Devil May Cry 5 - The Weird, The Wacky and The Wonderful.

The boy's are back in town!

2019 is now officially the year of Capcom. January’s Resident Evil 2 Remake is an incredible feat in game design and enjoyable gameplay. I’m pleased to say the highly anticipated Devil May Cry 5 is yet another highlight in the studio’s illustrious history. Fans of the series have been waiting 11 years for a true sequel to 2008’s Devil May Cry 4. And, boy, did they get it. The gloriously challenging, fast-paced hack n’ slash is well and truly back.

Set five years after the end of the previous game, Devil May Cry 5 lets players take control of three protagonists: The series’ goofy poster child Dante, his indignant nephew Nero and the mysterious newcomer V. The trio team up to save a city invaded by demonic forces and take down the demon king Urizen, who’s especially on Nero’s shitlist since the Lord of the Underworld was responsible for the loss of his arm. The initial standoff with Urizen does not go well and leads to the disappearance of Dante and his two associates, Lady and Trish. Nero and V are forced to retreat as the city falls into ruin. After a month, Nero returns with some fresh upgrades and new BFF Nico in order to meet up with V, track down his missing friends and get his revenge on Urizen.

Nero is the first character players get to mess around with. The junior devil hunter is equipped with his sword Red Queen and revolver Blue Rose. Red Queen can be revved up like a motorcycle to inflict copious amounts of damage while Blue Rose can be loaded with harder-hitting bullets. A new and welcome edition to Nero’s arsenal is the Devil Breakers; mechanical arms made by artisan Nico. There are many different types of Devil Breakers to be found and crafted, all with different types of attacks that can be used to pull off combos. For example, one of the earlier Devil Breakers you can unlock is called Punchline which can be shot off like a rocket and do as the name suggests: punch the snot out of any unlucky demons in its path. Not to mention you can get Nero to ride around on it like a skateboard. Devil Breakers are really fun to play around with, but you do need to be careful with them. The mechanical prosthetics are prone to shattering should you use them at the wrong moment and let an enemy land a hit on you. Players must choose the perfect opportunity to utilise Devil Breakers. All the arms also come with a wire snatch ability that can be used to pull enemies towards you or rappel yourself towards them.

Holding on to what I am! Pretending I'm a Superman!

All of these weapons are then used to create combo attacks and pull off the most stylish displays you can. The famous SSS ranking system makes its return in order to let players know just what the game thinks of your play style. The ranking starts at D for Dismal and can work its way up to SSS for Smokin’, Sexy, Style! If a player wants to earn that praise and to feel like a total badass, then they’re going to have to learn how to pull off successful combos and mix up their fighting style. New combos and skills can also be unlocked in Nico’s van by spending collectable Red Orbs. You can also buy upgrades for Red Queen, Blue Rose and you Devil Breakers here.

After a few odd missions with Nero, players are then introduced to V and his brand-new gameplay. And let me say, it is a very welcome edition. Unlike the other two characters, V doesn’t fight himself as he’s rather frail and weak. Instead, he utilizes three summonable demons.

The first is Griffon, a loudmouth Gilbert Gottfried sounding bird who acts as a long-ranged attacker and shoots electric projectiles at enemies. Griffon can be upgraded at Nico’s van to launch hellish foes into the air and rain lightning bolts down from above. Shadow is the second demonic summon who resembles a large panther. Shadow is used for close combat and can morph its body into different shapes such as spikes and whips. The big cat can also be upgraded to unlock different combos and skills such as turning into a spinning saw blade and melting into the ground before popping back up as countless spikes like an overgrown hedgehog.

The final, and most powerful demon under V’s command, is Nightmare. The massive golem like creature can only be summoned using Devil Trigger, a gauge the fills over time and allows for a short period of absolute destruction. Nightmare inflicts tremendous amounts of damage and can even be upgraded to allow V to ride on its shoulder. The twist here is that only V can only finish off demons himself with his cane which means players will need to get him uncomfortably close to danger and into the thick of battle. The moments where you dodge in and out of a fray to put an enemy down for good must be chosen carefully.

My Best Friend Nightmare.

