Before games like God of War and Bayonetta existed, Capcom revitalized the Hack N’ Slash genre with a game called Devil May Cry. There are five games in the series with the original coming out in 2001 for the Playstation 2. Now, 17 years later, Capcom has re-released the 2012 Devil May Cry HD Collection for current generation consoles!
Title: Devil May Cry HD Collection
Platform: PlayStation 4 (Reviewed), Xbox One, Windows PC
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Release Date: March 13, 2018
Price: $29.99
This game is either going to be one of two things for people. It’s either going to be a new experience for those who have never played the Devil May Cry series or it is going to be a trip down memory lane for those who have. The collection is just that… a collection of the first three Devil May Cry games that were originally released on the Playstation 2 from 2001-2005. Their graphics have been upscaled a little bit for the original release in 2012 on the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, but this re-release doesn’t really do anything to make its current gen release feel special. It’s, simply, just a port.
I would say that would be the only disappointment amongst long-time fans of the series. Sure, there are some galleries you can take your time and enjoy, but the core of this collection are the games themselves. Fans of the series will want to pick this up to add to their collection or, if you’re like me who skipped picking up the original collection six years ago, pick it up for the nostalgia factor.
I will note that Devil May Cry 3 is not the “original” version of the game. It’s actually the previously released Special Edition of the game. This means that you get to play as Dante’s brother Vergil, but he follows Dante’s campaign and doesn’t really get a story of his own.
You get the addition of the Bloody Palace where you can fight waves of enemies one after the other. You cannot save or use items as this is a battle of endurance. It caps off at level 9,999. You do get pillars to choose from which do different things, though. For example, the fire pillar lets you advance 100 levels, the water pillar replenishes your health and the lightning pillar replenishes your devil trigger.
A new difficulty mode: Very Hard. The Very Hard mode is equal to the original release’s Hard Mode. The other difficulties have been adjusted to reflect this meaning that Normal mode is a bit easier than it was in the original release of the game. There’s also a Turbo Mode option which increases the game’s speed by 20% if you find hacking away at endless demons a bit too slow for your tastes. I should note that I did my playthrough using Turbo and absolutely loved it. It felt so much better and the faster paced aligned with my playstyle quite nicely.
There’s also a Digest to watch cutscenes, new costumes for Dante, a semi-option boss called Jester, new powered-up Dullahans and some balancing to jump cancellation techniques. Needless to say, there were a lot of alterations to Devil May Cry 3 and I can say they were welcomed because I own and have played the original and Normal mode felt way overtuned compared to the first and second games.
The first two games remain as-is and I will admit… it’s been a very long time since I’ve played the original Devil May Cry and the first boss pushed a certain excrement in pretty hard until I stopped and realized I had to learn how to play this series all over again. Hey… seventeen years of not touching the original game will do that to a person, okay? Don’t judge! The point is I beat the spider and moved on so all was well in the end!
The big question, in the end, is if Devil May Cry HD Collection is worth the $29.99 price tag. If you own the 2012 edition of this release then I would say you’re not missing anything special here. If you REALLY want to just play it on a current-gen system, then $29.99 is not a terrible price to pay for convenience. On the flipside, if you have never played the Devil May Cry series at all… $29.99 is a price that will buy you a treasure trove of amazing action, platforming, and all-around demon murdering. In fact, if you have never played a Devil May Cry game in your life, you should stop reading this review and pick up a copy today as it will be among the best $30 you will spend in your life as a gamer.
One thing to note here is that, while yes, you can play them in order, the games are not in chronological order. While some of the game systems do improve over time and playing them in chronological order will feel out of place, story-wise, you should start with Devil May Cry 3, then play 1 and 2. It’s only a suggestion and not a recommendation, though.
Devil May Cry HD Collection
Summary
I was a bit torn on what to rate this collection. If you’re basing it on the games alone and you’re a first-time player, then this is easily a 4/5 star title. On the flip side, if you’ve already played, owned and beaten these games and already have the HD Collection that was released in 2012, then this is a 2/5 because Capcom didn’t even bother adding anything worth re-purchasing this title for outside of owning it on current gen for convenience.
