Yeah, I've seen the cutscenes in question so I know the events I described take place, they just seem to have had no impact at all on the way many people received the game. The most criticism I've seen of the story is that it's dumb and juvenile. I thought Forbes was going to do more when their reviewer did a blog post about how Dante is a truly unpleasant character to be around in this game, but nothing in the final review.
It's been years since I've played 3 but from what I remember and doing a quick check on Gamefaqs the number of moves and combos are more or less the same for a single weapon. Some combos need to be purchased in the shop with upgrade points to be available. DMC is more like 4 in that all the weapons you have are always available, no load outs at the store or anything like that the way 3 was. You basically hot key two melee weapons to the the L2/R2 buttons (or triggers on Xbox) and always have Rebellion as your default. This means you can switch between Rebellion and the hot keyed melee weapons mid combo (by just pressing and holding the hot key) creating lots of possibilities for unique combos. You use the dpad to switch what weapons are hot keyed making switching mid fight (though not mid combo) entirely doable. There some limitations on this as weapons (other than Rebellion) are classified as either Angle weapons or Demon weapons and can only have one of each type, so you can't have two Angle weapons hot keyed for example. That's not really much of a limitation though. Guns/ranged weapons are switched with the dpad also but there's no hot keying for them. There are also the two grapple attacks (one pulls things to you, the other pulls you to things) which enable you to further extend your combo. The basic Rebellion air combo knocks enemies away on the last hit but you can use the grapple to pull them back to you and continue the combo. With all of this I suspect the combo possibilities exceed that of the previous games, being able to switch between three melee (perhaps melee is misnomer as some aren't entirely melee based, but whatever) weapons, a gun and two grapple all in a single combo seems like it makes for a huge number of possibilities. There are no styles (Swordmaster, Gunslinger, etc.) as there were in 3 and 4 though.
I think 3 was overall a better game, but the grapple mechanic in 4 was a complete blast. I'm curious how the PC version of this fares. I've seen a couple of reviews that say it's basically identical aside from the obvious higher res and framerate, so as long as it's not worse than the console versions in any other way, that's good enough for me.
This definitely plays more like Dante from 4 than Nero. Think Dante with Nero's grapple but with more flexibility as you can control whether you pull the enemy to you or you go to the enemy. It's possible they could have gone with just a single grapple in this game and made it contextual whether the enemy comes to you or you go to the enemy (perhaps based on size) as I haven't seen anything yet that requires it be under the player's control. There are special points you can use it and it will either pull you to it or pull a platform or something similar to you but it hasn't yet been optional which you can use, the point dictates which type of grapple effect works on it and using the other just results in a failed grapple. I suppose having two does open up more combat options. I would imagine it is, the other DMC PC versions haven't been bad and this one used the Unreal Engine so it should be quite good from a technical perspective. You'll probably want a controller though. Completely unrelated but one odd thing with the combat is that the Stinger move requires a double tap of the analog in the direction you want rather than just holding it. This was strange to me as all the previous games you could just hold the direction.
They might have made it playable with a KB+M. DMC4 had absolutely no hope on KB+M. It was literally impossible to play the game. Not annoying or just frustrating, but actually impossible.
So I played a second session last night and have discovered a few things. When you start again you have to start your last mission over so checkpoints are for deaths only (I actually died a few times last night) and appear to be well placed or close together as I lost very little progress any time I died, though there don't appear to be any checkpoints mid boss fight. I'm not sure if you get some secrets or pick up some weapons if those persist in your save though I would imagine they do. These are things that would have been nice to know ahead of time but since there's no manual it's never covered. It appears combos can, theoretically, go forever in this game. The grapples let you pick enemies up or pull them back to you if you knock them away (which is a common occurrence at the end of combos) so you can combo them, grapple, combo, grapple, etc. Of course you're almost never in a position where you can focus on a single enemy so while this is possible in theory in practice it doesn't come up much. Of course there are enemies that you simply can't grapple in that way and some that aren't staggered by your hits.
I watched my brother play through the Bad News level/boss. That entire segment is rather awesome and really clever. Skip to 3:30.
Anyone curious? It's definitely the Unreal engine, down to the usual .ini setting to tweak framerate and other things. In other words: it runs PERFECT. Or at least the beginning scene with a few monsters on screen, with graphic set to Ultra and on a modest, four-years old PC. It definitely runs better than all the most recent games. The best you can ask from a PC port that isn't actually a port. (and you can as well move the logo movie files so that you can skip all the damned logos at the beginning of the game)
Why, it's a completely different engine and developed by a completely different developer. The target hardware is the same but that doesn't mean the requirements for the PC are.
