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Dante’s inferno
Devil May Cry: Dante’s Awakening (DMC 3) is the third part of Capcom’s highly popular Devil May Cry series. If any of you has taken a look at the pervious two parts, I’d say Capcom has put in extra effort in this one. According to industry experts, DMC3 is the most successful release of early 2005. With an engrossing storyline and perfect game play, it’s kind of hard to disagree. Here is a quick look at the game and some of its features.
The story
Devil May Cry: Dante’s Awakening has a different storyline than its predecessors, but somehow, the makers still succeed in connecting the three parts. It starts with Dante — the half-demon, half-human and trash-talking guy who is the central character. In Devil May Cry 2 he was more of a serious and quiet guy.
He runs an agency called “Devil May Cry,” which deals with supernatural things. The main enemy is his twin brother Vargyl, who is keen on opening a portal to the nether world, in order to become the most powerful being on the face of the planet, like his father Sparda — who sealed the portal hundreds of years ago.
Vargyl is almost like Dante, as the latter also has the capacity to become a devil. There is another non-playable character, Mary-Ann aka Lady, who accompanies Dante in his quest to prevent the world from being eliminated, which is inevitable if Vargyl succeeds in opening the gateway to Hell. She is the daughter of Vargyl’s top assistant, who murdered her mother.
You will have to pass different minions of different sizes to achieve your goal that will include grim reapers (they come in different sizes), spiders, as well as end-level bosses. On your way, you will find different weapons, which will enhance your chances of success (a necessity), when fighting your enemies.
Characters
As mentioned earlier, the only playable character is Dante, whose appearance has changed from Devil may Cry 2. He is now wearing his trademark red coat without shirt and his old jeans, thus looking every bit like the rogue that he is supposed to be. His brother, Vargyl, on the other hand, is rather serious-looking and business-like. He is a swordsman and so, does not use any guns. Still he is a formidable adversary, as he can easily dodge your bullets. Another character you will see as you progress, is Vargyl’s helper, Mary-Ann’s father, who takes care of the spells, while his boss indulges in all things violent. Interestingly enough, Mary-Ann wants to teach her father a lesson, as he was responsible for her mother’s death — she was sacrificed, so that Vargyl could acquire power. As opposed to this, Dante is helped by a mysterious clown, Jester, who provides him with useful information to proceed to different places. However, Jester also tries to stop Dante from achieving his goal, which adds an element of confusion to the gameplay.
Weapons
There is extremely cool weaponry at your disposal, in order to deal with those ugly monsters and are divided into two categories — the devil arsenal and guns. The devil arsenal includes variations of non-shootable weapons, such as Nevan, Agni, Rudra and Beowulf. The names have clearly been drawn from various Indian mythological elements, musical instruments and heroes in classic literature. These weapons are made available, after defeating end-of-level bosses. For example, Nevan is acquired after you defeat a vampire (Nevan just happens to be an electronic guitar). Guns, on the other hand, are distributed randomly in each level, and you can only acquire them if you go through the trouble of looking for them. Some of these guns include rocket launchers, laser bullet guns, shotguns, etc. Finding these guns can be difficult, as it requires quite a bit of effort on your part. Of course, once you find them, you can always upgrade them. However, to do that, you will have to get red orbs in large quantities, so don’t be alarmed when you see red orbs, for they are quite common during the game.
The devil arsenal is a bit tricky to deal with, as it cannot be upgraded directly. Instead, you need to “purchase” their new, available combos. You can equip only two weapons at a time, so if you want to change your weapon, you must go to the golden statues during the game, or you can change them at the “customize” option at the start of each level.
Combat
Unlike the first two parts, DMC 3 has some major combat differences. There are four combat styles to choose from in this game — trickster, swordsmen, gunner and royal guard. So if, on your Playstation 2 control pad, you press “O,” the special move related to the style will be performed. Contrary to the “devil trigger” mode, this can be performed any time. For example, if you are using Trickster, Dante will move at the speed of lightening in the desired direction. This is most useful if you want to escape a special trick performed by the bosses, or if you are surrounded by enemies. In swordsman, Dante will perform about five hits with his devil arsenal. Gunner causes Dante to fire, like a possessed soul in any direction. These two styles are suitable for players who have a penchant for blood and gore (and believe me, this game has a lot of blood). The royal guard is suitable for players, who want to be on the defensive, as Dante merely blocks attacks (this style is useless against bosses but can be upgraded). Apart from these styles, you have your traditional devil trigger. However, there is no devil meter as such; instead there are white orbs (three at first) which can filled by shooting, swinging swords, destroying monsters and the works. Dante can also turn into a demon (by pressing L1 on the PS2 pad) which speeds up his movements, giving him an edge over your enemies. But be warned, the devil mode has a time limit and wears off after a few seconds.
Items
There are a variety of items, which can be very useful in your journey to prevent your evil brother from succeeding. While red orbs are easily available, other items, such as the gold orb can be very hard to find. You can purchase them in the customize option at the start of each level. They can be used anytime you want. Green orbs, which boost your health, are relatively common. Other things include health items that can either be purchased, or are found scattered on different levels. You can carry a maximum of 30 items, with the exception of the red and green orbs.
Upgrades
There are a lot of upgrades to be done, which are essential, if you want Dante to live up to his tough guy reputation. These upgrades can done added the guns, devil arsenal and fighting styles. Guns, when upgraded, will inflict more damage, the maximum being level three, through which you can wipe out your enemies in a jiffy. Upgrades of fighting styles, however, cannot be purchased. You must use the specific style as often as you can, and if you pass a certain point level, you will see a “level up” sign on your screen. For example, in trickster, if you reach level two, you can move quickly in mid-air.
The inability to provide something unique to game sequels is a common problem with game developers, but Capcom has risen to the occasion. The graphics, however, are what the creators should have paid more attention to. Though they aren’t entirely disappointing, there is considerable room for improvement and hopefully, Capcom will do the needful in the sequel, if there is one. I recommend Devil May Cry: Dante’s Awakening to all the action/adventure genre fans, for it promises exciting gameplay and some death-defying, jaw dropping stunts that only Dante can perform.
The writer pakpsycho08@hotmail.com is a student at the University College of Lahore
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