DMC demo Impressions

From its very first reveal western studio Ninja Theory's Devil May Cry reboot  has been met with the harshest criticism from long time fans. This game has had an uphill struggle to prove itself to the DMC die hard, who even after all manor of positive previews from the gaming press have already decided that the franchise has been ruined by its latest installment. Ninja Theory have finally clamored to the fans and released a demo - but does it live up to the series previous high benchmarks?

What immediately struck me when I first booted the demo was the intriguing modern day story setting. It turns out that demons control the world in which we live, subduing us with energy drinks, spying on us through our camera systems and brainwashing us through news networks ( the broadcast shown ironically was very reminiscent of fox news). It turns out that Dante is half angel and half demon and so he joins his twin brother Virgil's resistance movement to free humanity from its enslavement. It's not exactly oscar worthy writing but the initial cutscene definitely peaked my interest - the whole Illumanti/ resistance/ secret world vibe is a cool and original take on modernising the franchise.

 After the initial cutscene you find yourself in a bright and colourful demon limbo world that exists  between the demon world and our own. If you've played Enslaved you will notice that Ninja Theory's love for vibrant and colourful worlds is still here, albeit with a suitably gothic DMC twist. What really matters here ,however is the gameplay.

The first change you'll notice is that there is no kind of target locking system, this sounds like it would make combat a complete disaster  but 90% of the time I was attacking the enemy I wanted to 'target' thanks to the new 'demon pull'  and 'angel lift'abilities, which allow you to pull enemies toward you and launch yourself toward them respectively . The combat feels quite varied and very fluid, more Bayonetta than Devil May Cry 4 ( which definitely isn't a bad thing in my book) and I found myself putting together combos and getting some A ranks relatively quickly as I settled in to the new combat system.

The majority of the rest of the level sees the demon world try to destroy you by changing shape and therefore causing you to jump over things quite a lot. The platforming is fine in this game, if somewhat unintuitive - it feels pretty standard and if anything a bit clunkier than in Enslaved. I'm interested to know how much platforming has been squeezed into this game, if it is varied and not too regular it could create some pretty awesome set pieces and break up the combat sections nicely.

After the main demo section is completed I checked out the second option on the menu screen which drops you into one of the games' boss battles. It was fun and the boss looked great but wasn't hugely original or inventive. What I really liked about this section was the banter between the boss and Dante - instead of the usual arch villain world destroying speech and the hero's self righteous replies it was quite refreshing to hear them throw cheap insults at each other and to see the game writer's not taking the game too seriously.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the DMC reboot demo, the game definitely felt like Devil May Cry but the intriguing real world story setting and updated combat really make it feel fresh and relevant in a post Bayonetta world. Obviously this demo was only two brief sections of the game but the overall mechanics seemed enjoyable and solid. Have Ninja Theory made a successful DMC game? From what I've seen I would emphatically say yes.