So... this game is pretty fucking awesome. The game is silky smooth on my e6850, 6gb RAM, GTX 460. Runs at 60 fps on Ultra. I don't think it's very hard to get full frames with it.
Yeah... no. Not only is it not offensive in the context of which it happens, it doesn't happen to a woman, it happens to a demon that can best be described as a kind of stitched up skin marionette. The first paragraph of your spoiler is also completely wrong, and I mean completely. And there is a pretty clear reaction to what happens, both by Dante and the father. It's not thrown in for no reason, it's a pretty strong plot device and it happens immediately after a fight that makes it pretty clear what it is that was just blown to bits.
So, I need help. I'm doing a video playthrough of this, but not knowing how long the missions are is kinda making it impossible to plan. I just finished mission 2, but I had no idea it was gonna be so long (50 minutes with watching all cutscenes). SO. Can someone who's finished the game please reply or PM me with the time you took to complete each of the 20 missions? That will give me a ballpark and I can see if I need to split some missions in two for the videos etc. Thanks :)
7 hours 36 minutes for 15 missions Average 30 minutes per mission on Nephalim. You can sorta be secure in the knowledge that if you absolutely have to quit the game, it will save all your orbs, keys, and lost souls progress.
I explored. edit: The numbers are weird. Total Time Played is probably accurate, since the time you spent in a difficulty playing missions doesn't look like it's counting cut scenes or secret missions.
Also there are certain missions that are far longer then others. The game likes to throw 4-5 big exploration levels at you and the rest are generally far shorter by comparison.
Just beat it, definitely some of the finest final two missions I've ever played in a game like this. I think the finale itself is one of those things where some people figure it out right away and find it easy, while others are going to beat their heads against it and wonder what they're doing wrong. There's a review out somewhere, I forget who wrote it at this point, that comments on the platforming sections never quite hitting their potential. Ninja Theory does give you a little taste of some tense platforming with whipping the chains in midair and gliding to get to the next spot, but it never feels like it comes together in a sequence that I can call "great," even though the mechanics are there in pieces to make something like it. I suppose that's one of the spots where the game has been made a wee bit less "hardcore." It never felt like I had to sweat a little while trying to go for some secret off in the distance, so it's just a missed opportunity for what's otherwise the most solid platforming ever in a DMC game, and arguably even in a 3rd person action game. edit: They also don't take the Angel/Demon weapons mechanics too far. There are only two enemy types that come in as Ice/Fire versions. Granted, the second combo that comes in is pretty tough to manage and requires some creative use of weapons, but other than one pretty interesting sequence in a pretty awesome level, the weapons don't get utilized by the environment in any other ways.
Son of Sparda mode is not fucking around. Triple fire-shield dudes, 3 elite stygians, throw in three of those bombing fucking cupid flyers, and you got a party, and that's just the first wave.
So I just did this sequence last night and Pogo's right, there really isn't anything to get upset about over this and Angie's presentation of the incident isn't even close to what happens. I'm near the end (Mission 18) and you guys are going much faster than I am, I'm probably at 8 or 9 hours but I do a ton of exploring and back tracking, though I still miss about half the stuff or more. If you're just racing to the end the game could probably be done in about 5-6 hours fairly easily. I'm a little disappointed I wanted about twice the amount of game that there seems to be here but what there is has been great fun and is very much a Devil May Cry game, which was a worry of mine. Other than length I think my only complaint would be that some of the content is just more juvenile than it needs to be. I get Dante and Virgil are supposed to be young but I think they could have come up with some better dialog in some places rather than just *expletive* or *dick joke* and sometimes they do, which makes those juvenile moments even more noticeable. I'm looking forward to the Virgil DLC! As for mission times I've done some missions in under 5 minutes and others took about an hour. They're all over the board.
So I was under the assumption that the game would restart at the beginning of a level if you quit. Apparently, if you hit Continue after quitting to main menu, you WILL restart at a checkpoint. I confirmed it with exiting the game as well. So... yeah, that's a good thing to know for Astromarine
This seems a little random as I have quit and restarted and started back at the mission start and another time I started and was halfway through a mission (part way through the Bob Barbus fight actually) so I guess it depends what checkpoint you hit. Maybe I just didn't hit a checkpoint when I started back at the mission screen, not sure.
