Hey now everybody and welcome to my review of Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening! Before we get started I feel like I should tell you a little bit about my history with these games. I've tried to get into this series multiple times with little success. Many people recommend them to me and I know they are beloved by a lot of people, but I have a hard time getting immersed into this franchise. Until recently I only ever finished the first game, giving up on the others about half way through. Something just didn't click with me, but I wanted to give them another chance and I played through all four original titles again, saving this one for last. I still think DMC 1 is the best so far, 2 sucked, and 4 was pretty good. From what I've heard this one is the best in the series, so let's dive in and I'll tell you all about it.
Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening is an action-adventure hack and slash game developed by Capcom. It was originally released in 2005 for the PlayStation 2, but has since been ported to most modern consoles. Just like the previous two games in this series Devil May Cry 3 has you playing as the quick witted, super strong, half demon Dante. Even though this is the third game it's actually a prequel, taking place ten years prior to the original. It features a younger Dante and tells the story of how he actually started his demon killing business. The game is broken down into twenty separate missions, usually with cutscenes at the beginning and end of each one.
The story opens with Dante living in the city, hanging around in his still unnamed shop, when suddenly a strange man named Arkham walks through the door. He was sent there with a message from Dante's brother, Virgil, a message that turns out to be an attack from a group of demons. After you fight them off a massive tower erupts from the ground that looms over the city. Dante knows his brother is in that tower so he decides to track him down and put a stop to this nonsense. But Virgil has actually set all of this up to lure Dante into a trap. The two brothers both carry a pendant with them and Virgil wants Dante's so he can use their power to open up a portal that will connect the human world with the demon world.
As you make your way through the game's twenty missions you'll be slowly climbing your way to the top of this tower. There are lots of demons to defeat, plenty of bosses to take down, puzzles that need solving, some platforming sections and a few characters to meet. In addition to Virgil and Arkham you are also introduced to series regular, Lady. She's has a personal vendetta against Arkham and is not too fond of Dante at first either. You'll have multiple encounters with Lady before she finally warms up to you. After fighting with your brother a few times you learn the truth behind his plan and realize there's more to the story than meets the eye. By the end of the game I was actually pretty invested in the characters, as well as the overall plot.
This series is well known for it's action packed, fast paced combat and there's no shortage of it here. You have the familiar lock on combat mechanics from previous games with lots of different moves and combos. Of course there's still a combo meter that ranks your ability in combat. The higher the grade you can earn the more experience points you'll have to spend on new moves and such giving you an incentive to experiment. You have your melee weapons and your guns to play around with to try and achieve the highest rank you can. Eventually you'll have a nice variety of different weapons that can all be upgraded and what's great about this game is that you can equip two guns and two melee weapons that you can switch between on the fly.
Not only do you have a lot of options for combat already with all the different weapons, but you can also choose between one of four fighting styles. You even get more as the game goes on. The four you start with are Trickster, Swordmaster, Gunslinger, and Royalguard. Trickster lets's you dodge, Swordmaster gives you more melee attacks, Gunslinger gives you more ranged attacks and Royalguard let's you block. Each one of these styles levels up with use, eventually unlocking even more abilities. It really doesn't matter too much which of these you pick first since you will have many opportunities to try out each one. Some can be very useful in certain situations, but mainly it's all about personal play style. This game does a fantastic job of giving the player a lot of options when it comes to combat.
There were a few negatives to mention such as, some occasional annoying camera work, some frustrating platforming sections and some aggravating enemies, but I'm happy to announce that this is definitely my favorite Devil May Cry game. You get some awesome weapons to use, loads of options for play style, some incredible boss battles, a great sense of progression and a story that actually had me caring about the characters. Plus, once you beat the game it unlocks a harder difficulty if you're looking for a bigger challenge and it unlocks the character of Virgil for you to play as. This adds a lot of replay value for people who just can't get enough DMC. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with this game and would highly recommend it to any fan of the genre. I'm going to give Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening a rank of....................................
B +
Thank you for reading my review of Devil May Cry 3, I hope you enjoyed it!