Devil May Cry: Is it Noob-Friendly?

Devil May Cry’s reboot by Ninja Theory will be released on Tuesday and, as always, it’s about expanding the fanbase. Lewis is our DmC expert and we’ll have his review up next week. In the meantime, I – new to the series and only slightly experienced with melee action games – had a go at the first few missions to test out the waters. Is this new version of DmC friendly to newcomers?

You certainly won’t be lost in the plot. Very quickly Dante will be plunged into Limbo, the spiritual otherworld that parallels our own and the setting for most of the action. For an action game, DmC is surprisingly cutscene-heavy. You can barely walk down a corridor without the being interrupted by another plot point.

In fact, if you do make it more than 15 seconds without a cutscene or a fight, you’re probably walking in the wrong direction. Since the game is heavily geared towards replay with its wealth of modes, everything is skippable so this isn’t a problem.

DmC’s action sequences are great fun and the first 4 missions are very accessible to newbies. Devil May Cry is a score attack game, so it’s entirely possible to progress even when you’re terrible at the game. Each kill is rated from D to A and the higher S, SS and SSS scores available. At the end of each mission you get rated for style, speed and completion and, as I proved, it’s entirely possible to play through a mission with an SS rating for style yet 0% completion.

This happens because the levels are filled with nooks and crannies to reach and explore. Lost Souls are hidden throughout the broken landscapes of Limbo. The poor things are trapped in the walls, helplessly waving their exposed heads and arm, waiting for you to slash them free with Rebellion, your sword. Yet only a few sit along the obvious path and, definitely with the earlier missions, it’s impossible to find them until you unlock certain powers later in the game.

So as a relative newbie, what’s the combat like? My previous experience with Ninja Theory’s games is Heavenly Sword. I button-mashed my way through the entire game and got utterly destroyed by the final boss over and over again because I’d never really learned how to string my combos together. With DmC, Ninja Theory have done an excellent job of teaching the player through those first few missions.

With every new weapon, the game shows you the basic moves, then forces you to practice them by introducing a new enemy vulnerable to that weapon’s specialty. Dispatch them and you’re let loose with a range of different enemies. At this point you’re completely left to your own devices on how to attack. The giant rating meter provides instant feedback on how stylish you are and you’re free to kill them with a crappy button mash or to play the game properly. You’ve been taught the skills. It’s up to you to use them.

All you newbies who are interested but wary, Devil May Cry is absolutely the game for you.

Devil May Cry will be released on Xbox 360 and PS3 on 15th January.