Pour les anglophiles: la critique de Gamespot.com
For every problem that´s fixed or improved, a new problem appears--this seems to be the unintentional and unfortunate theme of Devil May Cry 2, a sequel that had an opportunity to improve upon an already excellent formula introduced in its predecessor but has unequivocally squandered it. Nearly every single improvement made in Devil May Cry 2 has some adverse effect. The environments, for example, are indeed quite larger than those in the previous game, but they lack the high level of detail and personality of the original Devil May Cry´s environments, and many are so generic that they could´ve been used in just about any other action game. Likewise, Dante has a few admittedly stylish and easy-to-control new moves, but they are almost completely worthless and serve no purpose other than to improve your stylish action rating, which is quite unnecessary in the grand scheme of things. Additionally, Capcom has given Dante a partner named Lucia, whose levels are mostly identical to those on Dante´s disc except that they´re either in reverse or chopped in half, making her quest even shorter than Dante´s incredibly short journey. Ultimately, it´s just disappointing to see such an uninspired sequel that simply goes through the motions of being an action game rather than taking advantage of concepts introduced in its predecessor.
Dante is back, but he´s changed.
The lack of personality in Devil May Cry 2 starts with the characters. What´s most disheartening is that Dante, who also happens to be the son of a legendary warrior, is almost completely devoid of any charisma. This is the same character who mocked an enormous magma spider, who had been impaled on a sword only to purge himself of it and live, and who said "let´s rock, baby" and sported a pair of guns named ebony and ivory. None of these personality traits are conveyed until very late in the game, and even then they´re only small windows onto Dante´s former self. Lucia doesn´t really have time to develop a personality since her portion of the game is so short, and what you do learn of her past is such a hackneyed piece of video game lore that you probably won´t care anyway. These characters do cross each other´s paths at different points in the game, since both are trying to find a set of relics that are also sought by a man named Arius, who hopes to use them to gain control over the world.
Both Dante and Lucia have some pretty slick moves.
While their stories branch ever so slightly, Dante and Lucia are mechanically the same character, though one is slow but strong while the other is quick but weak. Both characters have somewhat identical aerial and long-range attacks, only Dante uses firearms while Lucia relies mainly on throwing daggers or other sharp objects. In addition, they can both turn to their melee weapon ( which is either a large sword if you´re Dante or a pair of small, sharp blades if you´re Lucia) when an enemy gets too close. Lastly, these two characters also have the ability to turn into a devil, which gives them added special abilities ( such as flight), new attacks, and better strength and defensive capabilities. Armed with only this information, you can get through all of Devil May Cry 2, including both discs, in about four or five hours. You don´t need to pull off cool moves like running on walls or falling toward the ground headfirst with guns blazing, since a high style rating doesn´t factor into whether or not you´ll beat the game. In fact, most of the fights in the game ( particularly the boss battles) are easily won by relying on either character´s basic skills. Many of you will undoubtedly enjoy trying to execute different combinations and make them look as cool as possible, but by the time you reach the middle of either character´s game, you´ve seen just about all they can do, and it can quickly become tiresome to try to use fancy combinations repeatedly, when standing in a corner and using long-range attacks is much more effective. That´s part of what can make Devil May Cry 2 so boring.
