DMC 2 is so strange that it deserves more than its reputation simply being "game sucks." It doesn't deserve better, but it does deserve more. Let me start by just aggregating all my major issues with the game:
1. The enemy AI is almost unilaterally broken. A lot of bosses are ostensibly pacifists. They don't to hurt Dante. In many instances they simply can't.
2. Pretty much 95% of bosses can be killed by spamming Ebony & Ivory. If you have a turbo button on your controller you can bring your playtime down from 3.5 hours to probably two-hours-forty-five.
3. The plot here is more an elaborate collection of mostly unrelated cutscenes than a coherent storyline.
4. The game employs an auto lock-on and a manual lock-off (what), neither of which really work properly.
5. The upgrade system has pretty much been stripped out for... something that I never really understood. You can reach S-rank sometimes by just mashing Rebellion.
6. Infested Chopper.
As you'll notice, that means basically every pillar of the game is ostensibly busted. And that is true. But DMC2 also has some cool elements. I'll list those next:
1. The art direction is mostly really good. Lots of super cool locations and enemy designs.
2. Dante animates quite well. He also feels a lot more nimble than DMC1.
3. Gaining new traversal powers to use in Devil Trigger is a great idea.
5. There's a great amount of environmental variety here, something I think DMC suffers with as a series overall.
4. It's still Devil May Cry, so it's intrinsically cool.
Often, playing this game is like playing an NES game that's sort of objectively disastrously programmed but is still fun both in spite of, and because of, all these issues. It's almost comedic how all the tentpole elements of the game are just in shambles, it's sort of fun chuckling while standing in the corner of a boss arena burning their health bar with Ebony & Ivory while the boss just vibes alone in the opposite corner.
Because DMC 2 is so short and so extremely easy, you can kinda just sit back and enjoy the mess unfold. This game is almost entirely painless to play through: if all the big problems coalesced in a game that was angeringly hard then it'd be a half star. But it's not. Above all, DMC 2 is just sort of a source of bemusement. I think it's worth playing if only just to appreciate how a game of this status turns out this bizarrely. It's rare to play something which fails so completely, and I'd be lying if I said that's not worth the afternoon it'll take to see through.
1. The enemy AI is almost unilaterally broken. A lot of bosses are ostensibly pacifists. They don't to hurt Dante. In many instances they simply can't.
2. Pretty much 95% of bosses can be killed by spamming Ebony & Ivory. If you have a turbo button on your controller you can bring your playtime down from 3.5 hours to probably two-hours-forty-five.
3. The plot here is more an elaborate collection of mostly unrelated cutscenes than a coherent storyline.
4. The game employs an auto lock-on and a manual lock-off (what), neither of which really work properly.
5. The upgrade system has pretty much been stripped out for... something that I never really understood. You can reach S-rank sometimes by just mashing Rebellion.
6. Infested Chopper.
As you'll notice, that means basically every pillar of the game is ostensibly busted. And that is true. But DMC2 also has some cool elements. I'll list those next:
1. The art direction is mostly really good. Lots of super cool locations and enemy designs.
2. Dante animates quite well. He also feels a lot more nimble than DMC1.
3. Gaining new traversal powers to use in Devil Trigger is a great idea.
5. There's a great amount of environmental variety here, something I think DMC suffers with as a series overall.
4. It's still Devil May Cry, so it's intrinsically cool.
Often, playing this game is like playing an NES game that's sort of objectively disastrously programmed but is still fun both in spite of, and because of, all these issues. It's almost comedic how all the tentpole elements of the game are just in shambles, it's sort of fun chuckling while standing in the corner of a boss arena burning their health bar with Ebony & Ivory while the boss just vibes alone in the opposite corner.
Because DMC 2 is so short and so extremely easy, you can kinda just sit back and enjoy the mess unfold. This game is almost entirely painless to play through: if all the big problems coalesced in a game that was angeringly hard then it'd be a half star. But it's not. Above all, DMC 2 is just sort of a source of bemusement. I think it's worth playing if only just to appreciate how a game of this status turns out this bizarrely. It's rare to play something which fails so completely, and I'd be lying if I said that's not worth the afternoon it'll take to see through.