Devil May Cry is the series that, in my opinion, brought difficulty back into the modern day gaming era. Not since the days of regular Nintendo had I been challenged by such a difficult game. The game made you learn patterns and figure out more effect ways of taking out enemies and bosses. On that note, DMC 1 had crazy, over the top boss battles and you really had to give them your all to come out the victor. Shortly after that Capcom brought us Devil May Cry 2 and while the game was not terrible by any means it was definitely more of a setback to the series and didn't offer anything new. Now, the big question on everyone's mind is how does the third one stack up and will it be able to make up for the atrocity that the last game was? I'll use a quote from the game to sum up what my thoughts on the third version is and that is "This party's getting crazy"

Story:
DMC 3 is the story of sibling rivalry. Two brothers, always in constant conflict and at each other's throat. One wants to obtain supreme power and the other just wants to go about his life carefree it seems. One day, while Dante is at his new place he receives a visitor who informs him that his brother has sent him an invitation. The visitor then disappears and before Dante can even finish eating his pizza, is attacked by numerous demons, and the onslaught begins. This is the beginning of the story and while at first it seems like nothing special, there are some twists and turns to be found in the overall story. It's not the most complicated of tales but it does a good job of keeping the player wanting to progress and continue on to see what happens next. From here on out the cut scenes in the game are all over the top for the most part. This is due to the fact that the cinematics are directed by the same guy that brought you the movie Versus and, more recently did the cinematics for MGS: Twins Snakes. While some of these cut scenes are really far out there it just seems to work since this is a DMC game, plus it doesn't hurt that there really awesome as well.

Game play:
DMC continues along the same lines as the first one with more in-your-face action. The gun and swordplay from the original are all back and better than ever. The weapons you obtain throughout the game all seem to be great and seems like the team might have gotten a few ideas from Ninja Gaiden (which isn't such a bad thing considering Ninja Gaiden borrowed a lot of elements from the first DMC) The ability to upgrade your weapons and skills is back, provided you have the necessary red orbs to do so. To rake in the big dough you need to build your combo meter up and get those kills in, the more stylish the better. In this latest version you also have different styles that you can equip. They are gunslinger, sword master, trickster, and royal guard. These four different styles can all be leveled up to the max of three and as you go up each level you'll gain more special abilities in pertaining to that style. This gives the player a great feeling of customization and lets you play the game in different ways but getting them to the max level will take you awhile. Thankfully, you can go back to any mission you have previously completed and get more red orbs. This system works almost like leveling a character up in an RPG. It's a good thing that the developers added this as well seeing as the game is ultra hard. This will push some people away from this game.

The American normal mode of difficulty is the equivalent to the Japanese hard mode so be prepared for a beating. I never thought I'd play a game as hard as Ninja Gaiden so soon but I was wrong. This puppy will hand you your ass on a plate if you don't try your hardest. The boss battles will make you learn their every move by the time your finished beating them to death. To top all this challenge off, if you die and don't have any yellow orbs to continue, you then must start the mission all over again. Now by the end of the game that didn't seem to be a problem but believe me your going to want a few of these bad boys so that you don't have to do the same levels over and over again. While I have cussed the game out and wanted to beat something in a fit of rage over how hard something was, I never felt that game was cheap and it was always satisfying to play and succeed. I've always died because I just wasn't up to the bosses pattern, but once I learned them and learned them well I succeeded every time.

Graphics:
Have you ever wanted to know what it would be like to kick demon ass in a dance club? This is just one of the many wonderful background that the game has to offer. Along your journey to confront your brother, you will make your way through a huge tower filled with all kinds of different areas to explore. You've got your classic castle-like theme going, a interesting take on the inside of a monster, you'll explore what appears to look like a futuristic clock tower, and much more. The backgrounds do not disappoint. Meanwhile the enemy designs are far from average. There are many different types of enemies in the game and while they might not appear to be made out of a vast amount of polygons the way there were designed works well for them. Also the fact that the game runs at a smooth 60 fps for most of the game is a plus (besides the very rare, rare, special occasion of very minor slowdown). Which now brings me to the boss battles. These guys are incredibly designed and are huge. These things are greatly designed to intimidate and they know it. Overall this is the best-looking DMC by far and one of the better-looking PS2 titles out there.

Control:
Controlling Dante is a breeze. Moving Dante around the screen jumping around and killing enemies has never been easier. Now, add a bunch of new combos into the mix that take a little while getting used to but are easily mastered and you got on great game to get your hands on. I must say that its essential that you get to know the moves and different attacks for the game otherwise your going to be seeing the Mission Failed screen more often then most. The right control stick can be used to control the camera somewhat, but there are still issues with the camera like in the past DMC games.

Sound:
The soundtrack in DMC3 is on the verge of part rock, part electronic, and part ambiance. During the normal exploring of the levels you get background music that just fits into the theme of the game. They usually sound gothic in nature and really just give more substance to the game when just simply traveling from location to location. Now when the action kicks in via enemies or bosses then prepare for the hard out rocking mixed with electronic. These tracks basically feed you with adrenaline and make you think "I'm Dante, half human and half demon, It's time to kick some ass" and you'll go charging at them. This will get you killed for sure and its happened to me time after time. The music just gets you that pumped up for the ensuing battle. Now, that's what I call music. There are lyrics that are spoken in these tracks as well. At times its really hard to hear what he is saying when you have a guitar rift going with some distortions and then hearing the screams and gasps of enemies nearby all while you're hearing the tearing sound effects of your sword hitting the enemy, but who needs to hear the singing anyways. All the sound effects are wonderfully perfect. There even important as well as the certain enemies and bosses will make certain noises to signify what kind of attack that they will perform. Handy indeed.

The Bad:
Well DMC doesn't come without its flaws. There are many times when the camera just doesn't work in your favor. This is a minor quibble when it comes to regular enemies but when its bosses were talking about where you need as much concentration as possible, well that's when it becomes a problem. There are times, yet not always, where I couldn't see the boss and it only added to the frustration of the battle, as if there wasn't enough frustration from the difficulty alone. This also bring me to my other negative point and it's one that could keep players from playing the game, period. The difficulty is up there. If you think you going to play this game and not die once then think again. I've been gaming since I was a young boy and have numerous titles under my belt beaten but this one proved more of a challenge then most games all together and this is all just under normal difficulty. This will push some casual gamers and maybe even some hardcore ones away as well. These two things aside, everything else seems to be pretty well balanced and polished.

Overall:
Dante is back in his third outing and it is his best yet. While fans were disappointed with the second title I'm letting you know now that you will be pleased with this one. DMC is bigger, better, more badass, and more fun then the first one and gives you some back-story for the first game in a way. So if you're a fan of the DMC series or action games in general then go out and give this game a whirl. Just make sure that you have someone to cry to when the same boss beats you repeatedly for the last half hour, because believe me it will happen.

- - Justin Celani