on action-oriented approach as opposed to survival horror formula from the RE's previous three's games, but unfortunately the Capcom's team were dissatisfied with the Kamiya's concept idea that did not fit well to the RE series, so instead he later recreated the whole thing and turned it into a entirely new original game titled as Devil May Cry.
It's a game that took inspiration from the Italian poet Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy in the terms of presentation design and cast of characters.
So what is the game anyway? it is a 2001's Action Hack N Slash game for PS2 where you take control of demon hunter named Dante went on his quest to battle against not only just the hordes of demons who invading the human world, but also taking his revenge on demon lord Mundus who is responsible for the deaths of Dante's Mother.
The game's initial release is critically acclaimed by gaming medias praising the game for its action-packed combat system, gothic themed settings, and of course the stylish innovations of gameplay design is what makes the original title a pinnacle of 3D Hack N Slash subgenre for early 2000s.
The game's success led Capcom went onto creating a sequel such as 2003's Devil May Cry 2 for PS2 which is the first title that Kamiya was absent on the development being replaced by Hideaki Itsuno as a lead game director.
While the 2nd title was commercially success at the release, the game however received mixed reception which was criticised for its lower difficulty, lack of strategy on boss battles, less refined combat gameplay, and dull overall presentation that are nowhere near good as the original.
After the disappointment of 2nd title, Capcom was later going back to its original form with the 3rd title such as 2005's Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening which acts as prequel to 2001's original game.
The game is receiving much praise for its series return to form while avoiding the mistakes of the predecessor, and of course the new battle system elements and more in-depth visual design marks the 3rd title as an massive improvement for the series, as it sold over 2.3 million units and has been labelled as one of the greatest video games ever made.
The 4th title such as Devil May Cry 4 was released in 2008 for PS3, X360, and PC, which focuses on a new protagonist named Nero, a young man possessing demonic powers who is on a mission to confront the series main character Dante, after he assassinates the leader of the Order of the Sword.
The game has positive reception at the release for its new playable protagonist, smooth combat mechanics, game's difficulty system, and action-packed missions were praised by gaming critics.
The series was later rebooted with the 2013's title as DmC: Devil May Cry was created by Ninja Theory, a same team behind their notable titles such as Heavenly Sword, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, and Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice.
The game is considered as controversial at the early teaser was widely negative due to Dante's redesign appearance and drastic change of his characteristic tone is not the same kind of hero as we know him from the original series, and then at the game's release while it has received positive reception by the critics, but was overwhelmingly hated by the fans of the original series were expecting the game to be just as good isn't just the right game for them to play calling the full reboot a much worse than the 2003's 2nd title in terms of story, character, and design choices just completely ruins the great franchise.
Finally in the year of 2018 when Capcom has revealed a new title for the original series such as Devil May Cry 5 which is a sequel to the 4th installment of the series, so it got released in between 2019 and 2020 for PC and consoles.
I really loved the classic DMC games like the 1st and 3rd title when I first had a HD collection for PS3, as well as the 4th title which made me loved the franchise, so I am definitely can't wait to play a new Devil May Cry 5 when I seen the game's announcement trailer off from E3 live conference on Youtube in 2019. I was originally planned to get the copy for the PS4 console, but in around one year later when they announced the special edition for the 9th-gen system I decided to change my mind by waiting for a bit longer, which is why I finally got a PS5 copy of the game this year since I first had a slim model PS5 console.
So what do I think about this game, is it anything plays just good as the original's previous installment or does it feel a bit stepped back in comparison?
I got to say that I am really glad the whole game had turned out to be another best title in the series since the 3rd title which are still remained as my number 1 favourite in the series mainline, but why this game feels like its deserved to be my 2nd favourite game in the list?
I am here to make my review to deliver many positive things that got the game right and where as some others which I will discuss later on this review.
So without go further do, let's start the review.
Presentation
The game sets after the event of Devil May Cry 4, as the story explains the mysterious tree incident that apparently attacked the city by the hordes of demons led by demon king Urizen has took the control of the human world, the plot follows returning protagonists such as Nero and Dante was hired by a mysterious stranger named V as they went on their journey to stop the demon king Urizen.
