IGN reviews Devil May Cry 2 [PS2]

**Michael Bluth** · 01-29-2003, 06:50 PM

Closing Comments
In the end, DMC2 is a better than average action game, but it's a terribly disappointing sequel that doesn't deliver on any key points at all. If one hadn't played the first, one might say to oneself, "Hey, this is stylish gothic action!" (Just kidding.) But that's not the case.
The first game, though clearly not perfect, exceeds every aspect of Devil May Cry 2 so much so it's hard to play the second one for very long at all. It's a disappointing title that's shallow where the first was deep, plain where the first was decorative and imaginative, and simple where the other was complex.

The fighting and movement mechanics are all still here, the characters and their supernatural abilities are still here (though no swords through Dante's heart this time, I'm sad to say), and it feels like the first game initially, but after the curious intro scene and the shortness (less than five hours to beat it with Dante the first time around) and ease in every aspect of the fighting, this game has RENTAL all over it. For anyone who is interested, heed my words, rent this first before you buy it. Or at the very least, prepare yourself for the one of the most spectacular letdowns of the year.

-- Douglass C. Perry

Presentation
Good all around presentation, as long as you're not talking about the story. 7.5

Graphics
Perhaps a tad less decorative or imaginative than the first, but the level arenas are bigger and outdoors. 9.0

Sound
Decent to bad voice acting and absolutely horrible dialog that confuses instead of illuminates. But good music and sound effects. 7.8

Gameplay
Like the first but not. The new moves are cool , but empty and shallow. The juggle system is essentially worthless. 7.0

Lasting Appeal
Short and easy. At least you can play through as Lucia, but even her inclusion is kind of questionable if the first pass through is so disappointing. 6.0

OVERALL SCORE (not an average) 7.0

Ouch.

**Future Starlocke** · 01-29-2003, 06:53 PM

GOOD FUCKING GREAT.

You bunch of damned drooling Devil May Cry bastards... maybe next time you'll listen to me when I say "I've seen 'em come and go, I can tell a good or bad game just based on it in motion."

**JackieChanIsGOD** · 01-29-2003, 06:54 PM

Awww booooooooooo
By the looks of the movies and screens and the way they describe the fighting, you'd think it'd be good...
BLAH
That really friggin sucks...

**Suzuki_Fanboy** · 01-29-2003, 07:29 PM

Originally posted by JackieChanIsGOD
Awww booooooooooo
By the looks of the movies and screens and the way they describe the fighting, you'd think it'd be good...
BLAH
That really friggin sucks...

Yea...I thought it would at least be better than the first. Geez...only a 7.0...

**smellslikenintendospirit** · 01-29-2003, 07:44 PM

10 bucks says that gamespot will give it a 9.8 and say it's the best game ever. just like gamespot to do something like that.

**DLX** · 01-29-2003, 07:54 PM

The Gamers.com Devil May Cry 2 Review:

http://www.gamers.com/game/1150555/

"It's been a little over a year since I played Devil May Cry, but I still remember much of its greatness as though I took on the forces of Mundus just yesterday. So, why is it that I'm having such a hard time remembering anything great about Devil May Cry 2, which I actually did play yesterday? Probably because there isn't that much great stuff to say. As sophomore efforts to promising new series go, no game has ever let me down more than Devil 2. Although the follow-up to the coolest game ever made does have enough pluses to warrant a positive score, its setbacks make me want to cry.
It's a bit ironic, too: The developers obviously paid attention to gamers' few dislikes about the first game (namely, its lack of a second playable character and steep difficulty), and they did their best to address them. But address is all they did, without executing any actual improvement.

The most obvious addition to Devil 2, the new playable character, Lucia, prefers short swords and an endless supply of knives to Dante's trademark broadsword/dual gun combo. The gameplay mechanics control remarkably well and, despite the different weapons, remain similar for each character. As a result, Lucia kicks every bit as much ass as Dante through some fabulous-looking environments.

