Devil May Cry 4 PC

- Focus on being cool. From the way the characters speak to the way your character slides across the floor with his sword to the side after taking a big hit that knocks him back.

- Supposedly it doesn't work quite well with a mouse and keyboard combination but I'm using the XBOX 360 for Windows controller again.

- New hero, Nero. The hand is a cool concept, albeit not exactly new, and it offers a crucial boost to the feel of the game I would say. It makes you feel like you have more control over what's going on around you. Sometimes I don't like new lead characters like in MGS2, but seeing as I haven't played the previous parts of the series I can't really say much here. Dante's still in though later on.

- Cloth effects are very nice on the heroes and animations are smooth all round.

- The music is nice and the mood is good. Overall it doesn't seem to have as much of a personal identity as God of War or Ninja Gaiden, the two that it could easily be compared to. Even though all three are different games, I would say the whole demon thing, up to their design in a way, is much closer to Ninja Gaiden though.

- The gameplay is very classic in that you move from area to area basically, some of which are gorgeous and others which are simpler. Developing a game like this can easily create a feel like it's not all a complete whole when different level designers are building parts and others simply know more about aesthetics and use more visual effects, but generally all the views of mountains and other larger landscapes are done well whilst smaller corridors sometimes look more plain. These areas sometimes get cut off with the red demon walls again, just like in other games of a similar genre, and then you have to fight off some monsters until the walls open up again allowing you to advance. It's been done already and feel a bit old since the gameplay really is nothing else than moving from area to area killing a few baddies. There are the occasional small puzzles but they're in such a small role here it's barely worth mentioning. The level design is very linear too with certain areas that you can open later. Mostly I think it might've been cooler on a console. You also visit some of the cooler locations rather fast and then they're over, like the forest section.

- The enemies are sometimes a bit dumb in design and maybe too far out. Demons with stitched clothes that look like scarecrows don't really match any stories you've heard as a kid. Other than the evil scarecrow man or something, but none of these look like a traditional scarecrow. There are some great enemies too though and the overall design of the enemies and items is still pretty good. The enemies that change from sword to flying rodent, or something, are again far-fetched as an idea but are done very well. They transform very fluidly and the 3D is perfect with no textures left Z-fighting or anything. The mini grim reaper type of monster is also amazingly done. The black smoke that creates a sort of cloak around it is amazing and moves very nicely. There is one problem though, in certain parts these guys tend to want to go inside walls and hang out there for a while until attacking you.

- The bosses are among the best I've ever seen. The fights could've used a bit more tuning in that they could've required you to play more with your character. Sure you're jumping around avoiding attacks but mostly they're quite easy affairs that require some button-mashing. They do look amazing though and move around very well. The game is worth buying simply to experience the bosses. The stone slabs alone where they come out from are a great and interesting idea.

- The orbs with faces (different types, used to buy powerups for example) are great and look very nice after defeating a boss and a bunch of them come rolling at you. It makes you think of some crazy drug-induced nightmare from a Studio Ghibli movie. Like the 3 crazy heads (Kashira) in Yu-Baaba's room in Spirited Away.

- The secret missions are a good idea but why does dying in them affect the normal game you're playing? Also, they require you to play the game mechanics more than play the actual game, which is annoying in some of them like the jumping platforms where you have to get up to the top within a given time limit. The problem is because of how Nero handles in the air it's actually hard to aim him at the correct spot even though you see perfectly well where it is you have to go. Nero can't be moved around when he's falling down, ie he has no air control after the peak of a jump. Which sucks.

- The menus aren't very good or clear. It's a console translation of course but why the fuck does it take so long to exit the game again (see Assassin's Creed... ugh)? Systems -> Quit mission -> B -> Yes -> Start Game -> Quit Game. Can't all menus have Quit to Main Menu and Quit to Windows options??

- I only found out near the end of the game that the idea is for you to actually spend your points on talents you want for the current level and then redo them for the next level because you get all the points you've gathered, and then spent on skills, back easily by choosing to redo your setup. I kept thinking that you'll start getting exponentially more points near the end like in other games and thus eventually get all the skills, but that's not the case. Maybe this could've been made clearer. The ability to automatically choose them all makes it easy for casual players.

