Devil May Cry 3

Written by Adam Woolcott  on August 31, 2004

First Impressions: Aww damn it, another case of teen angst.

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Devil May Cry was at one time was Capcom's hottest franchise. After Resident Evil skipped town and headed to the GameCube, DMC became Capcom's PS2 cash cow, and for good reason; the original's intense action and challenge was a huge hit with gamers, though it ultimately got overshadowed in the busy fall 2001 season dominated by Metal Gear, Final Fantasy, and Grand Theft Auto. Unfortunately, 2003's Devil May Cry 2 was a severe step backwards. Tossing out the challenge of DMC was one thing, but the complete fleecing of Dante's previously bad-ass persona was the ultimate kick in the teeth to fans, and the game never achieved the critical acclaim of its predecessor, and some believed the franchise was now dead and buried. However, Capcom is not letting Dante slip away yet Ц and sometime this winter, Devil May Cry 3 will be in our hands. Not a sequel, but rather a prequel to the original, DMC 3 promises a return to form as well as some innovations not seen in many action games. Time will tell whether or not this recaptures the magic of the amazing original, but it can't be any worse off than DMC2.

As mentioned, Devil May Cry 3 is a prequel, like so many other games these days. DMC3 takes you back to the early days of Dante, fresh into the demon hunting business. Struggling to master his powers, Dante is still a wisecracking, shit-talking half-man/half-demon, just like he was in the original game. Naturally, he winds up on some demon slaying mission to save the world, like always. As usual, the story isn't the main draw to this game, as it's all about the action and Dante's string of wisecracks that makes people play. And in DMC3, the promised RPG-esque system sounds like it will really bring emphasis back on the traditional Сstylish hard action' that this game pioneered and many have emulated since then.

The main idea is there's 4 different Сclasses' of fighting for Dante to take up, depending on how you play the game. Do you like slashing things with your sword, cutting demons into little pieces? Then you'll level up Dante's sword skills and become more proficient with it. Prefer keeping a distance and shooting stuff with Ebony & Ivory? Then doing so will make you stronger with projectile weapons. Was Ifrit your favorite way to kick ass in DMC1? In DMC3, you'll level up that skill. Finally, if you're defensive minded, you can level up defensive skills that also work as counter-attacks. It allows for a ton of customization; and no, you don't have to focus on one attribute, you can level all of them as you go along. But if you focus on one specific skill, you could become extremely dominant. Otherwise, Capcom promises the same over-the-top action as the original DMC, which means if all comes to fruition, we shall have yet another great action game on PlayStation 2 to kill our thumbs with.