DISCLAIMERS:
- the demo was played on the Xbox One S using the version of the demo intended for United States audiences
Shortly after Geoff Keighley’s interview with Phil Spencer at The Game Awards 2018, a trailer for Devil May Cry 5 played that ended with the announcement of an exclusive demo for the Xbox One on December 7. The contents of the demo seem to be about the same as the contents of the Gamescom 2018 demo, with a few generally minor changes. In this article, the reviewer will give their impressions of their first experience with Devil May Cry 5.
There is a large variety of mechanics to master present in Devil May Cry 5. In this demo, Nero’s main moves are jumping, melee attacks, shooting his gun, and using his Devil Breaker. The player can achieve an enormous variety of combos with these moves and attempt to raise their Stylish Rank. Stylish Rank gives the player incentive to experiment with new combinations of moves that are able to defeat enemies with greater style and efficiency. Nero’s movements did feel a bit slow, but this will likely be addressed with a Turbo Mode if that series tradition continues. The controls do take some getting used to, with many button combinations to learn and some buttons that need to be held down for charging while the player will want to be using others. Thankfully the controls are highly remappable and work consistently. Overall the demo is not particularly challenging but the reviewer does not anticipate that being an issue in the full game.
Capcom’s RE Engine that made its debut in Resident Evil 7 still impresses almost 2 years later. Even on just about the weakest hardware that can play Devil May Cry 5, the game still impresses graphically. The game targets 60 FPS, and manages to reach that target a surprising amount of the time despite the variety of graphical effects that are present during gameplay. Loading times do feel a bit too frequent and slightly more lengthy than one would like, but they are certainly an improvement over Capcom’s 2018 Monster Hunter World. The only issue the reviewer noticed were some particularly low resolution textures in some places, which were also present in Resident Evil 7, but these textures seem to be justified as a compromise to increase performance.
This demo does not provide much in terms of sound, but what is there is all quality. The selection of music is rather limited, with Nero’s generally well-liked battle theme being the only song the reviewer could recall. The sound effects are about what one would expect from a Devil May Cry game. Voice acting is also present and is all quality, but the lip syncing could use some work.
There is not enough plot or world building in the demo for those elements to be worthy of being commented on.
The reviewer estimates that the demo should take half an hour at most to complete for the very slowest players, but players who enjoy their first run will likely want to play more runs to further master the game’s mechanics.
Overall the demo is absolutely worth the 7.57 GB download for anybody who is even slightly interested in Devil May Cry 5 and owns an Xbox One.
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