I'm thinking that was the case, you weren't far enough in to hit a checkpoint. I'm not sure when checkpoints occur, of course, but it seems to be at the start and end of every big fight. I think every time you fall into the void or die you spawn at what the game considers a checkpoint. edit: Yeap, I just did the carnival fight with the spinning carousel thing and quit afterward, Continue left me right there at the end of that fight, so I think we can assume that the end of every fight sequence is a checkpoint, in addition to the beginning/end of platforming sequences.
Depends. When the flyers are tagging you with a green-laser or chucking bombs, it's worthwhile to be swinging your weapon and the problem tends to take care of itself. The chainsaw guys enraging every 5 seconds, though... still not sure how to handle that. A charged parry will break it but I never have time for that. Parries in general are key to Son of Sparda, and remembering to use Devil Trigger. Seeing all the changes to the enemies is pretty great, I look forward to getting caught off guard by their new moves. Also, I might just be the only motherfucker that has actually dived into .ini files to edit what I find to be an obstructive UI... get those damn health bars out of my face, jeez:
Length also seems in range with the other DMCs: DMC1: 6h 52m DMC2: 8h DMC3: 12h DMC4: 10h 57m DmC5: 9h Then it is a good thing when a game leaves you wanting for more. Probably Son of Sparda should have been the default "hard" difficulty. What about the other missions available in the mission menu? Is that new stuff or just the campaign missions?
I think Nephalim > Son of Sparda is a fine way to play, since it's impossible to unlock everything without going back in levels during your Nephalim playthrough. Son of Sparda mixes shit up with new enemy attacks and wave compositions. Dunno about other missions. You can do the secret missions if you've unlocked the door and didn't pass them during the playthrough. Bloody Palace mode is incoming soon.
Yeah, I mean those secret missions, what are they exactly? The same campaign missions with quirks or what?
Oh, no. Those are the doors you open with keys that you find, Copper, Argent, Gold, and Ivory, scattered throughout levels. You can see on level select how many locks and keys there are that you have or haven't opened. The key/door type is tied to difficulty but I'm not sure which is the hardest to beat. Most keys you find won't open a door in that mission, or you can't reach a key or door without getting a weapon ability later in the game, which is why the system requires some multiple playthroughs.
Angie, having played through the game I'm actually going to have to agree with Pogo here that the cutscenes you're talking about are being taken out of context.
In a bit of oddity concerning gender roles in video games... the DevilMayCry.org forum actually has female gamers requesting nude mods of Dante.
Why not petition Ninja Theory? Dante starts the game only wearing a necklace, so presumably they already have the textures.
Yeah, someone is on the case. It's not that easy because the game wasn't built for modding and requires expanding and then repacking files, the names of which you can only get from in-game as the textures are loaded in memory.
I finally picked this up and I'm pretty impressed so far. The story's about as dumb as expected, but the dialog and voice acting are good enough to make up for it. The facial animation is surprisingly good, too. I'm only just far enough into have acquired all the basic mechanics, but it seems like they pretty much nailed the DMC combat feel. I was a little surprised at just how much muscle memory I retained for the grappling mechanic, though I suppose I shouldn't be since I played the crap out of DMC4. I'm actually excited to get home and play this some more. Both Darkstalkers games and Bayonetta did a pretty good job in the past several years of scratching this specific action game itch, but somehow nothing quite does it like DMC.
I just got to this part last night and wanted to back Pogo and Trunk up since they were the only ones to comment on it. It doesn't happen at all like was reported earlier in the thread. It's not even that it's just something that sounds horrible when taken out of context or anything. The events described were just flat-out incorrect. I mean, the game is gory and the whole thing involves a fairly cheesy story about a young dude killing demons to save the world, but if you're avoiding it because you were told it prominently features rape and a violent abortion/murder scene, just know that information is pretty inaccurate.
So this game was really awesome. I can't believe that I played through a Devil May Cry game and Ninja Theory made a game with super tight controls. This game is an anomaly of the best kind.
So I just picked up the DLC and played maybe an hour (probably less). It's taking a bit to get back in the groove and Vergil not having a double jump is a bit odd I'm finding and doing the trick up to get a little more height for more air combos I think is more difficult than Dante's double jump. I've always liked Vergil's gameplay, I've found his style of combat more... precise... not sure that's the right word. I just feel like I have to be more deliberate when I used him in 3 and I'm finding the same here. I think his moves tend to have more recovery and don't cover as wide an area as Dante's, the more difficult air combos is probably contributing too, though this could all be due to a lack of a upgrades at the moment. I hope I can use him in the Bloody Palace but I suspect I won't as I think some enemies and bosses simply won't translate to his gameplay well. Anyone else pick it up?
