Devil may Cry 4 review

About the review:

As Promised, I told i will be reviewing this game, but i had several issues like recording videos and my slow internet Connection, So... here we go!


Introduction:

Devil may cry 4 is the fourth Installment of the Devil may cry franchise, not in the storyline Sort, but Production wise, this game is situated after Devil may cry 1 and Devil may cry 3 and before Devil may cry2, the game is mostly described as a hack n slash game, thats right, all you need to do is slash your way through the enemies to complete stages.. but not just some boring Slashing with spamming the same button, its with style

System requirements,

As posted in my preview for the game, the requirements are:


Minimum System Requirements
OS: Windows XP/Vista
Processor: Pentium 4 @ 3 GHz
Memory: 512 MB (1 GB for Vista)
Hard Drive: 8 GB Free
Video Memory: 256 MB (nVidia GeForce 6600 SM3 Required)
Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
DirectX: 9.0c
Keyboard & Mouse


Recommended System Requirements
OS: Windows XP/Vista
Processor: Intel Core 2 DUO
Memory: 1 GB (2 GB for Vista)
Hard Drive: 8 GB Free
Video Memory: 512 MB (nVidia GeForce 8600)
Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
Keyboard & Mouse

but i also recommend a Controller to Fully Enjoy Stylish killing.

i have tested this game with several machines, and if someone is asking if it Could run on IGPs, well it could RUN on my Vaio with a dual core 1.4ghz processor and an X3100 with no drivers update, 2gb of ram, and Vista Ultimate with no Service pack applied, it was a bit playable on lowest settings 1280x800, and still looked great, i think people with an x3100 could pull 20-25 FPS lowest settings, which is very playable

Plot:

The game opens with Nero hurrying towards the Opera House where the Order of the Sword is conducting a ceremony, with his right arm in a sling, Dante suddenly brakes through and shoots the Sanctus in the head.

Nero, under the impression that Kyrie is in danger, attacks Dante to initiate a fight. As Dante gains the upper hand, Nero's right arm, the Devil Bringer, awakens and uses its power to seemingly kill Dante by impaling him with his own sword upon the statue of Sparda, After that, Dante does a retreat just in time when the backup of the Order has arrived, After this, Nero is given a mission to Hunt down Dante and Make him pay for what he did.


It seems that the People Living in that area are worshiping Sparda, the demon that once turned against his kind and shut the Portal to the Demonic world, The Order of the sword of : Credo,Angus,Sanctus And the new comer to the Order.. Gloria.

in Nero's Hunt for Dante, he encounters Many Bosses and demons, that after killing them he can get upgrades to his Devil Bringer, in addition getting more moves and combos, in mid game, Kyrie, the Girlfriend of Nero gets Kidnapped by Angus, then, the Intentions of the Order of the sword gets slowly revealed. And the Identity of Dante Starts get a shape of it.

At the other part of the game, the Player takes control over Dante, that Gets an Assignment from "Lady" to go to the Place where the Order of the sword is. and stop thier Plans from succeeding.

I'm not gonna say any additional things about the Plot, because that will spoil the game itself.

Gameplay:

As stated above, the Game is hack n slash, so the fun part within the game is to do your moves in a stylish way, with Various Combinations, Unlike other Hack n slash games, IE: Ninja Gaiden, with this game you can break your combos and form new ones, which makes endless possibilities of the way you fight with.

The game has a ranking system for Style which is as the Following:

D : This rank comes when you are starting the fight for a first time, or spamming the same button, or getting hit by enemies while performing moves.

C : This rank can be achieved easily by lets say.. doing a 4 times sword slash then shooting rapidly,

B : The Rank B is more advanced, which requires doing 3-4 combos without being hit be enemies, and can be powered by doing taunts, which makes filling the style bar faster

A : When someone achieves this rank, this means that he is on his way to Blend with the combo system and the game moves.

S,SS,SSS : Achieving those 3 ranks means that the player is now advanced in the game, knowing how to perform various combos and moves, Evading enemies, Taunting, Mostly without repeating the same combo even once!

This game has 2 Characters:

Dante, Who is the Hero of the previous 3 Installments of the Game, He Wields a Big Sword Called Rebellion, and can master any kind of weapon he puts his hands on easily, he has a pair of guns : Ebony and Ivory, and with this Installment he starts with a Sawed-off Shotgun, Also Dante has the power to use the Devil Trigger, which makes him faster, more damage proof, and recover health, Dante has additional 4 styles + another one he gets later on, which are Swordmater,Gun Slinger, Royal Guard and trickster, which he can switch between whenever he wants to, Unlike previous installments.

Dante gets additional weapons for each boss he defeats, and the weapons are:
Gilgamesh, which is lets say a Melee weapon that dante can use to punch and kick his foes using it.
Lucifer: which is a Hellish weapon capable of summoning Numerous amount of Exploding swords.
Pandora: this one is a very Important weapon, it has 6 weapons in total inside it.
Yamato: its the Same katana that Nero gets, which is capable of doing fast Slashes and cuts that a human eye cant see. additionally with getting it, Dante gains the dark slayer style.

