| cookingyourmama said:
But here's the thing, despite all of the above, the vast majority of the Devil May Cry fanbase would forgive all of those problems if the actual core fighting of the game was as good as or better than Devil May Cry 3 & 4. But the fighting engine isn't better, it's not as good as, it's worse. To begin with you've got the style system, in every other Devil May cry game the style system rewarded players who used varied combos in quick succession and if you stood still for too long then the combo would disappear. This was a main staple of the series and took a great deal of skill to achieve and it was also well loved. Now you have a system which is pretty much just purely based on damage dealt, and once you reach a letter grade, their is no time limit for it to disappear. This now means that all players have to do is learn two or three moves and spam them and they'll get the best ranks and scores which removes most of the skill and joy of what makes Devil May Cry what it is. And to reach the tripple SSS rank in old DMC games actually used to mean something because it took time, a lot of skill and a varied move set, now you can reach SSS in a matter of seconds from most enemies (across all levels and difficulties) by abusing the broken demon dodge system. Beyond that the combat is slower, there are less weapons and less moves in the game, unlike the old games this game automatically locks on to the nearest enemy for you taking away your control of who you try and hit which ends up causing so many unnecessary problems especially as Ninja Theory have decided to add so many enemies that have projectile weapons and enemies that can only be hit be certain types of weapons. The weapon balance isn't very good, demon weapons are too overpowered and angel weapons are too underpowered so when you have to fight angel enemies they take far too long to kill and the encounters becomes boring and monotonous. The boss fights whilst they might look dramatic are a total joke as they far too easy due to their limited attacks of which nearly all can easily be dodged and they have obvious weak points that end the fights far too quickly. Not to mention that all the boss fights have cut scenes that take place during the fights themselves which sucks you out of the flow of action which just makes the fights even worse. Devil trigger is also now completely overpowered and "noobified", instead of enhancing a players attacks like it used to, it's now more like a free pass to destory all enemies in the room as they float helplessly in the air. And then last but not least in Ninja Theories infinate wisdom they've decided to remove the taunt button, again one of the most loved and staple parts of the franchise, it fitted well with the cocky character of Dante and if the player managed to successfully pull off the taunt it would raise the style bar.... but now it's gone, sigh. And to address a few other points, the platforming in the game is a bit hit and miss thing but on multiple play throughs it becomes very boring and tiresome. No matter how much Ninja Theory says otherwise reducing the frame rate from 60 frames per second to 30 frames per second makes the game worse and contributes to its slower feel, and finally taking out game content in this new DmC that has been in there from the start of old Devil May Cry games and charging money for it is the final kick to the fanbase's nuts. Overall DmC is still a decent game, it's just not up to the standard of Devil May Cry 3 or 4 and Devil May Cry fans have every right to complain. |
Its these types of reviews, which seem to be quite common among long-time fans of the series, that make me hesitant to pick it up. Truth is, I could get past the style system although it is a huge head-scratcher.....and I'm glad you mentioned the auto lock-on system....anybody whose played Ninja Gaiden knows how frustrating this can be, especially on higher difficulties. Honestly, there was one thing that stopped me from picking up this game.....the boss fights. They have always been the staple of the series for me, and the videos I've watched, as well as the response from DMC fans has been underwhelming. I'd also say that, as you mentioned, forcing the player to use certain weapons to fight enemies is a big problem because it breaks up the flow of combat. Part of the beauty of the DMC series is that you can essentially use whatever weapon you want, and it always created an endless amount of variety in potential combat strategies.
One question though.....how is the devil trigger system overpowered? I haven't paid much attention, but I was under the impression that its underpowered compared to past games.
