No tears here as DMC returns with a bang

JUST three minutes in to Devil May Cry 5 (DMC5) and my brain is struggling to compute whether I’m playing a game, or watching a movie. It’s been 11 long years since the last instalment of this hack and slash action-adventurer, which is a lifetime in terms of gaming.

And it’s fair to say from the trailers, that DMC5 has that early Noughties vibe about it – all heavy rock guitars, and death metal grunting.

But the finished product leaves you in no doubt what year it is – nothing could have come close to creating those graphics in 2008.

First dipping into DMC5, I almost wished I’d revisited DMC4 to bring myself back up to speed with the franchise, especially as the game is fairly self-referential when it gets started.

For this new adventure Dante and Nero are joined by the mysterious V, who plays like no other character in DMC history. The action begins where you’d expect most games to end, with an explosive encounter

Devil May Cry 5

with a devil king called Urizen that you have no way of winning.

Dante opts to stay behind, allowing Nero and V to escape.

The story then unfolds over the next month, the timeline bobbing back and forth between the three characters as they try to bring an end to Urizen – and that’s where the fun really begins, as you get to play with Dante, Nero, and V ’s toys.

Dante’s arsenal has been dramatically overhauled, with the demon-hunting vigilante now boasting a pair of buzz saw-like Devil Arms which combine into a motorcycle called Cavaliere, a set of fiery gauntlets and boots.

As well as his trusty Red Queen Sword, and Blue Rose Revolver, this time Nero comes equipped with eight robotic arms, subtly called Devil Breakers.

Used properly, the eight have some unique uses and abilities which, when combined, unleash some truly devastating combos. The down side to all of this is if you want to change one of Nero’s arms, you have to destroy the one you’re using.

V meanwhile does very little fighting himself, instead having the ability to summon creatures to battle for him – a griffin, a panther, and ‘Nightmare’, a juggernaut which needs to be charged over time.

V is immense fun to play, but I found myself developing a bad case of ‘Tekken thumb’ the more time I spent as the character.

DMC5’s combat is a thing of beauty – visceral, frenetic and violent, bordering on the obscene.

The satisfaction of despatching hordes of demons is hard to undersell, as is the freedom to find ever more grotesquely inventive ways to send them back to their maker.

Given the seemingly infinite number of inputs available to you, the game is very good at helping you to pick up the combat styles with subtle but surprisingly thorough training – despite some initial frustrations surrounding button combos.

This is the first DMC title that’s been developed on Capcom’s RE Engine, the graphics software used to create Resident Evil 7.

The results are nothing short of breathtaking, the photorealistic graphics combining with stunning environments, and lighting to create an almost immersive experience.

This is easily the best DMC game in the series, excelling in almost every aspect – even the plotline will have you guessing to the very end.

Bargain buy: £37.85 from base.com. Diehard fans will be pleased to know that the coming weeks will see the release of the soundtrack – all 136 tracks on five discs – but it will set you back £67.

ACTOR HONOURED IN NEW MOVIE

DIRECTOR and Silent Bob actor Kevin Smith took to Twitter over the weekend to share his feelings after watching the latest Marvel movie, Captain Marvel.

In the film, during one of Stan Lee’s famous cameos, the director, left, and his movies are referenced.

Posting on Instagram, a clearly emotional Smith said: “Just saw @captainmarvelofficial. I am a blubbering mess. After a lifetime spent referencing the movies, the movies just referenced me!”

Thankfully this won’t be the last time we see the legendary Lee, who died in November last year, in a Marvel movie as his cameos were shot in advance, meaning we should see him in Endgame and

Far From Home.

CAPTAIN MARVEL MAKES MILLIONS

STICKING with Captain Marvel, the movie enjoyed a huge opening weekend as fans flooded to the cinema.

The movie scored the sixth biggest opening weekend in history, making $455m worldwide.

In the UK alone the film, which stars Brie Larson as Carol Danvers, made £13m since hitting screens last

Thursday.