V brings a whole new level of strategy to the series. Players must keep an eye on all three health bars for V, Griffon and Shadow while also keeping close watch of the characters themselves. If Griffon and Shadow lose all of their health they are left ‘stalemated’ and out of action for a period of time. This leaves V completely defenceless and you the player are left running in every direction, internally screaming and mashing the jump button in a frantic attempt to dodge whatever monster is trying to smack poor V up this time. All of this leads me to say, with complete honestly, that V has the best gameplay out of the three protagonists.

And, finally, there’s the return of everyone’s favourite wacky woohoo pizza meme man, Dante. He’s back and as much of a lovable weirdo as ever. Dante in Devil May Cry 5 plays the exact same as he has in all the other series instalments. The game hands you his entire weapons collection on a silver platter right off the bat and lets you run wild with it. Classic weapons such as swords Rebellion and Sparda return alongside dual wielding pistols Ebony and Ivory and of course the shotgun Coyote-A. This walking arsenal of a man also collects a variety of new weapons along the way.

There’s Balrog; a pair of fiery boxing glove like gauntlets that can be used to beat demons to a pulp. Additionally, they allow you to breakdance enemies to death. It’s awesome.

Dr. Faust Hat is a secondary weapon that is fashioned by Nico for her childhood hero. It’s a demonic Stetson that lets Dante strut around like a cowboy and farm a ton of Red Orbs.

Finally, there’s the most over-the-top weapon in DMC history: Cavaliere. This is an actual motorcycle that Dante can use to run over demons until they’re nothing but mush. Did I mention the vehicle can be split in half and be wielded like two massive motorised swords? Yes, it can do that. Cavaliere is best matched up with Faust Hat. Not because it leads to SSStylish combos. But because it means Dante is riding around looking like he’s straight out of a Nickleback video. And just like Nero and V, all of Dante’s weapons can be upgraded, too.

'Cause we all just wanna be big rockstars and live in hilltop houses, drivin' fifteen cars.

Unlike Nero and V, however, Dante isn’t available to play as until later on in the game’s story. Which means when you finally get to play as him, you can quickly get overwhelmed with large variety of weapons and fighting styles after spending so long perfecting both Nero and V. This can be quickly rectified with practice in missions and a training mode called The Void.

The game itself is gorgeous and the wonders that Capcom’s RE Engine can achieve is on full display here. This is especially apparent in the fighting animations and facial animations of characters in cutscenes which can look unbelievably realistic at times. One thing the developers borrowed from Ninja Theory’s infamous attempt at a reboot DmC: Devil May Cry, is the dynamic music that plays during battle. Each character has their own unique theme song – Devil Trigger for Nero, Crimson Cloud for V and Subhuman for Dante. Using the dynamic music allows for the songs to get increasingly intense the higher the ranking the player gets, with the chorus of each song playing once you hit S rank.

Devil May Cry 5 is also the series first dive into online co-op. Using the ‘Cameo System’ you can encounter other players throughout your time in the game. In certain missions you can looks across the map as V and witness another player as Nero curb stomping demons and slicing them into tiny pieces. One of the later missions includes all three main characters working together to team up and defeat waves of enemies. All three of these characters can be other players. These missions usually allow you to pick which character you want to play as so there is a ton of replayability there.

Teaming up with other players will either lead to S Ranks or clowning around. Both are good.

One gripe I have with Devil May Cry 5 is that once the first half of the game is over, the environments can get repetitive and samey. It still looks good but the same dark red colour pallet being used over and over again leaves mission areas looking identical. Another issue is that sometimes button inputs can be unresponsive. I mostly encountered this issue when playing as V. It's nothing game breaking or emersion ruining but it can lead to a failed combo.

Devil May Cry 5 is something special. It’s the type of game to be found so few and far in-between these days. It looks good, it plays well, it’s an unrushed product that is fully complete and any updates to it will be free, including April 1st's Bloody Palace update. DMC5 is exactly what every action game should aspire to be: engaging, exhilarating and most importantly, it’s just plain fun.

RATING: 5/5

It’s Smokin’. It’s Sexy. And it’s definitely Stylish.