Nero, who is introduced to this game for the first time, Nero starts with a sword Called the Red Queen which is able to rev up to make more Complicated moves, and a Gun Called the Blue rose, which is capable of charging and doing powerful demonic shots, and most Importantly, the Devil Bringer, which Nero starts the game with, the Devil Bringer is capable of Grabing enemies from a distance, smashing them to the ground, or doing various other moves to them, Near the first Quarter of the game, The ture power of the Devil Bringer is unleashed, recovering Vergil's Yamato and Granting Nero a Devil form aswell.

i have made a couple of Videos (will add more because those were some fast gameplay, was having hard time with Fraps ) Showing how the game is played. the First one Shows dante with the Bloody Palace mode, which involved 101 stages that increase in difficulty with the player's Progress, the second one shows Nero doing a boss fight (not gonna say the name) but he was my favourite.

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In order to get new moves, the PLayer has to collect "Proud souls" that can be spent on new moves and abilities, also getting "Red Orbs" will get the Player items such as Devil stars, and Holy water.
Graphics:

The game is just Graphically stunning! with a Great playable FPS (im my case Never Below 70FPS) with high levels of Details and in some Cases the Textures are Double the Textures used in the Xbox360 with notable improved shadows and lighting system.the game takes advantage of many Graphical Features including HDR and Motion Blur, with highly detailed Enemies and Bosses,See the Screens Below:











Final thoughts :

DMC4 is a wonderful, action-packed game, that is very unique, Because the PC Platform Lacks for the Games like it, the Game is a wonderful port that runs great on mostly every mid range card out there.

Pros
+Amazing stunning Graphics
+Awesome Story and Plot
+Kill the Enemy with Style
+Huge arsenal of weapons in the Case of Dante, The DB in Case of Nero
+The Game is nothing Near demanding, it runs perfect on most systems out there

Cons
-The game Could be a bit hard for a starter with its complex of combos.
-The Keyboard wont give the best experience of the game.

 

terrific work and an awsome review......but maybe you forgot to mention that this is simply DMC3 with new paint and new story!, the gameplay is almost the same as DMC3 which is not really a bad thing when you think about it, but the same problems from the previous games are still present here!, the platforming sequences are still terrible as ever, and the same can be said about the buzzles, nowhere as good or as imaginative as something like god of war or even ninja gaiden!!, it just doesn't have that "holy s**t" factor that these two games have.....so the game is linear and far from revolutionary but alot of fun to play and propably that what matters the most.. .....great game and i'm glad that the pc version is the best of the bunch but defenitely not mind-blowing!!..

 

DMC3 didnt have the ability to change styles, DMC4 having it ALONE as a change is a very big advantage, what i dont like about NG2 is you cant change weapons during the fight, Combos are very repeatitive , aside of being a fan of GOW2, its an awesome game but really lacks the combos.. the Grabs are the best but.. Grabs arent Enough you know.

 

Besides, DMC4 has it's own special grab animations. Good job on the review. I still find it hard to believe how good this game looks and still keeps a nice framerate. Nevertheless, you should really address some of the negatives such as bad platforming and a sometimes pain of a camera.

 

the ability to change styles on the fly is a great improvement but the game needed much more than that!.....so i ended up a little bit disappointed by DMC4!, don't get me wrong, it's propably the best in the series but after 3 years i expected much more than just better graphics and small features here and there!...the same goes for NG2, i was completely disappointed by it, it's essientially NG with new bosses, stages, some new enemies and weapons!!, and maybe some high-resolution textures but that's it!!, it still plays the same which kinda makes you wonder WTH have the developers been doing for the last 4 years!!!.
BTW NG has a huge number of moves but that's not what makes the combat system deep, instead it's when and against who you use these moves and how you chain multible moves together, couple that with a neat blocking system, responsive controls, agressive AI, terrific speed and some completely different weapons and you've a deep combat system!.....NG never felt repetitve!, every enemy or boss you face forces you to use different combos and tactics!, and everytime you think you've seen all types of enemies, the game throws new enemies at you and force to change your combos and style!!.....i played all the games in the NG, DMC and GOW series and i still think that NG has the deepest combat system among them!, followed by DMC...GOW makes up for it's shallow combat system with it's great storyline, violence, terrific level design and it's amazing scope!...

 

The PC version looks awesome. 360/PS3 game engines have to be fully optimised so their PC ports all look awesome and are not demanding (UT3 looks amazing and can still be maxed on a 8600M GT!). I wish they'd do that for PC engines too

Are there many keys needed for it? I have a dual-shock logitech clone USB controller.

 

Better late than never, but good job with the review. I think the writing could use a bit of touching up but it's a good introduction to the game mechanics and plot.

