DmC Has Nothing Left to Prove

Editor's Note: This preview contains impressions from the first 5 missions of DmC, and so contains some mild early plot spoilers.

It’s fair to say the DmC has looked better every time we’ve seen it. Ninja Theory was reticent about putting it into players’ hands until the combat was absolutely in place – a process that took years of careful work in collaboration with Capcom Japan – but now that the game is pretty much ready for release, the studio has nothing to hide. Armed with a near-complete version of the game, I put young Dante through his paces over a good ten missions, and found nothing at all to be worried about. On this evidence, this new DmC might actually be better than the Devil you know – the best game in the series since 2008’s Devil May Cry 3.

It’s a pleasure to see DmC’s now fully-fledged combat system in action. It is balletic, rhythmic, subtle and satisfying, and as you play through and unlock more moves for sword, guns, axe and scythe your combos naturally become more varied and elegant. It takes a while to work your fingers around the controls – you need to use the triggers to modify attacks – but once you’ve done that, it emerges as a system with immense complexity and range, letting you flow smoothly between four different weapons at once.

There’s a drip-feed of new demons in the early missions to test out your increasingly diverse arsenal against, each of which exercises your skills differently; some are immune to certain weapons, others have shields that need to be snatched away with the grapple before they can be sliced into bits. This forces you to explore the full range of DmC’s combat and play with the entire system, which in turn naturally helps you to get better at the game. You can redistribute skills between weapons at any point if you want to adjust your combo repertoire; that means no grinding whatsoever.

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The real enjoyment in DmC doesn’t come from making it through the battles, it comes from mastering them.

It really helps to be able to see your Style ranking up in the right-hand corner of the screen, too. When it’s stalling, you know you’re not being creative enough. I nudged up into the SS rankings a couple of times over the first five missions (only on the default difficulty), but never got up to the elusive SSS; a single hit sends you instantly back to B. The real enjoyment in DmC doesn’t come from making it through the battles, it comes from mastering them – dodging out of the way of attacks at just the right second to trigger a damage bonus, chaining moves together, pulling enemies into the path of others’ attacks, using the grapple to either pull enemies towards Dante or yank him across the room towards them, and not getting hit.

Unsurprisingly, if you manage all of that you feel like a god, but the game makes you work for your buzz. DmC’s introductory three missions are relatively gentle, but after that it quickly ramps up the difficulty to the point where making it through a whole level without replenishing health with a Vital Star or having to revive becomes a real achievement. Lose your rhythm mid-fight and you can quickly sacrifice a good quarter of Dante’s health bar.

The difficulty settings are insane, too, in true Devil May Cry tradition: after you’ve completed the game, you unlock a mode with stronger enemies that appear in remixed waves. After that you unlock the appropriately-named Dante Must Die!, and beyond that a mode where all enemies die in one hit, but Dante does as well. And then if you’re completely crazy, there’s Hell or Hell mode, in which enemies all have normal health but Dante still dies in one hit. Yeesh. First person to complete the game under those conditions should probably be flown to Cambridge for personal congratulations from the development team.

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Ninja Theory has made some very successful tweaks to the Devil May Cry backstory that recast Dante and his twin brother Vergil as rather tragic figures.

Ninja Theory has made some very successful tweaks to the Devil May Cry backstory that recast Dante and his twin brother Vergil as rather tragic figures, sons of a murdered mother and an exiled father, separated as children and left to fend for themselves in the world of humans. Because of their enviable genetic heritage, the leader of the demon world fears their power, and has been hunting them down. That’s why Dante is such a thrill-seeking hedonist; he doesn’t believe he’ll be around for long.

Vergil isn’t a playable character (at least not in the retail game, though apparently you’ll be able to take control of him in DLC to be released “shortly after launch” – naughty Capcom), but the part his plays in this tale is significant. It’s Vergil who awakens Dante to his forgotten childhood and his true nature as the son of Sparda, a legendarily powerful demon. A third central character, Kat, slowly develops Dante’s relationship with his human side throughout the game. This is the first game in the series with even a remotely relatable story, but it hasn’t lost the cheekiness or over-the-top nature of old-school Devil May Cry, as the insane opening level amply demonstrates.

That said, Ninja Theory doesn't shy away from difficult imagery; there's a lot of violence and pain in Dante's background. Detailed, pulsing visions from his past show Dante as a young boy, steeped in blood and chaos. One particularly disturbed such image shows him literally digging his hands through his chest into his own heart, trying to feel whether or not he is human. DmC might have its tongue in cheek, but it's not flippant.

DmC is a subversive game in many ways. It’s a Devil May Cry game that doesn’t look like a Devil May Cry game, a hardcore action game with elements of cultural satire and comedy and even human tragedy mixed in. Ninja Theory has had a lot to prove with DmC, but at this late stage the game oozes confidence.

