The Devil May Cry but Not as Much as Devil May Cry Fans

I'm a little bit late on this one I feel, but there's something that has been bothering me recently. (Yes folks this is another video game post so if you're not a fan you might want to click away now) 

Last year a reboot to the much loved Devil May Cry franchise was released and it led to an interesting reaction from a lot of people. Most people tended to agree that the gameplay was at least pretty decent and in most places it was thought of as great, but did a lot of these same people like the game? No. Why? Because they changed the main character...okay.

The original protagonist of Devil May Cry was Dante, a half demon, half human devil hunter who was pretty flippant with most of his enemies. Basically Dante was an undeniable bad-ass who has a penchant for showing off, being arrogant and eating junk food (I hasten to point out for the hardened fans that yes Dante was a bit more serious in Devil May Cry 2, that's not really that important to what I'm talking about here because it's the bad ass who you all love so much and as far as I know Devil May Cry 2 was thought of as the worst of the original three games) and as such it's pretty easy to see why the character would be loved in video game circles.

This that pretty basic analysis of the original Dante (and I mean REEEEEALLY basic) I feel I've done enough preamble to begin talking about the new Dante. Firstly the main problem seem to have with new Dante (just gonna call him Dante from here on out. Also when I say main problem this is the one I heard the most and is by no means the only argument people have leveled at the character) is his hair. His old mop was pure white in keeping with his direct family, but now he sports a somewhat shorter hair cut with black hair, leading to a lot of fans calling him (brace yourself for this one)...emo.

For anyone who might have been in a coma for the past decade or so the whole 'emo' thing was style of clothing, music and life outlook that was characterized by darkness and self-deprecation. A decent amount of teenagers went through an 'emo' phase (myself included) usually through high-school where they grew their hair long, dyed it black and started straightening it.

The new Dante does have straight black hair, this is true, but why does this make him emo? He spends most of his time cracking wise and being overconfident, something which is completely at odds with what is classically thought of as 'emo', and I don't think that having any particular haircut should throw up red flags about someones character.

Okay so rant about the hair hate is over, now to actually examine everything else that actually makes the character a character. Firstly the other main argument against him as that he lost his bad ass edge in the latest installment, partially due to the new visual design of his icon red coat over a grotty looking wife beater.

Firstly I want to examine the fact that his personality doesn't seem that different for the most part. As with old Dante he treats many of his enemies very flippantly cracking wise and acting like they're nothing to him. So far it sounds pretty standard and for a while I couldn't really understand the complaint, he was powerful, he was arrogant and he sounded like he didn't give a shit, but then it occurred to me that the problem was that last part.

It harks back to the whole 'emo' point. As much as old Dante was a bad ass who treated his enemies like crap he actually cared about stuff, he is often sited as taking demon-hunting jobs for people without accepting payment because he knows the client is poor (occasionally leading to him being taken advantage of by people when they send him bills for damages he caused while on his free missions) meaning it's clear to tell that he cares about people and the world around him.

Modern Dante however? Well he acts like he doesn't give a crap about himself or the world around him, this is easily seen in the opening by the fact that he clearly drinks heavily, enjoys mindless/meaningless sex and doesn't seem to care about his appearance or surroundings. So this sounds a lot like an emo character, someone who cares little for themselves or the world around them and dresses in dark colors (you know, to match their SOOOOOUL)

So why do I still disagree with the whole 'emo' thing? Surely what I just said totally backs up the point that he's an emo character right? Well it might just do that, if it persisted beyond the first few missions. Examining Dante's life and what we know about it from the story it's easy to see why he wouldn't care for much in his life. He has never known his parents, he has lived alone and entirely for himself for most of his life because he has never had a family and this would almost certainly lead someone into a self-destructive spiral of alcohol, drugs and meaningless sex.

However, when Dante is presented with the chance to learn about his past and his family he jumps at the chance (Like seriously for someone who didn't care about much as soon as it was claimed Virgil was his brother he went along waaaay too easily) and from that point on he actually starts to have emotional depth and cares about the people he meets along the way. Yes it's true that the female character is almost certainly there just to be a token love interest but it's not her that I'm looking at here, the fact is that token or not she is the person that Dante starts to care about and wants to protect.

