Jan 31
Xbox 360 – Devil May Cry 4 Demo
Lately it seems that I just haven’t been able to get lucky with finding awesome demos on XBox Live.
First it was the Burnout Paradise demo which was aiiiiiiiiight. And now it’s the demo for Devil May Cry 4 by Capcom.
I went into this one with a clean slate as I’ve never played any of the previous Devil games, and all I’ve seen of any of them is videos featuring the main character killing demons in the air using his sword and gun. Personally, I always thought the videos looked cool.
The Devil May Cry Story
By way of the demo on XBL I wasn’t able to figure out the story of DMC 4 so I went to Wikipedia to try and figure out what was what. Two sentences in, I was beyond confused so instead of presenting that information I’ll instead give you my take.
You kill demons. You run around and kill some more. ~end
My Thoughts on the DMC4 Demo
“No sir, I didn’t like it.” Well, let me back up. Graphically, the game looks awesome. Obviously on the story side of things, I don’t know what the hell is going on but I guess that’s not much of a problem given what the game apparently strives for which is hack and slash action. This of course brings to the gameplay…
Eh….
*sigh* I’ve played games that are basically unplayable. Devil May Cry 4 is not such a game. Though the problem is, there is nothing about the gameplay which is particularly endearing. Maybe viewing previous videos of the DMC series, I just expected something different… Something a lot more smooth. See, when you’re trotting (cause your character hardly ever runs) towards hoards of enemies and you start shooting your gun, you basically slow down even further and start walking towards them shooting (inflicting no damage mind you). If you then pull out your sword, it seems really heavy handed, weighing down your character even more…
You know what it’s like? It’s as if you were playing Soul Calibur and you picked the extremely agile fencer Raphael, and somehow ended up with the brutish nightmare, Siegfried. It’s like if you were playing Ninja Gaiden and all of a sudden they took out the katanas and nunchuks and gave him a giant heavy maillot. It’s something that I just wasn’t expecting and really didn’t like.
Conclusions
I CONCLUDE that I won’t buy this game, at least not based on the demo anyway. It’s like the barley of action games. (Sorry barley lovers).
January 31st, 2008 at 12:42 pm
The trouble is that this is just the same game that I originally played back on the PS2 however many years ago the first one was. With prettier graphics.
I have the Special Edition on preorder but keep hovvering over the Cancel button because I would rather have the money, shame on Capcom.
January 31st, 2008 at 1:08 pm
@Pete – It was for reasons like that that I decided to use 256 colour GIFs on this post instead of full color JPGs.
February 10th, 2008 at 9:26 am
Bush if you get the chance you should try out the full game and see what you think. The game gives you a tutorial from the get go so you can learn the moves before wading into combat.
The demo was meant as a vertical slice for existing fans I think and pretty much just threw you in at the deep end with it. 4 is closer to 1, and like I said it’s not original or inventive but I’m seven missions in now and I’m having a lot more fun with it than I thought I would. If you can rent it, give it a go. It deserves more time.
February 11th, 2008 at 9:21 am
@Pete – … I’ll give it a TRY. I’ll probably end up buying it, returning it and getting Paradise or something. Wait – What am I saying?! I can’t buy DMC4 for $60!!! Well, I’ll give it a whirl SOME kind of way. (#):)