The Winter Olympics are known for their collection of sports that only raise their head out of the snow once every four years. From the intense sweeping action of curling to the celestial tango of figure skating, families crowd around their glowing televisions to watch superniche athletes compete in these quadrennial events. In Vancouver 2010--the video game adaptation of this year's winter games--many of these uncommon sports have been removed, stripping away much of the novelty of the real Olympics. Curling and figure skating have been unceremoniously left out of the game--and don't get your hopes up for fast-paced international hockey either. The 14 included events are most notable for their lack of variety. There are seven ways in which you can race down a snow-covered mountain (skiing and snowboarding) and three ways to hurl yourself down a frozen chute (bobsledding, luge, and skeleton). This means you are left with only a few unique activities to take part in, which removes any sort of long-term appeal Vancouver 2010 might have offered.
At least most of the included events are well done, even if they do veer on the shallow side. The last Olympic video game, Beijing 2008, was plagued by an overload of events that forced players to frantically tap buttons--an activity that is the polar opposite of fun. That mindless control method is used only sparingly in Vancouver 2010, resulting in a much more enjoyable experience. The controls change little between skiing and snowboarding down a mountain, but they are responsive, so it can be fun to fly down an icy hill a few times. The problem is that there are only a few different courses (which change depending on the event), so you're forced to wind your way down the same path every time you replay the event. You only have to go down the hill a few times to memorize the layout, and after you know the exact route to take, there is little incentive to improve your time or play again.
The bobsledding events are even more repetitive. Two-man bobsled, skeleton, and luge are all represented here, but they all control in almost exactly the same way and all take place on the same frozen water slide. It is certainly fun to careen down that slippery track the first few times--making sure you don't slam into the walls that hover dangerously close to your sled while zooming up as high on the banked curves as possible without flipping over--but once you've done it a couple times, there isn't any reason to go back. And that is the biggest problem with Vancouver 2010. Skiing, snowboarding, and bobsledding events all control well and are pretty fun at first, but there are only a few different courses to go through, which severely limits the replay value. With a whopping 10 out of the included 14 events essentially boiled down into two unique activities, the entire package ends up being skimpy and forgettable.
The other four included events do inject a dose of variety, but they lack the fun of the racing activities. Ski Jump and Aerials, for instance, require players to tap a specific button at the right moment, but it takes only two or three practice runs before you master this technique. The 500-meter speed skating event forces players to frantically mash a button to maintain top speed, and though it requires a bit of skill to take corners at top speed, it's too tiring and repetitive to entertain for long. The 1,500-meter variety introduces a rhythm game mechanic for most of the race, but is too simple to make repeat runs entertaining. And that is the entirety of the included events. There is no score-based snowboarding competition, biathlon, or even the crazy mixed doubles luge. Even considering the reduced price of this game ($50), there is a dearth of content.
The Olympic mode continues the theme of a stripped winter sports experience by offering a very bare-bones take on the spectacle. You compete in a series of one-off events--without any commentary or special visual touches to make the events mirror the television broadcasts--and are then thrust on a podium afterward to receive your medal. There are only 24 countries to choose from (compared to the more than 80 that will compete in the real games), and you can't even customize the appearance of your competitors. Furthermore, the events themselves are lacking in presentation, diminishing the thrill of striving for a gold medal. Weirdly enough, many events blast rock music while you're trying to focus, which clashes severely with the otherwise serene, wintry atmosphere. There is little incentive to play these events more than one time in Olympic mode, which is awfully strange. One would think that the Olympic mode would be a key aspect of an Olympic game, but it feels like an afterthought in Vancouver 2010.
Thankfully, there is one mode in which to take solace in Vancouver 2010. Challenges let you take part in a variety of objective-based events that are the most interesting aspect of this game. Most of your goals involve tearing through an event as if you were a real life competitor, keeping your speed above a certain average in downhill skiing or taking corners perfectly in the luge, which forces you to master the intricacies of the courses and controls. However, there are a few objectives that seem flat-out game-y, sucking you out of the otherwise simulation atmosphere offered in the rest of the game. For instance, during one downhill skiing event, you must slam into snowmen to earn time bonuses, and in a snowboarding event, your controls are inexplicably reversed. Nevertheless, every one of these 30 challenges are fun, and it's rewarding trying to shave off a second or land a particularly difficult jump. It's a shame the rest of the game doesn't have the same care found in the Challenge mode because there is good deal of entertainment in these winter events.