The story in this game is actually solid which explains what has happening in the Red Grave city was plagued with the large demonic tree planted in the city spawning many hordes of demons attacking all the people for their blood, and you have a demon hunters and their crew went on their mission is to wipe out the wicked lord's curses that harms the human world, so I really liked the story sequences on each parts which delivers a present to past scenes just seems to work really well in the game.
You have likable cast of characters such as Nero as you may know him as the main lead from Devil May Cry 4, so his appearance is quite different from the previous installment with short silver-hair and his prosthetic right arm which I really liked his new design in the game while keeping his personality level between being hot-headed and passionate well intact in many scenes makes him quite likable throughout the campaign.
I say Dante is by far the bestest character of the whole game as much as we liked him in DMC 1, 3, and 4, so what makes him being the greatest video game characters in the series? he wore a long-red leather jacket...check, his medium-sized silver-hair...check, his dual-pistols and sword...check, his level of cockiness with goofy sense of humour...check, his cool and stylish fighting style...check, and of course his demonic power level...so there you go now you know exactly why everyone loves this badass dude.
The game also introduces a new playable character such as V which kinda looks like an emo version of Adam Driver...well judging with the design of the character.
He is also quite an interesting guy has the backstory explaining that he aims to find his way of restoring his original form back and he has ability to summon his 3 demon familiars to fight off the demons such as Griffin Hawk, Shadow Panther, and Nightmarish Golem.
The game has supportive NPCs characters such as everyone's favourite 2 babes like Trish which has really nice black leather outfit and her long-blonde hair, as well as the Lady is basically look like Julia Volkova being equipped with jam-packed rocket launcher.
Then you have a sassy female gunsmith Nico who aided Nero throughout the campaign as she offers him with the upgrades and arm-weapons. She is also quite a smoking hot as the other two ladies I've mentioned above with perfect shape of the body...nice, and I also liked her snarky characteristics which she enjoys teasing Nero, being a reckless driver, and has hilarious southern accent just adds up a good comedy.
The game's presentation is wonderfully amazing for its gothic settings themes that made the while series quite recognisable over the years.
I really liked getting into with dark-medieval stuff filled with demonic looking environments, creepy looking foes with their ugly-ass faces, gorefest particles all-over the places, and many stuff going on in the game which makes me finding the series quite appealing.
In this game, I wanted to praise the stage layout in each locations such as Red Grave City is a hometown which features mostly neoclassical architecture stuffs like cathedral, where as the recent modern stuffs like apartment blocks, neon-lit district, subway network, and a large bridge.
Alberton Graveyard are filled with abandoned site areas, Clustonbury Theatre used to have a musical play theatre that are completely demolished, Burrow Market kinda looked like a London's market area filed with huge clock on top, graffiti walls, and of course the red telephone booth, Pawn's Avenue is a street area filled with shopping places and large commercial ads screen, and of course the II Chiaro Mondo Hotel has the entrance, lobby, bar area, and 2nd entrance.
Overall, it has excellent story, likable cast of characters, and wonderful presentation design.
Gameplay
The single-player campaign has 20 missions to complete, so you take control of Nero, Dante, and V in 3rd-person perspective as your main goal is to beat the entire stage by reaching to the finishing point or defeating bosses as the primary objective, while the secondary ones heavily focusing on scoring system which you need to gain enough scores to reach up to the high ranking spot, yeah only if you're one of those experienced hi-score players wanted for a big challenge.
Pushing the left stick is to move player around, and pushing the right stick is to rotate the camera system around, while pushing the right thumbstick button to reset the camera position.
Each of these characters will have different gameplay controls, so starting off with these two such as Nero and Dante which they will have melee attack with the triangle button to slash attack on enemies in close-range, and pressing the square button is to fire with gun at the enemies works better in mid-range distance.
V on other hand has his own combat style of attacks such as 3 familiars attack by pressing the square button to use Griffon act as firing projectiles, the triangle button uses Shadow to perform close-range melee attack, and of course left shoulder button to summon Nightmare golem.
