Devil May Cry 5
» System: PS4 (Tested), Xbox One, PC » Buy it from: Retail, online » Buy it for: £44.99
It’s been more than a decade since we last saw the mainline Devil May Cry series, and in that time action games have changed a lot. RPG stats and levelling up are more or less the norm for the genre today, while Fromsoftware’s games are a genre unto themselves. Devil May Cry 5, however, sticks two fingers up to contemporary trends and sticks to what it knows best, and while the resulting effort feels quite safe, it also marks the greatest game in the franchise and an audacious return to form.
The main difference here from other
Devil May Cry games is that you play as three characters throughout the story – Nero, Dante and newcomer V. Nero and Dante play similar to how they did in DMC4, with familiar combos and weapons making returns – although Nero now has a suite of new Devil Bringer arms, each with a unique ability. V is… interesting. He doesn’t get his hands dirty himself, instead he has three demons he can summon and command from afar before delivering the coup de grâce on weakened
foes himself. It’s a novel idea, introducing a more strategic character into the fold, however V’s sections are by far the weakest.
The story is nonsense. Much like an old John Carpenter music score, it serves as window dressing and repeats the same notes that have been echoing throughout the series since it began in 2001. That said, it plays host to one of the most well-earned F-bombs in videogames, so there’s that.
Director Hideaki Itsuno wanted to prove that there still is a place for classic style character action games, and he’s right. The combat in DMC5 is the star of the show, and it shines, slaying hellbeasts has never felt more satisfying, and making the battle theme’s chorus drop once you achieve S style rank is a masterstroke of an idea.
DMC’S return might lean on established ground a little too much, but it kind of needed to do so in order to make the point that it’s a series which deserves to be alive today. >> Score 85%