Initially developed as a Resident Evil game, Devil May Cry 1 ultimately ending up becoming its own thing, although vestiges of Resident Evil can still be seen in it.
The story is simple enough. You're a demon hunter named Dante and you travel to a mysterious island, traverse it and overcome all sorts of challenges.
The game is split across 23 levels and has a fair amount of exploration in it. Each level is relatively short and the entire game is around 6-7 hours, so if you own it on a handheld console, it's a good game on the go. On a first playthrough, it can be a little rough, but when you know what you're doing, it can be far more fun.
The gothic architecture, eerie ambiance, off-beat music, a castle that has dangers lurking at every corner, plenty of small spaces where you either fight or die (and more) make for a truly great atmosphere. And in my opinion, the highlight of the game.
The combat system is good. The only thing to complain about is that it's rather simple in comparison to other games in the series. The inability to quickly switch between all your weapons can also be quite annoying. The enemy design, which oftentimes rewards proper dodging and attack timing mostly makes up for it, however.
The game does have some pretty apparent flaws though.
The fixed camera helps boost the atmosphere, but really requires some getting used to when in combat. Getting multiple camera cuts in the same room while an enemy is launching projectiles can be especially annoying.
The gold orb system makes the game unnecessarily harder than it should be and the game forcing you to use them even if you don't want to makes it even worse.
There are a few segments which take place underwater and those are not fun. Same can be said about the platforming sections.
And finally, they reuse bosses multiple times which was a bit of a shame.
There are things to both like and dislike here. The atmosphere is great, combat and enemy design are pretty good, but stuff like the fixed camera angles and the gold orb system (which can force you to replay an entire level) can be pretty frustrating.
An interesting experience, but not for everyone.
The story is simple enough. You're a demon hunter named Dante and you travel to a mysterious island, traverse it and overcome all sorts of challenges.
The game is split across 23 levels and has a fair amount of exploration in it. Each level is relatively short and the entire game is around 6-7 hours, so if you own it on a handheld console, it's a good game on the go. On a first playthrough, it can be a little rough, but when you know what you're doing, it can be far more fun.
The gothic architecture, eerie ambiance, off-beat music, a castle that has dangers lurking at every corner, plenty of small spaces where you either fight or die (and more) make for a truly great atmosphere. And in my opinion, the highlight of the game.
The combat system is good. The only thing to complain about is that it's rather simple in comparison to other games in the series. The inability to quickly switch between all your weapons can also be quite annoying. The enemy design, which oftentimes rewards proper dodging and attack timing mostly makes up for it, however.
The game does have some pretty apparent flaws though.
The fixed camera helps boost the atmosphere, but really requires some getting used to when in combat. Getting multiple camera cuts in the same room while an enemy is launching projectiles can be especially annoying.
The gold orb system makes the game unnecessarily harder than it should be and the game forcing you to use them even if you don't want to makes it even worse.
There are a few segments which take place underwater and those are not fun. Same can be said about the platforming sections.
And finally, they reuse bosses multiple times which was a bit of a shame.
There are things to both like and dislike here. The atmosphere is great, combat and enemy design are pretty good, but stuff like the fixed camera angles and the gold orb system (which can force you to replay an entire level) can be pretty frustrating.
An interesting experience, but not for everyone.