I must be honest, I don’t have a real connection with the Devil May Cry franchise. I never played the originals but I really liked DMC, it’s an unpopular opinion, I’m well aware of it. That being said, Devil May Cry 5 was the first game I’ve played at Gamescom 2018 and it left me wanting for more. Sure I couldn’t combine the attacks just as I wanted but the game itself had so much to offer in the short twenty-minute demo.
Devastated London
We meet Dante in the beautiful city of London. Although, it was supposed to be beautiful. If you’re a fan of the franchise, I won’t come as a surprise that the city has been taken over by demons. It’s Dante’s job to stop them. First things first, this is a different Dante as in the spin-off prequel but also a slightly different Dante as in the previous games. He’s younger, his hair is extremely white and his puns are as bad as your dad’s. It’s never over-the-top funny as in DMC, this Dante carries around some weight. During my time with the game, I noticed this deeper layer of Dante a couple of times and I can’t wait to see where this is going. It’s clear to see that the developers learned from their mistakes and are giving the fans something they wanted a long time ago; the true return of Dante.
Now, since London is in ruins, it’s Dante’s job to stop the monsters. Devil May Cry 5 is a fast-paced action-oriented game to the likes of, let’s say, Bayonetta. You’ll use the joystick to move around and the face buttons to attack. Attacking is rather simple, each button has its own attack. There’s a button for Dante’s sword, a button for his gun, a jump button and last but not least, a button for the Demon Breaker. This is an extremely powerful attack that can destroy multiple enemies at once. By charging it up, you can really destroy your environment and the enemies surrounding you. During the gameplay, I overused this ability since I was still trying to figure out what would work best for me. Killing multiple enemies at once sounded like a good plan back then. If you take a look at my recorded session, you’ll see I would have done better if I saved my powerful attacks until the very end of the demo.
Fast-paced, gorgeous action
Although I should definitely tune my skills once the game officially launches next year, I did enjoy my time with the game a lot. It’s extremely fast-paced and it’s simply amazing to see how easy you can string attacks together to create devastating combos. You can switch between your weapons instantly and the more you hit, the better the combo and the higher your ranking. To top thing up, the demo ended in a brutal boss fight including a destructible environment. I lost the fight, obviously, but I had fun every second.
The game really looked polished and ready for the market. Of course, since it’s launching next year, there’s still a lot to be done by the team but the state of the demo got me hoping for more. London look gorgeous, the action was fast and the lag was non-existing. I’m sure a lot of Devil May Cry fans will lose their minds once they get their hands on this game.