From that point on in the game he still acts arrogant, he still makes wise ass remarks to his enemies and still manages to kick a whole heaping helping of ass, but it is shown that now he has started on the path he is willing to go out of his way to help people. Even if the character tries to pretend he doesn't care or that he's only helping because there's something in it for him, by the end of the story (something I have no plan to ruin for you) it is clear that he does have morals, and does want to help and protect people.

As I've said many times before this is all my own opinion and there are probably a lot of people out there who will disagree with me about the reboot and the characters created therein but for the most point I think I've conveyed the reasons that I find the new character of Dante just as good as the old one and why I feel that the older fans are attempting to cling a little too hard to an older version of Dante who wouldn't have fit into the game that Ninja Theory where trying to make.


Post Post Rambling Follows:

I feel like I should really talk about a few things that I didn't really mention previously because I know that not all people who will be interested in the rest of the post will want to hear this.

I am mainly talking about the mop/wig joke. 

During the first level of DmC a mop head blows towards Dante and it lands on his head as he looks into a mirror that happens to be in front of him. With a cocky grin he quips "not in a million year" and promptly turns towards his giant enemy to shoot him in the face a little. 

A lot of people where annoyed by this joke, perhaps because they felt like the new developers were poking fun or taking the piss out of the old Dante and the old Devil May Cry series as a whole. Personally I don't think this is true, if anything it's a sly nod to the fact that Ninja Theory realized some people were going to hate the new design and where trying to show that they have a sense of humor about it. Also come on the jokes funny, seriously.

One more thing: (If you read that in the voice of Jackie Chan's Uncle from the animated series we are best friends now. Just saying) 

Okay so I need to mention that I feel bad for Ninja Theory. Their first major game was 'Enslaved: Odyssey to the West' which I personally would rate in my top 10 life experiences. Not my top 10 video games, but it was genuinely a game that when I was done with it I sat there and thought about it for at least half an hour. For anyone who doesn't play video games that doesn't happen very often and I feel like that is a major shame. 

Not only did that game bomb so they had to take reboot work, but now they've made a genuinely great gameplay based video game they've had huge backlash from butthurt Dante fans who hate the new look. -_- Seriously hoping that they catch a break soon. 

Why I hate Dead Space 3

Anyone who knows me will be able to tell you that I am a tad partial to the horror genre no matter which medium it comes in. I have enjoyed horror books for a long time particularly Poe and Lovecraft, and have seen more than my fair share of horror films particularly the hammer horror films.

The third medium I tend to think of when thinking of horror happens to be video games (I am not discounting audio based horror either to be honest. The midwich cuckoos with Bill Nighy is an amazing radio play and terreffied me as a child) I have in my time played through most of what is usually considered 'the classics' of the form, things like the first two silent hill games and the resident evil games, and I have also tried more contemporary survival horror in it's many flavours (for anyone who didn't think pixels could be scary you need to play lone survivor) 

Having said all of this I have also played the three games in the Dead Space series and I thoroughly enjoyed most of them. To elaborate what I mean is that I own and have played extensivly the first two games in the series, and while I am the first to admit that they weren't ever really scary they did have the atmosphere of horror games for the most part and a large part of why I enjoy horror is the atmosphere that surrounds it.

You may have noticed that I left out the most recent game in the trilogy from my list of dead space games that I have played and enjoyed. This is because I recently got the chance to play Dead Space 3 for free (For anyone who doesn't already know this Playstation Plus is awesome) and found myself thoroughly hating almost every single minute of it.

So sit back and strap in as I use this blog to once more vent my frustrated rage on a game I hate...or explain why I think the games bad whichever sounds better.


1. Co-Op features

For anyone who is not familiar with Dead Space it's really been a single player experience up until now. There may have been some multi-player features involved (I actually don't know I own both the first two on XBOX360 and never pay for gold because my desire for online play is so infrequent that it doesn't warrant a £5 a month subscription) but the main campaigns were always reserved for a single player experience only. This is primarily because a feeling of isolation can create a lot of the horror that one usually feels. The feeling like you are totally alone being overwhelmed by a titanic amount of gutteral horrors is a large part of the enjoyable atmosphere that surrounded dead space in particular.