V can able to finish the enemies off by using the finishing blow with the circle button if the enemies or bosses are being staggered with low health.
They can able to lock-on target by holding the right shoulder button making an easier to aim directly at the enemies while clicking the left thumbstick button to change target in each foes.
Each of the characters has their own unique action such as Nero has ability to use exceed by pressing the left trigger button to charge up his blade power for higher damage attack on enemies, and he can use his devil breaker by pressing the circle button depending what arm equipment you're using, so he can able to do stuffs like electric bursts on enemies, launch shockwaves of huge energy beam, throwing enemies with devastating force, and creating force fields that warp and slow time for enemies, but he can also perform a massive powerful attack by charging up his arm equipment with holding the circle button then release which deal a severe damage on enemies and bosses but causes to immediately shatter afterwards.
Nero can able to use break away move by pressing the left shoulder button which can breaks the arm equipment, but using them is designed for harming nearby enemies, evade attacks or free him from certain enemy grappling moves can be useful for combat battles.
Dante has ability to switch his fighting style with the d-pad button which changes his combat play such as trickster allowing him to dodge enemy's attack, sword master that expands the moveset of melee weapons, gunslinger which specialising in firearms like shooting multiple of enemies at once, and royal guard is designed to guard against the enemy attacks that deal damage, and he can also switch weapons by pressing the left and right trigger button.
Dante has the wide selection of weapons such as rebellion which is a default sword are perfect for swordmaster and trickster style, the sparda sword are perfect for combo system, the devil sword deals with devastating damage when using devil trigger, the balrog is a close range weapon with two movesets are quicker for combos but does not deal massive damage, the Cavaliere is a motorcycle's dual-weapon are slow but deals much heavier damage, the King Cerberus is chained with 3 nunchakus deals not many damage attacks but has fast and versatile combos, the Ebony and Ivory is a dual-pistol as a default weapon which are good for keeping up combos and can be charged to deal with better damage, Coyote-A is a shotgun that deals more damage than the dual-pistol, and of course the Kalina Ann is a rocket launcher works effectively against the larger enemies.
Defeating most of the enemies will fill up your gauge meter which you will see on the top-left corner on the screen, so if the purple bar gauge has been fully filled up, then both Nero and Dante has ability to unleash the devil trigger which transformed them into a powerful demon form, so this will allow them to boost their stats power such as attack, defense, and speed, as well as restores vitality over time, and they can perform various of demonic attacks which deals severe damage on enemies and bosses.
So far, the controls scheme works really amazing especially with the options that give you a choice to change things such as re-mapping the button layouts for suitable control preferences, changing the fields of view, and an option to choose between hold or toggle the lock-on aim just seems to be really helping the gameplay controls.
Aside with the controls, the combat system plays out really great because this series was known for its stylish fighting moveset and over-the-top combo scoring extravaganza which is why I really liked playing the game that heavily focuses on fast and extreme combat battle.
It's really easy to pull off the moves by mashing the combination of shooting, slashing, dashing, and dodging just to get a perfect ranking scores is what I've loved about the Hack N Slash genres.
The game delivers many awesome choices of weapons has an own advantages that allows the player to choose which are these is best used against any types of enemies and bosses have their own weaknesses, so I say playing as Nero is good for the well balanced combat between the swordplay and using the arm weapons are much useful for certain battles, where as Dante is probably the best ones to play because I get to switch his fighting style which changes the movesets and of course cycle the weapons to equip just makes his melee combat a much easier to pull off, and lastly the V is not the strong one but I do really liked his summoning minions like Griffin and Shadow acts as an combat weapons are better for strategic play in some parts.
What makes the game quite interesting to play is that when you have collected many red orbs as an currencies which can be collected by defeating many enemies or break it off from the orbs trees, then you can spend these on the shop via Nico's driving van or Shiny Statue, so you have a choice to choose which ones to unlock stuff such as new moves for combat and ability that adds up your skills including double jump, stepping on enemy head, expands stocks of exceeds, expands multiples of arm weapons, more multiples combo attacks, charging your firing shot, and many more to unlock your new skills that benefiting your combat system.