- The difficulty is quite easy on normal. If you choose a harder mode you'll have to focus more on the fighting but in a game where the fighting isn't THAT fun, I don't see why you would want to. Seeing as there's a lack of real puzzles and adventuring/exploring too I don't know what exactly you're supposed to be playing here.

- Some of the puzzle mechanics (other mechanics than fighting) seem far fetched like punching around the moving pillars. First of all it doesn't really suit a game like this where you can move around freely in the 3D space without constraints. A more logical solution would be if the pillars were set on tracks so that they only moved in 1 of the 4 general directions and you'd have to punch them at the correct time to pass closing walls or they'd bounce back to hit you (with all those spikes) or something similar. Now it feels a bit too loose and you don't know where it's going to fly off to, or if it's going to move at all since some little bump in the wall can cause it to not go where you want it. This happens rarely though. Also, the random dice game rooms are dumb. You have no control over where your piece will land when hitting the dice and thus it makes an annoying random element that will piss you off eventually if you can't get to where you have to go in order to proceed. Something like this should be optional.

- Gloria's tits bounce all over. Then there's Dead or Alive, Soul Calibur, Ninja Gaiden.. I'm not really a big fan of enormous digital bouncing breasts made of jelly although it seems the Japanese are.

- The camera angles seem very amateur at times. They move to show something in a way that's not "cool" (as the game attempts to be) or productive/helpful. A good example is the part where Nero is running along a snowy ledge after the first big flame boss to the temple (or whatever it was) and the camera is following him. The following is fine but it changes angle about 3 times always to something a bit different and again right behind him. If you're going to change camera angle it needs to be for a reason like showing a new area or room, not just for the sake of it and roughly into the same place it was in the previous shot. The cameras change according to a volume, like in there types of games it seems to be, and you'll get the same angle and distance to the character always when standing in a certain spot even though the cameras sometimes move, but they'll always move the same way.

- Jumping isn't very fun. It's odd and too fast. It needs to be smoothed out a bit and like stated above, some air control would be good.

- Nero cries too much. Some would call this emo. It's annoying mostly. Nero's and Dante's attitude might annoy some people but these "young cool guys" have been done to death in a million games and it doesn't come as a surprise if you've looked at any of the screenshots or read about the series before trying a game.

- The cut-scenes are very well done and the camera angles there are mostly professional. Nothing like MGS4 but certainly up to the "required quality standards" in games currently.

- The language seems a bit mature at times with stuff like "Go blow yourself" being said and flipping the middle finger. Although I'm not 100% sure that was meant to be his middle finger in one cut-scene... it sure does look like it though and would fit the scene, even though a bit tastelessly.

- Why does the image stretch out as if you were in widescreen mode after completing a mission? It looks ugly. Console translation lazyness I bet.

- The final and most important point about the game is the overall game flow. You play to the "end" with Nero basically after which you play backwards through everything again with Dante. The idea is quite dumb to begin with BUT it could've been executed well if you ran across some other areas of the level as Dante. For example you saw a cliff high up that you couldn't reach with Nero and then when coming backwards you would be on the cliff with Dante. There are a few things you can only unlock as Dante later on but they hardly make it worthwhile. You even have to kill all the bosses again. 3 times to be precise. First as Nero, then as Dante and then once more all of them one after another. I know some games love to do this (Viewtiful Joe for example) and it's "old-school" in a way but I think it's closer to cheating your players than actually making things more complex. Of course you need to have a certain amount of belief in your own bosses if you're going to trust that players can get so good at the fight they'll bash through it in no time the next go, but mostly it feels like artificially adding length to the game. Maybe it's a western/eastern difference.

- Overall not as beautiful and interesting as God of War and not as precise in combat as Ninja Gaiden. So what's left? The bosses look cool and the game relies on being "cool" to play, and it is up to an extent, but overall it's the weakest of the three series in my opinion. It's still a decent game though.