The catch? Dante doesn't kick as much ass as he did in the original. Although experimenting to find Dante's new animations early in the game might provide you with hope that Devil 2 can live up to its potential (how can you not love a headfirst, guns-a-blazin' dive toward solid concrete after a double jump?), the game seems to have taken a step back in the "cool moves that are also helpful" department. Do I like running up a wall and flipping backward? Of course. But it has absolutely no use in the middle of a fight other than, I presume, to raise the Style grade you see at the end of a level?which, by the way, I managed only straight Ds in, no matter how hard I tried to mix things up.

Rest assured, though, that getting a decent Style grade is about the only thing you'll find difficult in Devil 2. Remember how tough the original was? Some found it too hard, but to me the difficulty was absolutely perfect?tough enough that it took several attempts to succeed, but by no means impossible. In the sequel, quite the opposite is true. In fact, you almost have to try to die. Enemies attack with the ferocity of the Snuggle bear, meaning you rarely have to go through the trouble of using a health item.
And bosses? They're basically just bigger enemies with longer health bars, who challenge you only when the game's lousy camera angles make it impossible to foresee an attack. You can defeat almost any boss simply by moving around a lot and repeatedly firing Dante's gun or Lucia's knives. And the more easily accessed Devil Trigger only simplifies matters by making you temporarily stronger and invincible. Honestly, should I be able to knock off the final bosses for both Dante and Lucia the very first time I fight them, with little tension coursing through my body over whether or not I'll succeed? Last game, some bosses literally made my heart pound in my chest, the battles were so intense. Where have you gone, Nelo Angelo?

Although the developers at least tried to improve gameplay for Devil 2, its story was even more of an afterthought than that of the first game. Devil 1 offered a stupid plot with shallow character development, but did feature some kick-ass cut-scenes. This time, a stupider plot with shallower character development is matched with cut-scenes so unextraordinary I can't remember all that much about them. Even after playing through an entire game as Lucia (all two and a half hours of it!), I still feel no attachment to her whatsoever. As far as I know, the evil businessman she and Dante (in his sub-five-hour quest) do battle with is actually just a nice, misunderstood guy who likes to transform into oversized monsters. Give him a break, OK?

Another thing I loved about Devil 1 was Dante's character. He was so cool in that Wolverine-meets-James-Bond way. Really corny lines like "let's rock" and "flock off, feather face" sound only kind of corny when spoken by him. Now, Dante's much more subdued, seeming to speak only when he has to. Throw in the head-scratching addition of a coin he flips to determine whether he should play hero (when exactly did he become Two-Face?), and his current reign as OPM's No. 1 badass might be in jeopardy.

I do have to give Dante credit, though. At one point in Devil 2, he sums up a late boss fight quickly and succinctly: "Too easy."

Score: 6

I find this hard to Swallow, but it is what it is, thats what capcom gets for switching the entire cast responsible for DMC 1.

**MarktMan007** · 01-29-2003, 09:31 PM

wow this is suprising to say the least.....this could have easily been a huge game based on the popularity of the first but looks like they blew their opportunity to cash in big

**Suzuki_Fanboy** · 01-29-2003, 09:45 PM

Word up, Markt. I guess they slacked because they thought it would sell even if it did suck, because like you said, the first game was so popular. Oh well...maybe we should all go play Shenmue! Whaddya say?

**Dark_Cloud** · 01-29-2003, 09:58 PM

eh, whatever, i dont own a ps2

**=NukeBlaze=** · 01-30-2003, 12:43 AM

Shenmue? The rat bastereds withheld it from the U.S. when every other part of the world recieved it. This probably a result from the Xbox development and slacking U.S. DC sales.

I never cared for the series myself, though I believe a 3D castlevania would have benifited from the set up over the god awful N64 3D set up. I still have nightmare about carrying around a vial , which happens to contain a substance that will explode when touched by an enemy, when jumping, or buping into anything, while dodging for me life and the idiot attacking me who do not know of thier doom if they make me drop the vial. In fact, later I went back just to smoke then enemies with it by chasing them down and droping it.

