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While I've been familiar with this series for ages, Devil May Cry V was the first game in the series I've played. While I like hack-n-slash games, I don't have much experience with them outside of loving Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and playing a bit of Bayonetta, so I didn't really know what to expect. What I initially started playing as a "side game" to lift my spirits whenever A Plague Tale: Innocence got too emotionally overwhelming, ended up taking over the majority of my gaming free time, and caused me to put Plague Tale on the backburner. It really leans into the "game" part of video games, feeling very reminiscent of DOOM 2016's mentality of "gameplay first, story later", and it ended up being an incredibly fun experience once things started to click.


The visuals are not the highlight by any stretch, but they're pretty solid for the most part. The characters look amazing obviously, with an incredible level of detail put into them. The same can be said about the environments, however I will say that I wish the game had more variety in the levels themselves. They all feel very similar, either going the route of being city ruins or the inside of the demons' domain. While it makes sense from a story perspective, as well as it being somewhat alleviated towards the end, I still wish they did more with the environments in this game considering how high quality the visuals themselves are. Surprisingly, I thought the game did a surprisingly good job of not overwhelming the player with visual effects, which I thought would get overbearing due to the emphasis on style and the general absurdity of these games. Overall, the visuals were good, although I wish they had some more variety.


Of course, if you're looking into buying this kind of game, the gameplay is the most crucial aspect to that. And thankfully, Devil May Cry V delivers in spades. There is an insane amount of depth and fluidity to the combat, which gets multiplied when considering that you're playing three different characters throughout the campaign. The quality of the combat alone makes the price of admission worthwhile, and the game knows this. Like DOOM, it focuses almost solely on combat, almost to a fault depending on who you ask. However, this didn't really bother me, because the game's focus on customization means that you can easily change your playstyle on the fly and still get rewarded for it, so while you're restricted to basically nothing but combat, the combat doesn't restrict you. The bosses were also quite enjoyable, and considering some of the horror stories I've heard about some of the bosses in this series, I felt they were almost all consistently good, and were simply mediocre at worst. As far as criticisms go, I will reiterate my wish that the levels had some more variety in them in terms of design (maybe different gimmicks in combat like hazards). I also felt like the parts of the game where you had to play as V weren't as interesting and also exponentially more painful due to the nature of his playstyle, but this is mostly alleviated considering that you're only required to play him for a few chapters. Overall, while I have my criticisms of the gameplay, I can set them aside considering just how incredibly smooth, deep, and plain entertaining the combat is.


The story isn't particularly good, but it didn't really take itself seriously so I had some fun with it at least. There were a few times where I felt like things just happened so the plot can move forward, and there were quite a few characters thrown to the wayside that I thought were pretty major figures in the series, namely Lady and Trish. I also wish some things were more coherently explained (like a certain turning point and major reveal towards the end of the game), but again, I didn't really have any level of expectation for the story. Could it have been a little more thorough in its story while still not taking itself seriously? I think so. And while I can forgive the story for being sort of weak considering how absurd it is, it still feels just a tad bit underdeveloped and could've benefited from an extra scene or two. However, this is not a dealbreaker by any stretch, and is more of a mild gripe than anything.


The music is fine. Some of it feels like a mess of aggressive noises to "pump you up" or whatever, but certain tunes were quite enjoyable. "Devil Trigger" alone brings this game's audio score up quite a bit, though. The voice acting's pretty good, with everyone doing a pretty good job of leaning into their stereotypical aspects of their character to add to the silliness of the story. There isn't much else to say. Everything that isn't "Devil Trigger" is just fine, I guess.


While the game is quite short and there isn't much you can do to make playthroughs different on a basic level, the addition of harder difficulties paired with the aforementioned incredible combat means that you can absolutely get some more out of this game than just a single playthrough. While I have not tested this myself, I believe that harder difficulties give enemies new attacks and do more than just bloat their health and damage, which could further incentivize you to play through the game multiple times. There's absolutely some replay value here that is more than just player-motivated if you enjoy the combat system enough.


In conclusion, there isn't a lot to say about Devil May Cry 5 outside of its gameplay. It's an extremely well-made hack-n-slash game that loves leaning in to its sillier side. It's absolutely worth it just for the combat alone, but it's a game that can be simply described as fun. And for a critic like me that often finds meaning in games deeper than just what level of entertainment do they provide, it's nice to have a game like this every so often. Definitely worth a try.

