Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening

Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening

Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening, released in Japan as simply Devil May Cry 3 (デビル メイ クライ 3 Debiru Mei Kurai Surī), is anaction game that was developed and published by Capcom, released in 2005 for the PlayStation 2 (also ported to the PC in 2006). The game is a prequel to the original Devil May Cry, and is the first game in the series storyline's chronological order.

Set in modern times in an enchanted tower named Temen-ni-gru, the story centers on the dysfunctional relationship between Dante and his brother Vergil. The events of the game take place just as Dante has opened up the Devil May Cry agency, and before Dante's demonic heritage has reached its full potential. The story is told primarily through a mixture of cutscenes using the game's engine with several pre-rendered full motion videos.

Upon release, Devil May Cry 3 was widely criticized for its high level of difficulty, but was praised for improvements over its predecessor, and a return to the challenging gameplay of Devil May Cry. A manga prequel to the game was first published in Japan in 2005.

Gameplay:

Gameplay in Devil May Cry 3 consists of levels called "missions", in which players must fight numerous enemies, perform platformingtasks, and occasionally solve puzzles to progress through the story. The player's performance in each mission is graded from D at the bottom, up through C, B, A, with top ranks of S and SS, which have the strictest requirements. Grades are based on the time taken to complete the mission, the amount of "red orbs" gathered (the in-game currency obtained from defeated enemies), "stylish" combat, item usage, and damage taken. "Stylish" combat is defined as performing an unbroken series of varied attacks while avoiding damage, and is tracked by an on-screen gauge. The longer the player attacks without repeating techniques and evades damage, the higher the gauge rises. The gauge starts with no grade, becomes "Dope" after a minimum number of attacks, then proceeds with "Crazy", "Blast", "Alright", "Sweet", "SShowtime", and peaks at "SSStylish"; if Dante receives damage, the style rating drops a few levels; if the gauge is on "Crazy" or below, it will reset. The game's battle system allows the player to chain attacks together, with each weapon having a number of unique attacks. Although the game mainly focuses on an aggressive approach to battle, the player must employ some strategy as the enemies have a wide variety of artificial intelligence tactics, and will respond to a number of events.

The Devil Trigger ability enables the player's character to change into a demonic form. This alters the character's appearance, increases attack and defense, slowly restores health, and enables special attacks. The Devil Trigger state lasts as long as there is energy in the Devil Trigger gauge, which is refilled by attacking or taunting enemies in the normal state, and decreases when using the Devil Trigger transformation or other abilities which draw on Devil Trigger power (such as the Quicksilver and Doppelganger styles discussed below).Devil Trigger mode is not available to Dante until one third of the way through the game, while Vergil (who is playable in the Special Edition) has the ability at the outset.

The major difference from previous Devil May Cry titles is the combat system, which allows the player to choose one of Dante's six different combat styles with different special techniques related to the style's focus. Style selection is available at the start of each level, as well as during gameplay at checkpoints. The styles available are: Trickster, for dodging and agility; Swordmaster, with extra abilities for swords and other melee weapons; Gunslinger, which has more techniques for firearms; Royal Guard, which allows the player to repel attacks with a properly-timed button press, and thereby charge energy for retaliation; Quicksilver, which slows down enemies while the character attacks at normal speed; and Doppelgänger, which creates a shadow double that fights alongside Dante. A second player can also control the shadow double by pressing "Start" on a second controller. A two-player mode, similar to Doppelgänger style, is accessible while fighting against Arkham. In the special edition of Devil May Cry 3, Vergil has one style called Dark Slayer with techniques similar to Trickster.

System Requirements:

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

MINIMUM PC REQUIREMENTS

Windows 2000/XP

Pentium III or AMD Athlon 1GHz Processor

256MB RAM

128MB nVidia GeForce FX or ATi Radeon 9500 class Video Card

DirectX compatible Sound Card

DirectX 9.0c

16X CD-ROM Drive

4.7GB Hard Disk Space

Keyboard

Mouse