There are quite of useful items like blue orbs that extends your vitality life bar and purple orbs that extends your devil trigger gauge bar makes vastly improves on player's health and gauge levels, and there are a gold orbs that makes the player resurrected back to life when losing all health allowing the player to continue fighting on for action.
I also wanted to praise the stage exploration where you can go around the levels to find good stuffs like collecting orbs can be hidden on some areas and of course discovering the secret mission which is a bonus challenge where you had to complete the task without failing the objectives, so completing the challenge will reward you with the bonus items.
The segments of the stages does share with platforming obstacles, unlocking the new paths, and of course you'll be forced to fight all of demons before you can able to continue move on to the next stages.
The boss battles is absolutely epic to play is because it feels nicely strategic when fighting with the boss that are tough as nails especially playing on normal or hard difficulty which requires a good strategy to find their weak spot and trying not to get killed in action is what keeps me playing the game further on.
It has gigantic Goliath is a powerful demon that can do massive damage with every attack, Nidhogg is an aggressive parasite has the 3 tentacles creatures with razor-sharp teeth that can sweep and charge you with certain range, Artemis is angelic demon will summon a barrage of arrows and firing various of lasers and bullets, Malphas is a large female demon has ability to use her demonic bird to do their dirty work delivering charging headbutts, heavy body slams, and strong pecks from its clawed feed and beaked mouth, King Cerberus is a huge 3 headed demonic hound wields with 3 elemental powers such as fire, ice, and lighting, and of course the demon king Urizen has the various of his ultimate demonic powers...this really proves the game has the best numerous of bosses that the series has the offer.
The special edition comes with new playable character such as Vergil which he is basically on the same single-player campaign but has different combat gameplay, and it also introduced a 2 new game modes such as the turbo mode which doubles up the speed of the single-player game making it more intense and wacky to play, and you have legendary dark knight mode which is a extremely a challenging single-player game featuring a huge hordes of the enemies to fight against which I got to say these new playable character and 2 game modes is a fantastic addition to this game.
Overall, it has amazing controls, great combat system, excellent stage missions, and epic boss battles.
Graphics
The graphics in this game is excellent when utilising with RE engine for 9th gen system just made the game look gorgeous in terms of environmental design which I consider these as crisp and details for the texture mapping and surfaces.
The level design are nicely open but not trying to make it big is because the game is meant for creating a fair amount of spaces to keep the game a straight-forward Hack N Slash action such as the good platforming areas and the simple size of exploration.
I also wanted to praise the draw-distance in some areas which is looking spectacular with the landscapes structures that are nicely displayed.
The use of shadows and lighting effect in any levels are also quite good in some areas giving the game a dynamic look with the reflections of light and dark shades.
I got to love the special effects for the combat battle because with the heavy explosive sparks from the weapons and those bloody crystal particles all over the places just seems really satisfying to watch.
The character's design has really amazing motion capturing system with nicely animated facial features and body movement just looks really great on the in-game cutscenes.
The game performances may differ on each systems such as the PS5 and XSX/S (X model) uses the ray-tracing system which provides the full enhanced details of the graphics including reflections and lighting system.
The consoles may have different frame-rate performances such as the XSX/S (X model) console are running smooth on the 4k fidelity mode and RT performance mode thanks to system's additional GPUs, where as the PS5 console are noticeably better on the high frame-rate mode up to 120fps which really optimised well for the faster gameplay, but to tell you the truth I didn't had an issue with using the RT performance mode on my PS5 slim which ran just as great being capped in between the 50 to 60fps in some areas just seems to be good enough to play because I much preferred to choose RT performance mode over the 4k fidelity mode in many ways.