This has totally been ruined in the third game by having the inclusion of Co-Op features. Apparently the developers felt that the games where going to get stale and tired if they didn't do something to change up the style of the gameplay, so here comes the Co-Op (just so everyone knows you cannot do this crap split-screen, it's on-line only folks) 

Other than the destruction of the atmosphere, which admittedly is only  a problem if you play the co op campaign instead of the solo one, is the changes to the gameplay that effect single player even if you don't want them to. The most noticable is the inclusion of elements and missions that you cannot use if you are on your own, this just serves to make you feel like you're missing out on something when you play the game in single player.

They also waaaaaaay scaled back the power of all your weapons so that it'd be more necessary for you to have two players. In dead space the enemies of the series are already dead and can only be put down permanently by removing most of there limbs, usually you are given engineering tools (your character is an engineer) which are designed for cutting through things meaning that you can slice and dice all you like. In DS3 your weapons don't even make the bad guys flinch half the time.

The lack of power beind the weapons coupled with upgrades that are specifically only useful if you're in Co-Op even if you happen to be playing in single player just make it seem like EA and Visceral the people behind the game didn't give a crap. They slapped together a single player campaign without changing anything and it just makes the game feel like it wasn't designed to be played alone at all.

speaking of guns...

2. Micro-Transactions

If anyone is unaware of the term micro-transactions it basically means that instead of paying full price for something you have the option of buying in really small amounts for lower prices more often, that way the developers get a more steady income stream and those who don't want to pay for the micro-transaction products don't have to. These are usually in free to play games like Farmville or The Tribez so that the devs can support themselves without having to charge for the main game itself.

So why the hell does a full price game need these?

That's right despite being a game that you will have to pay full price for (unless you're me and you've got Playstation Plus) there are still micro-transactions in the game. These come in the form of 'resource packs' which you can use to help build parts to upgrade your weapons or armour, and if you don't pay for them they're usually found lying around on the ground as you play the game. So why would anyone actually pay for the resources?

Well if you remember in single player your guns have been so scaled down in power that if you don't pay for the micro-transactions you're probably going to have a hard time getting through the entire game. I mean I suppose it's arguable that I only think that because I am terrible at the game but I would ask you to remember a few things:

   . I am playing on the easiest difficulty
   . I have been playing games for nearly two decades now

Bearing this in mind shouldn't I be having an easy time of it on this difficulty setting? I mean I could be wrong and the micro-transactions having nothing to do with the scaling down of the weapons but it just smacks a little too much of bullcrap to me.

3. Cliche around every corner 

I know I shouldn't really expect too much from a video game storyline that isn't produced by Bioware but the story of the first two games was at least passable. In the first you're sent to a space ship that's gone quiet to investigate and to see if it can be fixed. I don't remember much about the second games story other than it involved the main character havign his brain probed so that the government can make copies of the evil thing that made people turn into zombie (thanks obamacare. jk) 

In the third game the 'evil' religion of Unitology (careful game devs!) has decided that they want everyone to be evil mindless undead zombies so they try to kill the protagonist because he has a history of destroying the markers. Apart from that not making much sense (1 guy has a history of destroying something meaning he is the ONLY GUY WHO CAN! so much sense) it just comes across as something a blockbuster hollywood film should be doing and not a horror film at that. The game coems across the same as any Sci-Fi action film and even has the cliched characters to match.

The guy who has stolen main characters girlfriend, who is obviously going to be a jerk so that the protagonist can get back together with his girlfriend

The big breasted Ex-Girlfriend of the main character who exists for cheap sex appeal, so she can get back together with the main man and so she can die at some point (Seriously she went from having an almost beleivable human being character design in DS2 to being pointless eye candy with clevage a mile long. For shame Dead Space 3, for shame) 

The nerdy scientist who is just likeable enough that when she dies you feel sort of bad for her

The gruff old man who's seen his fair share of adventure/space travel/engineering etc

The 'oorah' commando block who is clearly there just to be teamed up with the protagonist so they can have a disagreement at the beginning and become friends at the end. (this is made worse by the fact that if you play single player he's not there throughout the game so they've had zero time to have this change in relationship) 

Evil english dude...I shouldn't even have to mention why that's cliched

So there you have, the three main reasons that I am angry at dead space 3. Of course there are many, many MAAAAANY more reasons why this game is terrible and if I were to try and bring them all up on one blog post it would probably be about 5000 pages long and would cause several different types of coma (yes there are types) so I have restrained myself for now in reference to the slagging off of dead space 3.

See you next time I have sheathing to complain about.