Everyone’s favourite half-demon half-human is back after what was for some a disappointing second outing. Yep, Dante’s back but in prequel form and as cool as ever.
Like I said the game is a prequel, so you play a much younger Dante, full of attitude and energy, who’s just about to open his demon hunter business (which you may remember from DMC1) when a strange man enters with an invitation to a ‘get together’ with Dante’s twin brother Virgil. Virgil needs something from Dante in order to gain the power from the legendary knight Sparda (their Dad), and Dante just hates all demons - including his bro - so he goes along for a party.
The first thing you’ll have to do before the action kicks off is choose a ‘style’. This is a new feature and allows you to play the game how you want. Swordmaster style gives each melee weapon new moves and lets you do a melee combo in mid air. Gunslinger lets you fire guns faster, in multiple directions and also adds a few weapon-specific moves. Trickster style gives you a dodge move that speedily gets you out of hairy situations; you also have the ability to run across walls. Finally Royalguard style gives Dante some blocking moves allowing him to take less damage. A really cool thing about the styles is the ability to level them up the more you use them, unlocking new moves for the particular style. Regardless of which style you choose you’ll still be able to use your swords and guns like in previous games, the various styles just give you extra moves which are used with the circle button.
If you’ve played the previous DMC games you’ll already have a pretty good idea of what to expect, hordes of enemies, collecting red orbs to buy new items and big bosses. You’ll also be able to collect a cool and varied arsenal, the classic shotgun, laser, 3 poled nunchucks and 2 swords that you use at the same time. There are a few others but I won’t spoil things for you by telling you what they are because they are really cool to discover. Every weapon can be upgraded - melee weapons with new moves and ranged weapons with more power or speed. The game lets you equip 2 of each weapon at once, one ranged and one melee and then you can switch them in game with the click of L2 or R2. If you can pull it off you can get some crazy combos and moves going on by switching weapons mid combo.
What I really liked about the game was the challenge. For me the normal difficulty was the perfect level, really challenging but not so much that it frustrated the hell out of me. If you find it tough an easy mode becomes unlocked if you die a certain amount of times and if you found it too easy some really hard modes become unlocked.
DMC3 features great cut scenes done by a Japanese action director, featuring really cool action with some OTT moments. But there are also some serious cut scenes that move the story along nicely letting you know why each character is doing what they’re doing.
Graphically the game is what you should be expecting from a new game. Everything looks really nice, Dante is highly detailed with full facial animation, moving hair and clothes you can even see the his pistols kicking back and ejecting the rounds as you hammer the shoot button. As always, Dante’s animations are superb, swinging his swords around pulling off different moves which are all linked and blend smoothly. All the enemies are well designed and varied. The levels also have great style and interesting design. DMC3 features 60Hz support and to top it all off runs at a full on 60fps.
The sound is surprisingly good. The part I thought would be bad is actually pretty good and that’s the voiceovers. Dante’s voice is a tad annoying but he is younger and cockier than before so it can be forgiven, and the rest of the cast is pretty much spot on. The music is the dodgy rock from the past games, but it fits nicely in with the on screen action and gets you pumped up. Pro Logic 2 support is always nice.
So overall for me DMC3 is the best in the series yet. Much better fighting, more action, great cut scenes and very challenging. The best action game on the PS2, go buy it.
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