**Suzuki_Fanboy** · 01-30-2003, 12:53 AM

Originally posted by =NukeBlaze=
Shenmue? The rat bastereds withheld it from the U.S. when every other part of the world recieved it. This probably a result from the Xbox development and slacking U.S. DC sales.

I'll take it you are talking about Shenmue II. That game was actually pretty easy to get a hold of, if you actually tried. I could have gotten it from about 5 different stores (if I wanted it) and it's the most imported game in history. Sooo...don't call Sega rat "bastereds" for something you don't know about.

**=NukeBlaze=** · 01-30-2003, 01:35 AM

I knew perfectly well "I" could get it and it was the Sequal not the first..But what about the rest of the people who didn't know how to mod thier DC to accept thier Imported versions? Actually I believe DC's GameShark had a Anti-Anti-Contenental Lock. Yes..Yes I am calling them rat bastereds for thier decision and yes I know indeed what I speak of. Don't try to take the bullet from your team's captin when I call them rat bastered. It is called criticism for thier decision. As well, Don't worry..I have been a fan of Sega for a long time so it is 0 damage done. Final

**sagara0510** · 01-30-2003, 03:04 AM

awww shitty scores
and i was looking forward to this game...

**Link of Zelda** · 02-02-2003, 05:45 PM

its not that bad

**DLX** · 02-02-2003, 07:20 PM

Originally posted by Link of Zelda
its not that bad

The Scores or the game itself?

**Michael Bluth** · 02-02-2003, 07:31 PM

My guess is that he means the game itself.........

"It is perhaps my life's greatest sadness to announce that the bad reviews of Devil May Cry 2 are right on the money. Where the reviewers and I might differ somewhat is in their extremely high opinion of the first game.

The complicated thing is that I still think that Devil My Cry 2 is fun, it's fun to shoot the guys, and if fun is the only axis we're analyzing then it does okay. Dante - already a very stylish character - has been given some schmancy new maneuvers that, while not always useful, are always appealing. So style, at least where characters are concerned, we've got that too. Already it sounds like I'm talking about a Woo flick. There are just so many missed opportunities in virtually every other department that it would be impossible to recommend it straight across without about fifteen minutes of qualifications.

Though in my opinion (this is from the archive, actually) the first Devil May Cry "loses cohesion" an hour from the end of the game, Devil May Cry 2 has never even heard of cohesion. "What's that?" it will ask you, with a quizzical look. "Well, Devil May Cry 2," you will say with some exasperation, "Cohesion is when the things that happen in the game, I mean, in you, seem to fit together sensibly and bolster the entire concept."

"Oh," it will say.

While the savvy action portions of the game have migrated from the first with only a few additions, storywise the game is completely MIA. It's not that boring things are always happening (although I guess that is up to interpretation), it's that nothing really happens, ever - nothing you don't expect, anyhow. I was titillated by the idea of Dante doing his thing in dystopian (spell checker suggestion: "Dyspepsia"), urban environments, at least until I saw them. It strikes me that I wrote papers like them in elementary school: rote, repetitive, meandering excesses that did not utilize higher brain functions, for myself or for the reader. Don't even start me on the fucking camera in this game. I want to stress that, even as I am typing these things, these terrible things, I do sort of have the urge to hit some demons up in the air with my sword. That's the grim duality of the game, it has these cool characters with spectacular abilities in stupid places doing things I don't care about. Whatever I might think about the conclusion of the original Devil May Cry, a lot of very cool things happened. It had really interesting gothic sensibilities, a healthy dose of strange melodrama, extremely hot arachnids, and so forth. When I say that something is missing from the one I'm playing now, it is as though I have the version without cutscenes. It is that jarring.

Like any good action movie, DMC2 does sport a few clever set pieces that you will appreciate. I doubt that they will overshadow the rest of it for you. I hope that the third time will be the charm, then again, I hoped the second time would be the charm. "

www.penny-arcade.com

**C.J.** · 02-02-2003, 07:41 PM

Originally posted by smellslikenintendospirit
10 bucks says that gamespot will give it a 9.8 and say it's the best game ever. just like gamespot to do something like that.