Because of the lack of variety among the events, the multiplayer mode has only a little bit more appeal than the standard single-player competitions. You can play online or off, with up to four players, and it is fun striving for the best time against your buddies. But like every other element of Vancouver 2010, the fun doesn't last long. With only a few unique events and even fewer courses to choose from, everything becomes stale soon after you start playing. Only the difficult Challenge mode is really interesting, but with only 30 challenges to take part in that too is only fun for so long. Although Vancouver 2010 is vastly improved from Beijing 2008, it is ultimately lacking in many key areas. It's still more fun to watch the real lugers do their thing than take part in this shallow digital representation.
From the moment Bayonetta's prologue begins, it's made abundantly clear that you're entering a world of pure spectacle. As the prelude unfolds, you control the titular heroine and stylishly dispatch an angelic host of enemies while standing on the face of an exploding clock tower as it tumbles end-over-end from a mountaintop. This brief and over-the-top sequence is but a first step on the long road of delightful insanity that will follow, with each and every moment pushing the limits of ridiculousness even further. But however ludicrous it may appear, do not make the mistake of dismissing Bayonetta as all style with no substance. Beneath its glossy facade lies an accessible but deep and intricately nuanced combat system that allows you to perform impressive feats and feel like part of the magically empowered. This high-octane hack-and-slash is expertly paced and further enhanced by some subtle but brilliant tweaks to the formula. These include a powerful item concoction mode and comprehensive scoring system with online leaderboards. Though the core experience remains virtually identical to the Xbox 360 version, Bayonetta's PlayStation 3 port is hampered by a number of technical issues that disappointingly prevent it from reaching its potential. In spite of these issues, however, Bayonetta remains a bewitching adventure.
Five hundred years is long enough for an entire world to change, which is what the woman known as Bayonetta discovers after awakening from her slumber in a tomb at the bottom of a lake. With her memory understandably hazy, Bayonetta remembers little more than that she is an Umbran Witch and that she's looking for something called The Eyes of the World. On a tip from her informant, she heads to the isolated city of Vigrid where she begins to piece together her missing memories and learn about the downfall of her clan and its counterparts: the Lumen Sages. What ensues is a series of hilariously over-the-top moments--each of which somehow surpasses the previous--that loosely form a narrative amidst a plethora of sight gags, sexual innuendos, and gratuitously violent angelic deaths. Amidst all the absurdity is a coherent plot with some surprisingly sweet moments, but the main attraction is the combat, not the storytelling.
Having contracted with the demons of Inferno, who serve as a source of her power, Bayonetta is a mortal enemy of the angels of Paradiso who seem to emerge at every corner in Vigrid spoiling for a fight. Armed from the get-go with a unique set of four guns (two of which are attached to her high heels), Bayonetta punches, kicks, and shoots her way through the heavenly aggressors that hound her every step. Apart from the basics, she can also perform a number of stylish special attacks to punish her enemies in often mind-boggling ways. Bullet climax attacks can strike out at all nearby attackers with most or all of Bayonetta's creatively wielded guns; wicked weave attacks summon monstrous, demonic appendages in her hair for a magical sucker punch or heel stomp; and torture attacks that conjure pain- and humiliation-inducing contraptions out of thin air. You're able to dish out an incredible amount of hurt in Bayonetta, and it's hard not to be hooked after experiencing the pleasure of performing your first outrageous combo, which may or may not involve break dancing, ensorcelled guillotines, and dozens of bullets to bridge together your myriad punches and kicks. As you fight through the angelic choirs, a variety of new weapons, such as a cursed katana or an enchanted pair of ice skates, are unlocked through trade with the demonic barkeep/smith Rodin, enhancing your already impressive arsenal even further. Because both Bayonetta's hands and feet are her weapons, you equip both with your instruments of heavenly destruction and can even have two entirely different sets ready for action with the tap of a button. These two arsenals can be swapped midcombo, which offers a great deal of flexibility (particularly when fighting several different types of angels at once) and makes battle feel free-form and pleasing. Truly, angels will cry before you're finished with them.