Keza MacDonald is in charge of IGN's games team in the UK and still has a shameful crush on New Dante. You can follow her on IGN and Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com

The Dictator: Banned and Unrated Blu-ray Review

Many critics and film aficionados have likened Sacha Baron Cohen to the great Peter Sellers, a comic genius known for his staggering slapstick, limitless impressions and impersonations and incredible dedication to his craft. Baron Cohen isn't much different. He inhabits his characters completely, and manages to shock and allure his audience with nearly every film he's in. But like Peter Sellers, not every film he works on is a masterpiece. And for every two or three masterworks, there's a dud.

That's not uncommon for comedians. Not every gag will work with a wide audience. And sometimes a joke, or set of jokes, just bombs. Such is The Dictator, a messy film layered with sight gags, pop culture humor and thin jokes that feel insulting, pandering and curiously irrelevant.

This is Baron Cohen's third team-up with director Larry Charles, and the pairing is starting to show some wear and tear. The film never seems to know what it wants to be, juggling back and forth between a more traditional (and downright terrible) “fish out of water” tale with the usual documentary-style antics that made Borat a big hit back in 2006 (yes, it's been that long). Larry Charles seems married to the idea of shooting his films a certain way, and the end results are often bland and cheap, drawn to the surface by the film's more traditional framework.

Sacha Baron Cohen is also a little weak here. He seems less invested in the character this time around, and mostly ends up recycling gags from Borat, Bruno and Ali G. Most of the time he resorts to name-calling and offensive stereotypes to drive the humor, all thinly painted under a veil of righteous social commentary. But you can only take things so far. Pouring a glass of urine on the Israeli prime minister, for example, is funny on a very shallow level, but it's also treacherously offensive and stupid for the sake of being stupid.

Pushing the boundaries is what Baron Cohen is known for, of course, but it seems like he's going out of his way to piss off as many people as he can, while delivering only a thin coat of laughs along the way. The film is poorly made, with obvious green screen shots and a slapped-together, sloppy plot fit for an Adam Sandler flick (Jack and Jill kept coming to mind throughout the film). The documentary-style footage doesn't sit well with the traditional narrative, and most of the humor isn't nearly as stinging or sharp as Borat, or even Bruno.

The only saving grace here is Anna Faris, who perfectly embodies the role of Zoey, a hippie girl, and owner of a New York co-op, who inexplicably falls in love with Baron Cohen's hate machine, Admiral General Aladeen. While the nature of their relationship isn't believable in the slightest, Faris gets the best gags and often steals the show away from Sacha Baron Cohen when she's on screen. In a very dark and dreary film, she's its saving grace.

The Dictator feels like a film Sacha Baron Cohen was forced to make. It doesn't have the passion of Ali G or Borat, or the sharp eye for social commentary that's made his earlier efforts so charming, even when they're crass as hell. The film feels like everyone is simply winging it, throwing out entire chunks of improv, with almost no guidance whatsoever. While The Dictator is certain to have an audience who loves and adores it, it just isn't as solid as Sacha Baron Cohen's previous efforts. But don't count the comic genius out just yet. Not every film has to be a masterpiece, and sometimes a misfire is exactly what's needed to bring things back on track.

The Dictator: Banned and Unrated edition arrives on Blu-ray presented in 1.78:1 widescreen, encoded in 1080p/AVC and mixed in 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio. As noted above, The Dictator is shot almost like a video documentary, even when the film doesn't call for it. As such, the image never quite feels like film. This is further hindered by obvious inconsistencies in the video quality, sometimes wavering between shots (this is more evident in the unrated version). The image is solid overall, and the encode rarely exhibits any major flaws or intrusive distractions, but the cinematography leaves much to be desired.

Audio is generally pretty engaging, though hardly reference quality. The 5.1 DTS-HD MA track is atmospheric at times, and dialogue is clean and without distortion. Bass is a tad subdued, but mixing is immersive, with the film's awesome soundtrack filling the surrounds.

Extras are a bit on the thin side. The biggest goodie is the “unrated” cut of the film, which extends The Dictator by about 15 minutes. To be frank, it's terrible. The added padding amounts to lingering scenes, dull additions and a completely stupid “breast fight” sequence that sounds cooler than it really is. It's also highly derivative of the “naked fight” from Borat. The much tighter, concise theatrical cut is simply a better version of the movie, albeit only by a fraction. If nothing else, it's shorter, which is a good thing in this case.

The rest of the goodies consist of about 35 minutes of deleted/extended material, an interview with Larry King and a music video. The Blu-ray also includes a DVD, Digital Copy and UltraViolet copy of the film. Unfortunately, no commentary or picture-in-picture features are provided. That PiP feature on Bruno was absolutely fantastic – almost better than the film itself. It's a shame that same idea wasn't employed here.

The Dictator is a misfire. It has a few funny moments every now and then, but it's generally a lifeless comedy that recycles gags and offensive humor we've seen before. The film just doesn't have much to say and feels slapped together like a schmaltzy Sandler flick. That said, The Dictator is worth a rental. While it may not be Sacha Baron Cohen's best, it might just tickle your funny bone.

"Never recreate from your memory. Always imagine new places!" Follow R.L. Shaffer on Twitter, Facebook and MyIGN for quotes, rants, reviews, news and more!

Source : ign[dot]com