Revived by Reboot: Devil May Cry

The Devil May Cry series from Capcom  has had players slaying demons and stringing combos together since 2001. The games follow Dante, a human with demonic powers who makes a living fighting and occasionally saving the world from demons. The games were all well received and the series had quite a following being one of the most popular stylistic action games on shelves. After four entries in the series though, Capcom decided to switch things up, reboot the game and start from scratch. Nobody really saw it coming and fans complained it didn't need a reboot.

As promotional material and trailers became available, fans really began to voice their concern, some threatening to never buy Capcom games ever again. I completely disagree though. The games never seemed to have a solid story nor did they ever continue from game to game. That isn't a bad thing but they just weren't being executed right and they were beginning to feel stale. The gameplay was fun, but that isn't always enough. This reboot really served to revive the Devil May Cry series.

One of the first major changes of the series was to the main character, Dante himself. Dante's long white hair was traded for a modern brunette cut and he was given a more "western" look. Promotions were released early on depicting the younger-looking Dante as a delinquent, punky guy. He definitely has the, I'm too cool for everything look, which I think put a lot of people off initially. Fans of the series were frustrated with the re-imagination of Dante but I honestly can't fathom why. The original Dante looked like some kind of gigolo stripper. Of course, I loved the series when I was younger and I thought Dante was awesome, but compared to the new Dante, the shirtless, leather pants wearing Dante of the original series just seemed silly in retrospect.

New Dante                                Vs.                                         Old Dante        

The redesign of Dante wasn't the only improvement however; it was only one of many. Perhaps my favorite improvement was to the actual story of the game. Instead of featuring some dude who runs a shop called Devil May Cry and contracts himself out as a demon killer, the reboot decided to take a less corny route. The reboot focused on telling the origin story (many reboots do these days) of Dante and begins with him before he even began fighting against the demonic forces. I won't spoil the story here but it does a great job of explaining where Dante's demonic powers emanate from and his motivation for fighting against the demons. It reveals a lot about Dante as a character and his grim past and the war between demons and angels and how mankind fits into the picture. The game also does a great job of creating an engaging story without sacrificing the self-reflexive humor and occasional one-liners of the original series; the only main difference is the voice actors in the reboot and their ability to not make the game sound like a B rated film on the SyFy channel.

The third and arguably greatest improvement the reboot featured was the enhanced combat. Don't get me wrong, the combat in the original games was amazing and the fact that the reboot was able to improve upon that, is phenomenal. Capcom spiced up the combat with new weapons players earn through the course of the game which can be switched on the fly without ever pausing or using a menu. Dante is still armed with his trademark sword Rebellion and trusty pistols, Ebony and Ivory but he can also equip an arsenal worth of other useful weapons.

These new weapons include a scythe that makes juggling multiple enemies at a time a cinch, an ax for obliterating armored foes, a pair of bladed boomerangs for crowd control and some heavy iron fists for pummeling enemies into a pulp. Dante also gains grappling weapons he can use to pull himself toward enemies or pull the enemies toward him for some deadly punishment. These new weapons allow players to create some seriously insane combos and makes the gameplay fun for newcomers as well. They also help create plenty of variety to increase your stylish rank score which earn you more points to spend on new abilities and upgrades. The combos and weapon switching isn't hard at all. You can be very effective without button mashing and without concentrating on any complicated button presses. The combat is very fluid, smooth and you feel like a total badass the entire time.

I know there have been some bad reboots out there but in some cases, I think a reboot can definitely turn things around for a series and reinvigorate the experience of the game. Devil May Cry is only one example and while many fans of the original series condemned the reboot, the game received mostly positive reviews. I'm eager for news concerning the sequel and I hope to see Capcom follow up with more demon slaying action. What do you think? Did this reboot save the series, or should Capcom have stayed with their original formula?

The list of delays gets longer

The list of games delayed into 2013 gets even longer. Developers are delaying games like it might go out of fashion lately and these aren't small titles. Games like Tomb Raider and Bioshock: Infinite are a couple heavy hitters followed up by the indefinitely delayed Prey 2, South Park, and Aliens: Colonial Marines. Now two more titles and a third which has entered game development limbo, like Prey 2, join the club of games delayed games.

Ninja Theory's Devil May Cry reboot was aiming for an unspecified 2012 release date but it seems after a recent reassessment, the game won't be ready until January of 2013. Thankfully we won't have to wait too far into 2013 to assume the role of the newly redesigned demonic badass, Dante, and get to work slashing and blasting away a demon army from hell. The game is still slated to be shown at E3, so keep an eye out for it there.

Take-Two recently announced that their Sci-fi shooter, XCOM has been delayed yet again and there is no solid release date in sight. According to GameInformer, the earliest in which we may see XCOM would be April of 2013 but not even that is a sure bet right now. No comment was provided to detail reasons behind the second delay of the game but let's just hope it means the game will be that much better. Again, keep an eye out for XCOM at E3 as it will no doubt be present.

While Devil May Cry and XCOM are only delays, Ubisoft's Brothers in Arms: Furious 4 may be suffering from  more serious problems. Furious 4 was aiming for a 2012 release date but signs it wouldn't hit that mark should have been obvious after there was literally nothing on the game after its announcement at E3 of 2011. Now it seems that Ubisoft dropped the trademarks for the game which hints that this may be more than a mere delay. Ubisoft representatives aren't sharing any information behind these recent discoveries either. Personally, I was really excited for this game and I'm really hoping that it isn't canceled. [source: GameInformer]

What do you think of all these game delays. I know the beginning of this article sounded like a rant but it is a little annoying to see so many games being delayed. I do view delays as a good thing though. They're bittersweet; while it sucks we won't get to play the game for a while, there's the chance that the delay will allow developers to make it that much more entertaining. Let's just hope this is the last of the game delays we'll see for a while.