Guys. This game. Words can't even properly describe how much awesome it holds in its pixels. I've enjoyed previous DMC games, but I was never a follower. They were fun, button-mashers but I didn't follow the story. I knew who the characters were, but not much more than that. This game has changed all that. The opening sequence ALONE changed all that! And it has nothing to do with the fact that Dante was naked...okay, maybe a little bit.
I know a lot of people that I talked to before it came out were skeptical. Diehard fans were upset. They completely overhauled the look of the game, Dante lost his iconic white hair and red coat. Honestly I think it was for the best. I mean look at this sexy beast!!
(click to enbiggen)
The full image from the cover art is my laptop background right now (you can find it at the end of this post). They didn't completely get rid of everything. Rebellion, his sword, is still around looking badass along with Ebony & Ivory, the guns. The inside of his coat still has the red everyone is used to but gives him a grittier, rough and tumble feel. His personality is so much more fun, too. He's a cocky little bastard. It's great!
Character hotness aside, I'm really enjoying the story so far. I'm only 5 missions in (I just checked it out last night from work) but I can't stop playing it! I have to know what's going to happen! I destroyed a church! (I don't count this as a spoiler cause they had it in the demo) The combat is fun and pretty simple. You can play "serious style" and actually memorize combo moves and such or you can play like me and just mash the shit out of some buttons while watching your style points skyrocket. I really like what they did with the new weapons too. Rebellion transforms into Arbiter, a heavy hitting demonic axe, or Osiris, a quick crowd-controlling heavenly scythe. Both are good, fun weapons and you can easily switch between all three to deal out serious damage (trigger controls!) Chaining attacks together is flawless and fast, from ground to air and back again.
It's really pretty too. I was worried when I started because some of the people in the intro cutscene were rendered with terrible lighting and they looked really...rough and ruddy. It could have been a conscious choice, they were bad guys, but I don't know. That's the only issue that I've seen so far. Everything else has been beautifully rendered. Just look at this screen cap.
I love the settings. The contrast between the real world and Limbo is well done. Limbo especially, so bright and twisted and I like the way they make the environment one of the enemies, you never know when the ground might fall out or buildings decide to try and crush you between them. It adds to the suspense! If I wasn't trying to get a good score I'd spend more time looking around when Dante gets sucked into the alternate world. So far the game gets high scores in my book. Here, have some more eye candy.
-A.