 

wow the graphic are stunning.

 

Yeah sorry, couldnt do the perfect review, i couldnt do the stuff fast enough, for Uploading the vids it took me 8 hours with my connection..

the Game is a Great Piece.

 

Good job on the review. Its almost tempting me to go out and pick up a copy tonight.

 

Yeah the graphics are stunnning. The textures are in 4096x4096 right? Can't wait to see DX10's 8192x8192 will look like

And it's only 39.99

 

Sounds like something to look into, would you guys recommend a gamepad over keyboard and mouse?

 

i would

 

I don't see these graphics as "stunning." However what *is* stunning about this game is it runs very, very well in DX10 with shadows and quality both at Super High on my 8600.

The one thing that bothers me is the really jagged edges on shadows.... really noticable.

 

when its on super high i dont see any jagged shadows., and how well does it run with DX10 again with Super high? because desktop 8800gt suffers with DX10

 

It's at 1280x800... that may be causing the jaggies. Also I have no AA on because it would murder my card. However I also recall reading a review of the console version and they mentioned the shadows looked really bad on it as well. For some reason they look much smoother on screen shots though.

I will post some pictures in a second.

EDIT:

 

Alright, but i think the shadows really improved on the PC version, Probably because you have no AA on i dont know.. maybe go DX9 and do 2xaa?

 

i should start a poll.... who agrees the pandora is extremely awesome.... expecially when you get the big machine gun upgrade

berial is sweet when you first verse him

ah its been a while since i played, im a ps3 gamer

 

What big machine gun upgrade are you taking about? The only time you use a gatling gun is when you use Pandora in the air. There isn't a machine gun upgrade, the gatling gun is a basic move. The other attacks are a bowgun, rocket launcher, laser cannon, missile pod, boomerang, and when Dante opens the case. That said, I completely agree, Pandora is awesome

Edit: By the way, I'm still getting down IR. I can sometimes pull of a string of IR attacks with a few MAs, but man is it tough in the heat of battle.

 

Alright.. Just completed it on DMD, might make a vid of last boss fight , but it'll take some time to master it without taking any damage.

 

ok, its been a while, i cant remember the name. it was when the pandora transformed into this huge cannon thing that surrounded yourself. it took down bosses in like 15 shots....

oh, the hardest boss was that god guy. you know, the guy with the gems on his body that you had to break. It took me forever before i resorted to the internet lol

 

yeah what you are talking about is the Platform that can launch rockets from it, and the boss you are talking about is the Savior he is a pain in the arse alright

 

ok i need some help..

its inside this castle where you need the gyro blades and all that...

i go inside.. fight some enemies and then need to used RB + B that is for the devil bringer to haul myself to places.. now this place has got all spikes on top of me.. if i fall .. i go down again and fight again..

how do i cross??

 

you need to use the DB to grip to the glowing things, but there are some ones that needs timing, like.. to get through the three glowing things that are on 1 line, you need to wait for them to get a bit lower so you dont hit the spikes when you grab to them.

 

Later on with the game, you will unlock the Level 2 Rev up attacks, with your level 1 you have now, you get more damage, but when upgraded, you can do all new moves which are awesome to be honest

 

Nice review! Check out my thread of DMC4 screenshots too!

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=275339

 

Just found this out... Under Dante's description, one of his style should be Trickster not "trikster"

 

So far the only stage that has given me some trouble is mission 19. I figure once I'm able to play DMC4 on a consistent basis I'll get down the bosses. Right now, I'm still busy with things.

brainer: How does this DMD stack up with past DMD modes?

 

honestly its the same difficulty as DMC3, which i'm really happy about

@ AmazingGracePlayer thanks you very much

 

Equivalent to the console DMC3 DMD mode or its watered down PC port?

 

When I finally decided to seriously take on Mission 19, I got an S ranking on Devil Hunter my first time. The previous tries I was just messing around trying stuff. I feel like my old DMC skills are slowly coming back.

 

Alright, when completing DMD i didnt notice what i did unlock.. but it was the Grand prize! the Super characters for Dante and Nero.. Infinite DT,Infinite Pandora and Infinite Rev up. its very lovely in Bloody Palace

 

Don't use it if you're going for rankings. It definitely makes your characters overpowered. Still, they aren't as good as the super characters in DMC3 that also recharged your health while in DT. Then again, you'd probably be safe against most enemies as Dante just relaxing in your missile pod.

 

well if you use it, and get all S , you will get a D for using a super Character, i'm just playing with it for fun , but still. its a nice reward.

ive started with Hell&Hell mode today, and obviously its hell right now, Dante from the first mission is a pain.. he keeps using his shotgun to kill me, now i'm at stage 3 and its really hard.

 

Do you know if there are SS rankings? I've gotten all S in the three categories, but still no SS. I'm guessing you can't take any damage?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3oQmSHNOJ8&feature=related

Very good Dante player with excellent usage of styles.