
	Platform Xbox 360 Genre Action Publisher Capcom Developer Capcom ESRB M (Mature) Released March 29, 2012

- For a relatively budget price with around 45 hours of total gameplay, gamers get two good games – DMC1 and DMC3 and one only worth playing to acquire new achievements - All three games teach a valuable lesson: DMC1’s lesson is “how to start a new successful franchise”; DMC2’s is “how to rush a money-grab sequel to market with predictably mediocre results; and DMC3 is “how to resuscitate a fallen franchise a to previous level of quality

- DMC1 has maybe the most awful camera ever in an action game - DMC2 was clearly a rushed-to-market-sequel, completely mediocre and uninspired, with bosses so easy to beat the entire adventure can be completed in only a handful of hours - HD upgrade isn’t readily apparent as much in first two games

Review: Resident Evil 4 HD (360) Review: Jak & Daxter Collection (PS3) Review: Mortal Kombat Komplete Edition (360)
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Devil May Cry HD Collection

Score: 8.5 / 10

Devil May Cry’s Dante is the PlayStation 2’s most recognizable character of the console’s flagship franchises, starring in three Capcom games that collectively sold nearly 10 million copies.

As has become commonplace in today’s gaming market, publishers are playing a sentimental, nostalgia chord by releasing compilations of older gaming franchises. Capcom has combined the first three action-adventure titles of the half-man, half-demon mercenary demon hunter Dante in a shiny-new package with the Devil May Cry HD Collection, including this Xbox 360 version, ironic for games that gained

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their popularity on a PlayStation console.

Dante’s story is one of revenge. One half of the twin-son progeny of the demon Sparda (the other his brother Vergil), Dante becomes a demon hunter, vowing ass-kicking vengeance on the demons that killed his human mother, Eva. All three games have a similar story: Dante gets tangled with a femme

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fatale and must defeat a power-hungry individual intent on harnessing the power of demons for domination.

Released in 2001, Devil May Cry was an immediate action-adventure hit, giving the PS2 a best-selling killer app and an instantly identifiable protagonist. Plenty of action, with Dante using his patented Ebony and Ivory pistols and other guns along with swords and slashing instruments of death-dealing to dispatch all in his way, along with some RPG upgrading elements and puzzle-solving, made DMC1 a huge hit. This despite what was one of the most awful cameras ever in a third-person action game.

The camera is stationary, not able to be manipulated like is commonplace today, leading to way too many instances of not being able to see where Dante was moving or worse, causing all kinds of frustrating woes during fights with enemies unseen off-screen because of the atrocious camera placement.

But with all the gun and swordplay action, it was easy to forgive the camera as gamers got into the deepest recesses of DMC1’s exciting gameplay.

However, what was totally unforgivable is Capcom’s faux pas follow-up, DMC2, what now seems to be now nothing more than a greedy, cash-in-on-the-cash-cow-quick release. Graphics that seemed to get worse, bland gameplay and the most ridiculously easy bosses to beat made DMC2 uninteresting and way, way too undemanding to play through.

Capcom clearly learned its hard lesson well from the DMC2 debacle with the release of DMC3, easily the best of the first three games. Taking more developmental time, DMC3 released late in the lifecycle of the PS2 and is superior to the first two titles, an amazing recovery from the ill-conceived DMC2.

Released in 2005, DMC3 is visually stunning, and is the most noticeably enhanced of the three games in relation to the high-definition remastering in the Devil May Cry HD Collection. Spectacular and difficult boss fights, much-improved gameplay along with even more devastating weaponry and firepower nearly tripled the time spent playing the excellent DMC3 compared to its two predecessors combined.

Collectively, all three games teach a valuable lesson: DMC1’s lesson is “how to start a new successful franchise”; DMC2’s is “how to rush a money-grab sequel to market with predictably mediocre results; and DMC3 teaches “how to resuscitate a fallen franchise a to previous level of quality.” For a relatively budget price with around 45 hours of total gameplay, gamers who may not have played them in their first release get a reintroduction to one of the PS2’s classic protagonists in two good games – DMC1 and DMC3 with a third (DMC2) only worth playing to acquire new added achievements.

- Lee Cieniawa
lcieniawa@armchairempire.com

(May 16, 2012)