From the very beginning of the game, dozens of different combo attacks can be performed with the right recipe of button presses and timing, but even more advanced techniques are available for purchase from Rodin as well. In a clever move, the between-level loading screens also double as a practice mode of sorts where you can play around with each of Bayonetta's attacks. Complete with a handy onscreen move list, this feature is invaluable for learning the differences between the many different combos and finding the ones that work best for you, and you can even turn it into a full-fledged practice mode at the touch of a button. Even with this helpful mode, though, it can be tricky to grasp the subtle nuances of combat. If complex combos or elaborate attack dances aren't your thing, Bayonetta's easy and very easy difficulties equip everyone with the means for performing even the most impressive of attacks almost effortlessly. But for those clamoring for a challenge, Bayonetta does not disappoint--on normal difficulty, even lesser angels can prove to be fatal, and there are two harder levels to unlock for the most skillful of players to brave.
The core mechanic that fuels Bayonetta's combat complexity is your instantaneous ability to dodge enemy assaults: Pulling the right trigger at almost any time--including midcombo--will cause Bayonetta to pirouette out of the way without any downtime to avoid an attack. Enemies hit hard and rarely drop bonus health, so it is in your best interest to exploit your dodging prowess as often as possible. Indeed, the combat system is not only built around avoiding damage altogether, but it also rewards you for doing so in more ways than one. If you dodge an attack at the last possible moment, Bayonetta activates a powerful ability known as witch time, which temporarily slows time down to a crawl for everyone else and allows her to thrash her foes and circumvent their sometimes considerable defenses. By making dodging so accessible and utilitarian, developer Platinum Games has transformed each battle into a fluid, continuous dance, with your performance graded and compared against other players via online leaderboards. This grading system judges your angel-slaying aptitude based on time spent in combat, combo damage dealt, and damage taken for each battle and stage. Obtaining the coveted "pure platinum" grade in a complete level or even a single encounter for your speed and skill is both challenging and rewarding. Going for them all is a great reason to replay and drive your scores higher and higher.
Each of the 16 chapters in Bayonetta is broken down into a series of self-contained enemy encounters called verses. When not actively killing the agents of heaven, you maneuver your witch through Vigrid, as well as its surrounding areas, solving simple environmental puzzles, finding ingredients to concoct health and support items (all lollipops, naturally), searching for hidden challenge rooms, and watching as the pleasantly preposterous story unfolds one cutscene at a time. When the moon is full and visible--which happens more often than you might think--Bayonetta is able to witch walk on walls and ceilings to move about or fight. These situations are among the most memorable moments in Bayonetta, and being able to run across a collapsing wall to avoid an incoming wave of molten lava or leap from floor to wall to ceiling to continue a furious assault is not only freeing, but it also adds a new dimension to the genre. Action peaks when the most powerful of angels--the personifications of the cardinal virtues--appear and try to stop Bayonetta, and you'll need every one of the powers at your disposal to defeat these titans of heaven in awesome multipart battles. Each boss fight ends with an aptly named climax attack that summons one of the many infernal demons Bayonetta has contracted with (and seems to keep in her hair) to brutally finish them off and drag them down to hell.
Unfortunately, as entertaining as the stylish action combat of Bayonetta is, it's plagued by a number of technical issues on the PS3 that distract and spoil some of the fun. Not only are the visuals grainier and more washed out than in its Xbox 360 counterpart, but there are also noticeable frame rate dips that occur when the action gets too heavy. Most commonplace, however, are the frequent, excessively long load times. While the loads between levels are partially mitigated by the useful practice mode, it can only cover up so much and doesn't do anything at all to help all of the other loads. You're met with an immersion-breaking, several seconds long loading screen every single time you want to pause the action, access your inventory or switch between submenus there, save or load your game, or pick up a new item. All together, these problems notably affect your enjoyment, and in a game where high-energy combat is king, these are pretty significant.
