Sloppy Potatoes

Mini review: Devil May Cry 4

Some parts actually made me want to Cry

Yeah, Devil May Cry 4 is a good game. It’s fun and controls well but there are some niggling things that really got to me.

I hate games where you get locked into a room or area by a mysterious forcefield until such time as you dispatch a set number of enemies. What kind of power do these enemies have and why are they so bad at using it? Why don’t they just put the forcefield around me so I can’t move, then kill me?

So anyhow, the enemies are big and cool. It’s fun to fight them with special powers and swords and guns. Leveling up is kind of cool. The bosses in this game are massive and extremely cool to look at, at least on my Xbox 360 it was. The first one you fight is easily defeated but a masterfully rendered piece of demon art.

Fighting through all the issues — those henchman enemies keep coming and get very repetitive about seven eight levels in — is almost worth it to fight the bosses. For some it will be more than worth it. I just couldn’t stand walking into another room, hearing that twanging sound just before a cutscene shows the magical barricade covering the door then fighting 20 enemies I’ve already defeated.

I vocally responded with an “ugh” after hearing the noise while starting the second level. I was already sick of it. I fought through for about eight levels because I wanted to see the bosses. In the end it just felt too repetitive — and I say that being a Halo 3 fan, where you fight basically the same four or five races of aliens for the entire game. But despite that, Halo feels like it has more variety in the gameplay.

Devil May Cry may have more story than a lot of games out there and absolutely impressive bosses, but as a whole I found I wasn’t having as I would have liked.

Maybe I didn’t play long enough. Maybe I’ll buy it when its price drops. I played it for a couple hours on two of three days but then let it sit untouched for a week. Looking at it the other day, I realized there was no reason to keep it because I was going to choose GTA IV or Halo3 or even NCAA Football 2008 before I picked Devil May Cry 4 back up.

I sent it back impressed but wanting more. This is definitely fun for a bit and very cool to look at, but I’m going to ask you to rent first, especially if, like me, you’ve never played a Devil May Cry game before.

Some videos here.

Mini-review by ep

-ep is a three-time League of Clutch MVP and believes his better is better than your better.