This game has been rated M for Mature by the Entertainment Software Rating Board for Blood, Suggestive Themes, and Violence.

System Requirements: OS: Windows 2000 or XP only
Processor: 1 GHz Pentium III or AMD Athlon (2GHz Pentium 4 recommended)
RAM: 256 MB (512 MB recommended)
Video: 128 MB DirectX 9.0c compliant graphics card (256 recommended) Supported chipsets: NVIDIA GeForce FX/6/7 families, and ATI Radeon 9500-9800/X families (X200 NOT supported).
Audio: DirectX 9.0c compliant sound device.
Peripherals: Mouse and keyboard supported, 4-axis dual analog gamepad with 12 or more buttons recommended.

 

Devil May Cry 3 is another addition to Capcom\'s popular over-the-top demon-slaying franchise. Dante himself is a demon, son of Sparda, who sacrificed himself long ago to close the maw of hell. But now, two men are conspiring to reopen hell and turn the world into a kingdom for demons. One of these men is Vergil, Dante\'s own brother and also a demon. Dante, who has just opened a shop as a demon hunter for hire, must put down his pizza and take up his sword, dual handguns, and razor wit to stop this threat. Along the way, he meets the Demon Hunter Lady, who has a score of her own to settle. Bloodlines intertwine, loyalties are tested, and families are set against each other in Capcom\'s thrilling action epic. Devil May Cry 3 is a prequel to the previous two games in the series.

Gameplay

Devil May Cry 3 is a third-person three-dimensional action game with a heavy emphasis on over-the-top violence, combos, and style. Dante has several weapons (called Devil Arms) and styles to choose from. He starts out with his standard Japanese anime Gigantic Sword (which is standard issue for anything that comes out of Japan), and obtains four or five more swords as the game progresses. The same goes for the guns, which, unfortunately, aren’t nearly as interesting. I used the same two guns for nearly every level. Dante’s styles, which he can choose from at the beginning of the level, include: Trickster (use evasive moves to outsmart enemies), Swordmaster (swords are more powerful), Gunslinger (guns are more powerful), and Royal Guard (block enemy attacks). Two more styles, Quicksilver (slow down time) and Doppelganger (make a duplicate Dante), become available throughout the game. These styles, especially the first three, open up whole new combos strings and sets of moves for Dante with the press of a special style button, which executes a particular attack depending on the style and weapon. A little ways through the game, Dante gains the ability to transform into his demon form, called Devil Trigger. During this time, he causes much more damage, moves faster, and slowly regains health. When killed, enemies drop orbs, referred to as demon blood, which can be used to buy new moves and weapons, or upgrade guns Dante already owns. There are twenty stages in the game total, but the stages are long and hard; some can take up to an hour to complete.

This is one of the most difficult games I have ever played. The difficulty gets positively blistering in the last few stages, as Stage 18 forces the player to relive the boss battles that took so much work earlier in the game. The enemies and the action start to get a little repetitive, as sometimes you may just find yourself pressing every button in the hopes of escaping from a horde of enemies. However, with plenty of practice, an almost graceful aspect is added to the combat, and almost nothing looks cooler than that. On the other hand, it\'s a good idea to try out different combos, because at the end of each stage, Dante is graded on his level completion speed, number of orbs collected, damage taken, and style. Based on these letter grades, Dante can earn extra orbs. One thing I must comment on is the cut scenes. I have never seen cut scenes like these. It all feels like a big-budget action film. The camera spins, takes interesting angles, zooms in, and slows down to capture the well-written dialogue and spectacular cut scene action. I was blown away. Beating the game unlocks a very special treat in this Special Edition: the option to play through the game as Virgil, Dante’s formidable brother.

Virgil can lay waste to enemies in half the time it took Dante to do the same thing. There are also new screens and a couple of new cut scenes for Virgil. Playing as him is awesome, and well worth beating the game to get it. He has different styles and moves, and is far more than a cheap gimmick. Other things that are unlocked by beating the game on normal include the Bloody Palace (a very fun survival mode), Demo Digest (to view cut scenes), galleries, a mind-numbing Hard mode, two new costumes for Dante, and more. These unlockables are exclusive to the Special Edition. The other change to the special edition is a slightly more forgiving overall difficulty level.