Sadly two of the game modes such as turbo mode and legendary dark knight mode just totally missed out ray-tracing features due to system's limitations which is quite a bummer for those who really wanted to have the ray-tracing on to capture a photorealistic look just not gonna happen is because these two game modes really needs to remove the ray-tracing support in order to reach at the stable frame-rate level to keep the game faster and smoother as possible when playing the single-player game with double the amount of speed, as well as adding many hordes of enemies in the one whole screen which I can totally understand that argument, but it really makes the image of the game itself doesn't look good as the regular single-player campaign which is the only game mode that supports ray-tracing options.
That being said, I believe both of these systems are looking tremendously stunning in terms of visuals enhancements, so I'm pretty sure those console owners of PS5 and XSX/S (X model) are completely fine with the game itself.
Overall, it has crispy environmental design, great character's animation, and stunning game's performances.
Music and Sounds
The soundtrack in the game is actually quite remarkable that fits the demon hunting action, so you have really cool vocal track like "subhuman" by Cody Matthew Johnson ft Michael Barr and "Bury the Light" by Casey Edwards ft Victor Borba which these are full-on metalcore style music, where as others like "Devil Trigger" by Casey Edwards ft Ali Edwards & Cliff Lioret and "Crimson Cloud" by Jeff Rona ft Rachel Fannan are basically an electronic style music.
While sharing with decent vocal tracks, the game also has the original score for most of the part which was composed by Kota Suzuki, Hiromitsu Maeba, and Yoshiya Terayama did such an incredible job for creating their rocking tunes in each stages fits the game's atmospheres.
The sound effects in the game are quite solid for its use of the slashing and shooting sounds throughout the game, and it does have several of great environmental sounds on some areas especially for the 3d audio sounds which are designed to hear surrounding areas in the game's stages.
The voice over for most of the characters are very good indeed with really cool one-liners and has classy goofy dialogues with sense of humour just makes it sounds really good for the in-game cutscenes.
Overall, it has remarkable soundtrack, solid sound design, and classy voice performance.
Special Features
The special edition comes with additional content being included in the disk such as Vergil as playable character, deluxe content like costumes, and of course two game modes such as turbo mode and legendary dark knight mode.
It does have unlockable galleries like concept art, characters bios, musics, cutscenes, and etc.
Overall, a very good pack of content.
Advantages
Excellent story and characters
Wonderful presentation design
Amazing combat gameplay
Epic battles with enemies and bosses
Stunning visuals
Remarkable soundtrack
Additional content
Disadvantages
Turbo mode and legendary dark knight mode just totally missed out ray-tracing features
Final Verdicts
Presentation 9/10 - excellent story, likable cast of characters, and wonderful presentation design.
Gameplay 9/10 - amazing controls, great combat system, excellent stage missions, and epic boss battles.
Graphics 9/10 - crispy environmental design, great character's animation, and stunning game's performances.
Music and Sounds 8.5/10 - remarkable soundtrack, solid sound design, and classy voice performance.
Special Features 8/10 - comes with additional content such as playable character and two game modes.
Overall 9/10 - Devil May Cry 5 is another masterpiece title deserves to be a same spot as other classic titles like DMC 1, 3, and 4.
I am very glad that Capcom had learned the lesson from the atrocious 2013's DMC reboot that no one had been asked for, which is why the company decided to go back to the original mainline of the franchise that made the classic DMC games so memorable back in the early days of 2000s, so they had bought the 2019's sequel to the gaming platforms and it really turns out to be a great success that every DMC fans had been begging for the true DMC games.
A game filled with excellent story, badass protagonists, rich and detailed presentation, and of course the over-the-top Hack N Slash action packed with great combat system, excellent stage missions, and epic boss battles is what makes the DMC 5 a one hell of amazing title to play, especially with the special edition are the perfect ways of playing a fast paced action game for the 9th-gen consoles packs with additional content and ray-tracing support.
The physical copy of the game for PS5 and XSX/S is quite easy to purchase for between £15 to £20, where as the digital copy from the PS Store and Xbox Store usually cost around £35.
Is the special edition of this title an definite must play for a Hack N Slash fanatic who owns the PS5 or XSX/S console? absolutely because DMC 5 is a solid action game that I can highly recommended to all those who are previously experienced with the fast-paced genres should give this game a worth huge go.
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