Introduction
Long ago, the Legendary Dark Knight, Sparda, defeated the legions of hell and saved humanity. Two millennia later, its up to his son, Dante, to do it again. That's pretty much the whole plot to
the action extravaganza known as Devil May Cry. It may not be much, but it's all that's needed. Hey, some games have even less of a story (see also: any Castlevania.), but that's not really important here. This isn't an RPG and it's certainly not that story-driven. Action is the name of the game here, folks, and DMC delivers.


Gameplay
It's a good thing the game controls well, or all of this would become not just difficult, but irritating. Button placement, is however, very practical and the learning curve is tiny. Few gamers will have a problem with it. The next thing that you'll notice are the graphics. While monsters and the environs they inhabit look wonderful, characters typically don't. In-game, Dante looks great, but up close, he looks almost terrible. This is kind of sad, since it can help to distance the player from the more or less melodramatic events of the game. Other than that, everything looks great. There are plenty of "Wow" moments where the visuals will blow you away. Just not any related to the characters. In their defense, however, they do move fairly realistically, so that's a plus. Nothing worse than feeling like you're watching a puppet show. Well, unless you happen to be fighting one of Devil May Cry's puppet monsters at the time, I suppose.

Fun
Any fan of action, adventure, or just plain mindless fun could do no better than to pick up Devil May Cry. There isn't a lot like it in video gaming, and certainly nothing like it for the PS2. A definite "Must Buy" game. It would be a shame to miss out on this kind of fun.


Story
The entirety of the game takes place on Malet Island (not mallet), where the Dark Lord of the Underworld, Mundus is building a huge army to conquer blissfully ignorant mankind. Fortunately, the innocent masses couldn't hope for a better savior than our man Dante. In DMC, action revolves around the use of projectile weapons (which include Dante's two pistols, Ebony and Ivory, a shotgun, grenade launcher, and freakish Nightmare Beta pistol) and meilee weapons (swords, gauntles, etc). When presented with a challenge, such as one of the games many monstrous enemies, the player can choose to either fire at the beasts from afar or get in close and personal with the sword. As you progress through the game and kill more enemies, you will gain all types of multicolored "souls." The red ones are used as currency to buy items and new abilities, while Yellow adds continues, green is for health, and blue lengthens Dante's lifemeter. To add an even bigger twist to an already interesting formula, some swords give Dante the ability to take on a demon form, with all new attacks and abilities. However, this only lasts until his "Demon Meter" runs out. To refill it, simply attack more enemies. Simple as that.

Graphics
Sound and music are both top notch, and the voice acting is great. Dante's voice helps a good deal to flesh out his character, and you won't get overly annoyed by it. Gameplay is simply a joy, with each new battle feeling new, fresh, and exciting. In between running from place to place, collecting items, and battling lesser foes comes the true joy of this game: The bosses. Each boss has its own personality and fighting style, and they are always a challenge to defeat. On the plus side, there are a whole lot of them throughout the game.

Sound
Maybe its the tequila talking, or possibly the fact that I'm afraid Dante might find me and kill me in my sleep for giving this a bad review, but I just can't find much wrong with this game. Sure, it's not that long, but there are a ton of secrets and its fun enough to warrant multiple play-throughs. Aside from some of the uglier cinemas, there's just too much here to love.