Graphics - 9.0/10
Gameplay - 10/10
Story - 6.5/10
Audio - 8.0/10
Content Value - 8.0/10

.:8.6/10:.
"Great"

+ Incredible combat system
+ Stunning graphics
+ Devil Trigger
+ Surprisingly high replay value
+ Lots of creativity and depth

- Lack of variety in level design
- Some underdeveloped story aspects

[u]Like my reviews? Go follow my [url=https://steamproxy.net/steamstore/curator/33012112-Gandhi-Talks-Games/]Curator page.[/url][/u] While I've been familiar with this series for ages, [i]Devil May Cry V[/i] was the first game in the series I've played. While I like hack-n-slash games, I don't have much experience with them outside of loving [i]Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance[/i] and playing a bit of [i]Bayonetta[/i], so I didn't really know what to expect. What I initially started playing as a "side game" to lift my spirits whenever [i]A Plague Tale: Innocence[/i] got too emotionally overwhelming, ended up taking over the majority of my gaming free time, and caused me to put [i]Plague Tale[/i] on the backburner. It really leans into the "game" part of video games, feeling very reminiscent of [i]DOOM 2016[/i]'s mentality of "gameplay first, story later", and it ended up being an incredibly fun experience once things started to click. [h1]Graphics[/h1] The visuals are not the highlight by any stretch, but they're pretty solid for the most part. The characters look amazing obviously, with an incredible level of detail put into them. The same can be said about the environments, however I will say that I wish the game had more variety in the levels themselves. They all feel very similar, either going the route of being city ruins or the inside of the demons' domain. While it makes sense from a story perspective, as well as it being somewhat alleviated towards the end, I still wish they did more with the environments in this game considering how high quality the visuals themselves are. Surprisingly, I thought the game did a surprisingly good job of not overwhelming the player with visual effects, which I thought would get overbearing due to the emphasis on style and the general absurdity of these games. Overall, the visuals were good, although I wish they had some more variety. [h1]Gameplay[/h1] Of course, if you're looking into buying this kind of game, the gameplay is the most crucial aspect to that. And thankfully, [i]Devil May Cry V[/i] delivers in spades. There is an insane amount of depth and fluidity to the combat, which gets multiplied when considering that you're playing three different characters throughout the campaign. The quality of the combat alone makes the price of admission worthwhile, and the game knows this. Like [i]DOOM[/i], it focuses almost solely on combat, almost to a fault depending on who you ask. However, this didn't really bother me, because the game's focus on customization means that you can easily change your playstyle on the fly and still get rewarded for it, so [b]while you're restricted to basically nothing but combat, the combat doesn't restrict you[/b]. The bosses were also quite enjoyable, and considering some of the horror stories I've heard about some of the bosses in this series, I felt they were almost all consistently good, and were simply mediocre at worst. As far as criticisms go, I will reiterate my wish that the levels had some more variety in them in terms of design (maybe different gimmicks in combat like hazards). I also felt like the parts of the game where you had to play as V weren't as interesting and also exponentially more painful due to the nature of his playstyle, but this is mostly alleviated considering that you're only required to play him for a few chapters. Overall, while I have my criticisms of the gameplay, I can set them aside considering just how incredibly smooth, deep, and plain entertaining the combat is. [h1]Story[/h1] The story isn't particularly good, but it didn't really take itself seriously so I had some fun with it at least. There were a few times where I felt like things just happened so the plot can move forward, and there were quite a few characters thrown to the wayside that I thought were pretty major figures in the series, namely Lady and Trish. I also wish some things were more coherently explained (like a certain turning point and major reveal towards the end of the game), but again, I didn't really have any level of expectation for the story. Could it have been a little more thorough in its story while still not taking itself seriously? I think so. And while I can forgive the story for being sort of weak considering how absurd it is, it still feels just a tad bit underdeveloped and could've benefited from an extra scene or two. However, this is not a dealbreaker by any stretch, and is more of a mild gripe than anything. [h1]Audio[/h1] The music is fine. Some of it feels like a mess of aggressive noises to "pump you up" or whatever, but certain tunes were quite enjoyable. [i]"Devil Trigger"[/i] alone brings this game's audio score up quite a bit, though. The voice acting's pretty good, with everyone doing a pretty good job of leaning into their stereotypical aspects of their character to add to the silliness of the story. There isn't much else to say. Everything that isn't [i]"Devil Trigger"[/i] is just fine, I guess. [h1]Content Value[/h1] While the game is quite short and there isn't much you can do to make playthroughs different on a basic level, the addition of harder difficulties paired with the aforementioned incredible combat means that you can absolutely get some more out of this game than just a single playthrough. While I have not tested this myself, I believe that harder difficulties give enemies new attacks and do more than just bloat their health and damage, which could further incentivize you to play through the game multiple times. There's absolutely some replay value here that is more than just player-motivated if you enjoy the combat system enough. [h1]Verdict[/h1] In conclusion, there isn't a lot to say about [i]Devil May Cry 5[/i] outside of its gameplay. It's an extremely well-made hack-n-slash game that loves leaning in to its sillier side. It's absolutely worth it just for the combat alone, but it's a game that can be simply described as [i]fun.[/i] And for a critic like me that often finds meaning in games deeper than just what level of entertainment do they provide, it's nice to have a game like this every so often. Definitely worth a try. [b]Graphics[/b] - 9.0/10 [b]Gameplay[/b] - 10/10 [b]Story[/b] - 6.5/10 [b]Audio[/b] - 8.0/10 [b]Content Value[/b] - 8.0/10 [b].:8.6/10:. "Great"[/b] + [b]Incredible[/b] combat system + Stunning graphics + [i]Devil Trigger[/i] + Surprisingly high replay value + Lots of creativity and depth - Lack of variety in level design - Some underdeveloped story aspects