Graphics

The graphics are very impressive, but sometimes look a tad muddy. There are cool effects, such as shimmering for Devil Trigger, discarded bullet casings, dust, sparks, and other minuscule details. Just make sure that you have a powerful processor and a beefy graphics card with the latest drivers in order to handle it. At the full framerate, this game moves almost too fast.

Sound

The voice acting was cheesy at worst, but was great for the most part. Dante’s party-dude voice got a little irritating after a while, but was funny before that point. The music is great. It’s almost an entirely metal score, and the CD soundtrack (sold separately) is on three discs with around twenty songs on each disc. That should give you an idea as to how much music is packed into this game.

Controls/Interface

DMC3 was originally designed for the PlayStation 2, and this port’s keyboard interface is absolutely abominable on the standard settings. If you plan on using a keyboard, be ready to wrestle with the controls a lot. You’ll need to play around with them for a while before you find a comfortable and manageable control scheme. Eventually, I found the perfect setup and was dispatching demons with ease, but it will probably be worth the extra money to get the gamepad.

Stability

DMC3 is all about speed. Therefore, I cannot stress enough the importance of a powerful processor. I recommend going at least a 2 GHz processor. My 1.6 GHz processor didn’t stutter too badly, but the game ran at a lower framerate. It was still about the speed of a regular action game, but at full speed the game is ridiculously exciting (and that’s not even the 120% speed Turbo mode). The game never crashed that I can remember.

Appropriateness

Well, it is called Devil May Cry. Violence: -Killing Non-human, fictional beings: -3.5 -Blood Sprays on the wall and everywhere else: -2.5 This was a tricky category to rate. Demons are, of course, real, but we don’t really know that these beasts featured in DMC are true representations. But they aren’t really “realistic creatures” either. There is a certain enemy type, a gargoyle made of nothing but blood, that splatters gore across the environment when hit, but all of the other enemies merely spray blood, which does not go on the walls or floor. The cut scenes are a little more explicit in their depiction of violence, with some positively wince-inducing scenes. Foul Language: -Minor swear words are used once or twice: -2 While Dante utters maybe one each of “d***” and “h***” in the entirety of the cut scenes, one particular attack is always accompanied with “go to h***”. However, I interpret the latter as an actual command, not a profane exclamation, as he is fighting demons. Sexual Content: -Partial Nudity: -4 -No sexual content A lustful female demon boss is topless, with nothing but long red hair to cover her breasts. She makes some come-ons to Dante, none of which are explicit. Demon Hunter Lady wears tight short shorts and a slightly cleavage-bearing top. In her defense, however, her sexuality is not accentuated or even referenced at all. There is a tier of demons that represents lust. Occult: -Major occult references: -5 -Occult magic is used by player: -5 This was very tricky to grade, because I’m not really sure if Dante becoming a demon is necessarily “Occult”. However, a central character seeks to become an immortal demon himself.

In a climactic, heart-pounding scene, he calls out the seven deadly sins, causing seven bells to ring and the maw of hell to open. He is transformed into a demon, but is ultimately undone by his sinful desires and his lust for power. [END SPOILER] Cultural/Moral/Ethical and Bonus Points -No prejudices or biases -Shows consequences of evil and messing with the occult: +3 Though utterly preposterous, Dante’s story is one of a demon fighting his brethren for the continued peace and existence of mankind. The villain is destroyed in the end by his desire to be a demon and unleash hell on earth. It should also be noted that Dante gains a special “key” which is something like a soul in this case, but it’s so dark that it slowly depletes his health. While maybe not worth of bonus points, Dante and his rival and brother Vergil must team up at one point against a common foe.

Final Ratings

Game Play: 19/20
Graphics: 8/10
Sound: 10/10
Control: 2/5
Stability: 4/5 Violence: 4/10
Language: 8/10
Sexual Content: 6/10
Occult: 0/10
Cultural. Etc: 10/10
Bonus +3

Total: 74% C

It really boils down to how you feel about controlling a demon. Personally, as long as I’m not commanded to go and kill innocent human beings, I don’t have too big of an issue, since Dante’s actions in the game are for an ultimately good reason. While it is an amazing adventure, it is still one that, due to the violence and occult references, should only be experienced by mature players. However, I must say that if you want to try this game and have a PS2, I would strongly recommend getting it for the console.