Devil May Cry 3 - first look
If the Devil May Cry titles were laid end to end in chronological order, they'd represent a downward spiral of quality. Now that may sound like a rather damning statement to open up our hands-on play of the third instalment, but as this is in fact a prequel to the previous adventures, it sits at the top of our quality-o-meter. While the second fired blanks, the first was an instant classic, and this rounds off the trio with style. And that's no lie. From what we've played, DMC3 really is shaping up to be the best of the lot.
Although the basic setup is the same - battle against an attack of horrible evil things with gymnastic gunplay that would make a Hong Kong movie stuntman weep - this time things are spiced up by two things. The first is the appearance of Dante's half-brother, Virgil, and the prospect of a fight between the two (we're half-hoping, half-expecting a Dante vs Virgil showdown) makes everything just that little more interesting. The second is that the emergence of our white-haired warrior's demonic powers - this is set before the first game, remember - is also dealt with. Those powers have been restructured across a style system, which lets you choose between a different combination of skills based on Dante's swordsmanship and gunplay before each level. It seems to work very well, although the results are dependent on how you play. Out of the crop of styles we sampled, our favourite attack was the Gunslinger mode's Twosome Time special move which sees Dante twirl his handguns while firing shots in circles all around him. Firing the weapon soon becomes as effortless to the player as shaking pompoms is to a pretty cheerleader.
Speaking of pretty, DMC3 has certainly been turning our heads. It's a real beauty, albeit in a floaty Gothic dress and kinky rocker boots. But we digress... The dark overtones have been kept, but also tarted up a little. There's an interesting hybrid of locations going on, as seen when our adventure ended in an old theatre that housed an underground nightclub, complete with snaking staircases, a Saturday Night Fever dancefloor and - get this - a podium dancer pole that Dante can swing around for an extra attack move. The camera has also been repositioned, offering a better perspective on what's going on - so not only does the game look better overall, it also helps you see things clearer. We can't tell you how polished and buffed up this feels. Somehow Capcom has managed to put the new car smell back in. And so we await those tears. With a nice new box of tissues.
http://au.playstation.com/news/dmc3_firstlook.jhtml
