Caltrops - Devil May Cry 3





	[quote name="FABIO"][quote name="Mischief Maker"]IN A NUTSHELL: An improvement over every game in the DMC/NG subgenre in every important way. This does not mean, necessarily, that it's jettisoned all the bad stuff.[/quote] Yup, beats out the original DMC. One point that needs mentioning is the graphics. Usually when a series advances on the same system, they try to increase the detail using the same hardware and end up with blurry, jagged, but <i>detailed</i> graphics like in Final Fantasy 9. Not so here. The original DMC was gorgeous in its time, but loading it up today and you'll start to see its age. DMC3 manages to smooth this out and keep everything gorgeous. A minor complaint on graphics is the fact that I guess they had to sacrifice a couple minor details. No slick pulsating health meter or glowing devil gauge runes from DMC1, here you just get a static, blocky health bar and yellow circles for the devil meter. Devil trigger mode is also significantly less impressive looking. [quote]CAMERA: Better than the horrible Ninja Gaiden camera, a small step up from DMC1's camera. It will try to get whatever enemy you've locked onto into view. You're never going to be able to see all the enemies in the room at the same time. Luckily, if an enemy has a long range attack that can hit you from offscreen, they'll let out a tell-tale battle cry right before they launch it. Still by no means perfect.[/quote] Main camera problem is it's zoomed out too far. DMC1 got it right (except for the Phantom fights), DMC2 had it zoomed out too far so everything was too small, DMC3 has it zoomed in too much so sometimes you can't see mor ethan 8 feet in front of you. The first area and the occasional boss fight are made much harder than they should be because you can't see off screen (10 feet away) enemies suddenly charge at you, or you lose sight of enemies below when you jump. [quote]BOSSES:[/quote] I like variety, but I kind of miss DMC1's three bosses <i>that would not die</i>. Also miss their dramatic deaths where Phantom falls 200 feet, gets skewered on a massive pike, and gushes an explosive geyser of blood while melting. Or Griffon callin gon his dark master to give him strength, only to be judged unworthy and get fried by massive bolts of explosive lightning. [quote]STYLE: The style system adds a couple extra moves to your repetoire. At early levels the extra "style" moves are <I>okay.</I> But after collecting an ass load of orbs they level up and start getting increasingly useful and rediculous. Level 1 trickster gives you a limited wallrunning ability and a short dash that makes you invincible for a split second. Level 3 trickster lets you fly, dash and teleport all over the screen as an impossible-to-hit freakazoid. All the regular moves from DMC1 are still available to you no matter what your style.[/quote] It still feels like an artificial way to increase replay value. They could have easily let you do all the style moves at once. [quote]WALLRUNNING: Sadly, they dropped the ball on this one. There are no wallrunning-specific attacks and a lot of screens have bottomless chasms or piles of rubble for walls that you can't wallrun on. Ninja Gaiden still has the best wallrunning used in combat.[/quote] They had wallrunning in DMC2, and it was completely useless, just like it is here (and here you can only do it while in trickster mode). [quote]WEAPONS[/quote] Nevan is the best weapon in any videogame ever. [quote]DIFFICULTY: The basic enemies are harder and more varied than NG's, but this is mitigated by less frustrating bullshit from the camera. A good candidate for the hardest game on the PS2. Word of advice: once you hit level 3, make sure you always have at least 1 of these checkpoint yellow orbs on you. It is incredibly frustrating to fight your way through a long, puzzle-strewn level only to get killed by the boss at the end and have to fight through the whole thing <I>AGAIN</I>.[/quote] The enemies fight in more varied ways, but appearance wise they're all pretty much grim reapers of different sizes and colors. But yeah, it's really not <i>that</i> hard, but just like Ninja Gaiden most of the challenge comes from losing a ton of progress every time you die. Spend 10-15 minutes minutes running through a level fighting enemies, pushing some puzzle blocks, and placing some puzzle items, only to get your ass kicked by the boss before you nail his pattern down and having to start the whole level over. I can't remember exactly, but I thought DMC1 let you pick up right at the boss fight every time. Once nice touch is that it gives you a choice of whether to use the yellow orb or just restart the level. In DMC1 it just automatically used it, and you had to reset the machine and reload the game if you would rather take another shot at the level without wasting your orb. [quote]CUTSCENES/WHINY PREACHY FACTOR: Almost nonexistent. A couple remarks about how it's important to kill family members who turn evil, but the rest are rediculous bullet-time action scenes and sinister monolouges.[/quote] The cutscenes flat out rule. Almost every one is an over the top Matrix fight that does it better than the Matrix itself. Remember in Matrix: Revolutions when they fought the Frenchie's goons who started running on the ceiling, and you could <b>smell</b> the bottom of the barrel desperation as it tried <i>so hard</i> to be cool? DMC3 keep it all action packed and fresh, and will probably have you giggling like a schoolgirl at all the over the top-titude. [quote]OVERALL: If you like this sub-genre, this game's the best of the bunch at the moment. If either DMC1 or Ninja Gaiden were too tough for you you'll haaaaaaate this game.[/quote] Yes, but it's really not <i>that</i> hard. It's basically the same difficulty as DMC1, only with a steeper learning curve at the beginning. The difficulty is mostly getting killed by a boss before you learn his trick and having to restart the level.[/quote]