Though technical difficulties take some of the fun out of Bayonetta, the core combat experience is still very entertaining, and it's clear that a great deal of effort was spent in making everything look as stylish as possible. Each of Bayonetta's ridiculous, hypersexualized poses are expertly animated, and watching as she suplexes a dozen angels at once or jumpstarts a motorcycle by using her middle finger as a key is delightful. Even the more mundane actions are carefully detailed--Bayonetta doesn't so much bleed as she blooms roses, double jumps are assisted by the butterfly wings that sprout from her back, and so on. Angels have a fantastic yet grotesque art direction that blends together elements from classically beautiful Greco-Roman statues with avian, insect, or even technological bases to form unique designs. Some of them, such as the virtue Fortitudo--a twin-headed dragon whose central body is itself yet another inverted head--stand out more than others, but all are memorable. Though the dynamic camera generally does a fine job of ensuring that the action is front and center--particularly during witch walk sequences--there are a few enclosed areas where it seems unsure as to what to do. This is a rare occurrence, however, and it's overall a minor annoyance at worst.
Matching the over-the-top action of Bayonetta is a suitably ridiculous soundtrack that is equal parts annoyingly catchy pop, epic chorus, and retro arcade synth. Like the rest of Bayonetta, the soundtrack is very tongue-in-cheek, particularly an upbeat remix of "Fly Me to the Moon" that is used throughout the entire game, and most often as you gleefully dispatch angelic foes in a whirling dance of death and display. Accompanying the soundtrack is an all-star voice cast, the real star of which is, of course, Bayonetta herself, who is voiced with just the right combination of sultry, sass, and self-confidence to bring her to life and keep her from devolving into the realm of stereotype and cliche. With nearly every ridiculous stunt, she delivers a double entendre in her feisty British accent (all the time with a wink in her eye), the complete spectacle of which brings a smile to your face.
With its flexible fighting engine, innovative use of bullet time and wall-walking mechanics, and the competitive online scoring system that is weaved into its very fabric, Bayonetta isn't so much a sister to other combat-oriented action games as it is an evolution of them. Though frame rate issues, frequent and extended load times, and less-crisp graphics make the PlayStation 3 version inferior to its Xbox 360 counterpart, it is nonetheless still a very enjoyable experience. Combat controls feel natural and responsive from the very first moment you experience them, and the magic remains throughout the journey; whether you're throwing a bus at a boss or hitching a ride on a ballistic missile. Chock-full of often silly but always memorable moments, Bayonetta can stay with you even after you've stopped playing it. Regardless of which version you play, its host of hidden items and secrets, multiple difficulties, competitively balanced scoring system, and charismatic heroine make Bayonetta a game that will be revisited time and time again.
The Kingdom of Boletaria is an unforgiving place. Entering it means embracing a seemingly endless cycle of death and resurrection as you slowly tread through sullen swamps, scavenge dark caverns, and sneak between looming castle walls. It's dark and dreary, as if the residents of hell have plunged a dagger into the very idea of happiness and left its lifeless form to wither away. Developer From Software's action role-playing game Demon's Souls houses this kingdom, and you should not expect the game to welcome you as an old friend and willingly share its deepest secrets. This is an uncompromising RPG of the highest order--and a brilliant, atmospheric, and visionary one. It is at once old-fashioned and innovative, a stubbornly difficult dungeon crawler loaded with wholly unique mechanics. Perhaps the game's greatest triumph, however, is that it takes qualities normally associated with frustration and discomfort--constant trial and error, slow progression, harsh enemies--and makes them virtues. It may have an unusual and unforgiving set of rules, but it stays true to them and, in the process, draws you in like few RPGs can. Demon's Souls is a stark and sulky beauty and is one of the finest games of 2009.
