DmC: Devil May Cry

DmC: Devil May Cry is an action-adventure hack and slash video game developed by Ninja Theory and published by Capcom for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows. It is the fifth instalment of the Devil May Cry series, serving as a reboot.

Plot
The game's story takes place in Limbo City, a modern-day city secretly controlled by all-powerful demons, manipulating humanity through the comforts of life, with the demons themselves residing in a parallel plane called 'Limbo'.

The DLC chapter, Vergil's Downfall follows Vergil after escaping from Dante. He finds himself in an unknown dimension, where he is guided by the voice of Eva to "head toward the lights". Vergil reaches the light area but is stopped by the illusions of Kat and Dante, who stabs him again. Vergil is saved by a hollow version of himself and is transported to an area where he has to fight to heal his wounds. In his journey, Vergil kills the illusions to heal his wounds and left Eva to mourn after discovering what a monster he had chosen to become. Vergil later defeats his hollow counterpart and takes his amulet. Vergil then returns to the real world and encounters demons, who begin to bow at his feet. Confident in his future, Vergil becomes the new Demon King and leads his new army to the unknown.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Fantastic graphics and soundtrack.
 * 2) Smooth controls and fast-paced combat.
 * 3) Many new abilities never seen on previous DMC titles.
 * 4) Impressive enemy designs and environments.
 * 5) Very good and interesting boss battles, like the well-known battle against Bob Barbas.
 * 6) Many secret missions, unlockable modes, skins, etc.
 * 7) Combichrist and Noisia composed some of the game's soundtrack.
 * 8) Great story

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Executive Meddling:
 * 2) * According to interviews, Dante's design was originally far closer to previous versions, before Capcom said the changes weren't extreme enough and told Ninja Theory to "go crazy with it."
 * 3) * Inversely, there were times when the Japanese team members had to rein in Ninja Theory, such as NT focusing a bit too much on "cool visuals first" instead of working to match the gameplay; and having to tone down the earlier concepts as the final product would've resulted in a Z-rating in Japan, the CERO equivalent of the ESRB's AO or 18+ only rating.
 * 4) * DmC Dante was designed from a Western perspective in contrast to the original Dante who was designed from a Japanese perspective. And as explained by Capcom's former Senior VP, Christian Svensson in a 2013 post, games such as DmC: Devil may Cry and Lost Planet 3 were driven by Keiji Inafune in an attempt at catering to a Western market but ends up having a very generic look.
 * 5) Missed Opportunity: This universe confirmed the existence of Angels who are established as sworn enemies to Demons. It opens up a lot of cool possibilities. Perhaps an angelic counterpart to the Devil Trigger? How does Dante struggle with the idea that he doesn't have a single drop of human blood? Are the Angels present as a force for good or maybe a different breed of evil? Sadly, outside of Eva and the angelic weapons, not much is done with them.
 * 6) Most enemies are color-coded and can only be defeated with weapons matching their color, making combat tedious and repetitive.
 * 7) The camera can be troublesome in the platforming sections.
 * 8) The game has many inconsistencies and plot holes that contradicts itself at some points and it's unlikely that we'll get a sequel to resolve them..

Pre-release
Before the game was released, early reception to the new design of Dante and change in direction of the series was negative. The series' original creator, Hideki Kamiya, was negative about the game's direction and stated he was "missing" Dante although in later tweets he expected people to try the game. Video game publications 1UP.com and GamesRadar found such claims exaggerated, with the former finding the demo's gameplay and humor enjoyable and the latter being optimistic about how the release of the game could affect the franchise. Various other sites also listed it as one of the most anticipated games of 2012 stating that, despite the controversy the game caused, it looked promising, owing to the presentation and the fact the gameplay had yet to be tested. On September 2012, Capcom US producer Alex Jones claimed that some of the negative response had turned positive. Dante's voice actor from Devil May Cry 3 and 4, Reuben Langdon, while expressing disappointment with Dante's characterization, had positive impressions about the game and urged fans to try it

Post-release
DmC: Devil May Cry received "generally favorable" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic.

Jose Otero from 1UP.com thought that the story successfully combined with the game's gameplay. He praised the quality of the game's well-directed cutscenes, called the combat flexible, and thought that the developer had created a lot of memorable levels and stages with the use of Limbo, and praised Ninja Theory for removing some of Dante's old and unappealing personalities, and making him a protagonist that is approachable for players. He described it as "a fresh and imaginative take on Dante".

Ryan Clements from IGN considered the game's storytelling a refinement for the series. However, he criticized the length of the game's campaign, which he thought was too short. He praised the game's visuals, which he described as "stunning", thought that the game's combat system was the "most intelligent design to date", in which he praised the game's simple user interface and combo system. Despite that, he criticized the game's camera, which he thought had failed to catch up with the combat. He also thought that the redesigned hero was more relatable for players.

Ryan Taljonick from GamesRadar criticized the game's campaign as he called it "predictable". He considered it a missed opportunity for DmC. He praised the game's boss design, but expressed disappointment that these enemies are not fun to play with and criticized the lack of enemy variety in the game.

Rich Stanton from Eurogamer praised the flow of combat, and thought that the use of the Rebellion in the game "an awesome achievement". Despite that, he criticized the platforming section of the game, which he found boring. He further criticized the design of the game's boss battles, which he thought, was very disappointing. However, he thought that the game's art-style is striking to look at and called Dante's design one of the best reinventions of a character in gaming history.

Joe Juba from Game Informer also praised the game's artistic direction, and he thought that the game's visuals install a sense of unpleasantness and surrealism to the game's alternate universe while also praising the game's combat variety and accessible controls. He also thought that the game's gameplay significantly increases the replayability of the game.

Chris Schilling from VideoGamer.com was negative about the redesign, as he found the new Dante lacking some of the original's iconic features.

Sales
Capcom initially hoped to ship 2 million copies by the end of its financial year; later, it revised its predictions to 1.2 million copies shipped. Reasons given by Capcom included a "delayed response to the expanding digital contents market," "insufficient coordination between the marketing and the game development divisions in overseas markets," and a "decline in quality due to excessive outsourcing", though whether or not any of the comments were applicable to DmC: Devil May Cry or Capcom itself was left ambiguous. The game sold 116,000 units in its first week in Japan and made the top spot in the charts. The game also reached the top spot in the UK's sales charts, though only made a third of the sales of Devil May Cry 4. Capcom stated that the sales of the original game were "solid" but noted that the game did not catch Eastern gamers' attention and made less than its previous iteration, Devil May Cry 4. In an interview with GameSpot in 2015, Hideaki Itsuno stated in regards to the game's performance, “If it had been a world changing hit, it might have changed the course of the series by becoming the new DMC. But at the same time, if it was a lot less successful than it was, it might have just been a flash in the pan failure that never got followed through with the definitive edition this year. In a way, I’m actually really pleased of where we were able to hit between those two separate extremes”. Capcom reported in September 2015 that the company was "very happy" with the sales of the Definitive Edition. As of September 30 2021, 2.5 million copies of the original version have been sold worldwide, while the Definitive Edition sold an additional 1.2 Million copies, bringing to total amount between all versions to 3.7 million copies.