Demon's Souls' uncanny ability to ensnare you in its web starts with its five gloomy, meticulously crafted worlds. It takes some of the usual elements of dark medieval fantasy--roaring dragons, demon knights clad in well-worn armor, crumbling stone castles--and then molds them into a cohesive and enthralling universe. Every element is in exactly the right place, from soaring demons that look like manta rays to rows of fiends using their pickaxes to unearth unspecified valuables. Each world feels and looks authentic, as does the hub world (called the Nexus) from which you access them. There isn't much narrative to speak of, just some basic but intriguing backstory regarding the giant beast called the Old One and the demons infesting the kingdom. But you'll barely notice how thin the story strands are, for the kingdom itself weaves a story of its own as you slowly investigate its nooks and crannies, and the characters you encounter seem totally within their element. When you kneel before the Maiden in Black and she prays in her halting, affected speech, you believe in her conviction. When Blacksmith Boldwin sneers at you that he needs your business, you hear the contempt in his voice. Their lips don't move when they speak, but it hardly matters: these world-weary people, and the frightening realm they inhabit, are immediately believable.
The game doesn't just look and feel unforgiving--it plays that way too. You may tackle any of its five main regions at any time, but that doesn't mean you will easily slice your way through each one. If the first few minutes of the tutorial don't betray the challenges in store for you, the same level's gargantuan end boss certainly will. You are meant to die, and you are meant to die often. When you do, you return to the archstone at the beginning of the area and do it all again. When you are resurrected, you get to keep most of what you had on your person--your weapons, your armor, your healing grasses, and so on. However, you lose the most precious commodity you possess: collected souls. Souls are the game's currency, and the primary way of accumulating them is to kill demons. You can't sell looted weapons that you don't need, nor can you put souls in the bank for use later. You can hold onto them, spend them on important items like spice (which replenishes your magical energy), or use them to improve your core attributes (such as endurance, strength, and so on).
Should you die on your travels, the souls you've amassed aren't necessarily gone for good, however. You can return to the location of your death and touch the bloodstain you left behind, which returns the lost souls to you. Be careful, though: if you die on your way to your bloodstain, it will disappate and be gone forever, along with all your hard-won souls. The whole thing may sound incredibly harsh, and on the surface, it is. You'll cautiously traverse the same hallways and stairwells to find your bloodstain, only to have a lamp-carrying demon shock you with electricity, lift you into the air with the tentacles growing from its face, and take half of your health away with one fateful stab. The constant specter of death means you should plan how you want to spend your souls in advance. Once you get enough, you'll want to hightail it back to the Nexus and improve an attribute, upgrade your weapon, or repair your armor. Eventually, you'll make a breakthrough, and enemies that seemed so dastardly the last time will be mere speedbumps the next. Yet even when you accumulate thousands upon thousands of valuable souls, and you know that the sensible thing to do is to return to the closest archstone and teleport back to the Nexus, your curiosity may push you onward. There always seems to be a terrific surprise lurking around the bend, in the way of awesome new enemies (a giant blob made up of flailing corpses), amazing environments (the thin suspended walkways hanging over Latria's murky swamp), and precious loot (stones used to upgrade your crossbow).
The monsters may be tough, but the game grants you the flexibility you need to take them on as you see fit. You'll create your character using Demon's Souls' robust customization options and select a class when you first begin, but you aren't stuck with one particular play style. As long as you meet the necessary statistical requirements and own the requisite item (a talisman for casting miracles, for example), you can use any weapon, any armor, and any magic you please. It's a good thing, too, for certain circumstances may dictate that you follow an unplanned path. Perhaps you had no intention of using magic, but a simple soul arrow spell can come in mighty handy when you're dealing with flaming bugs fluttering about in the sky. You may plan to pour all your souls into your strength attribute, only to realize that leveling up endurance is the better idea, because you'll be able to absorb more damage with your shield before losing health.
What makes extreme difficulty and incessant trial and error such wonderful qualities in Demon's Souls, when they are so loathsome in other games? It starts with the deliberate and wonderful combat, which doesn't seem complex at first, but reveals its subtleties in time. Rarely will mindlessly hacking and slashing get you anywhere, unless death is your ultimate goal. You need to contemplate every move, swing only when you are sure you won't be countered, and switch weapons or use items only when you are sure your window of opportunity is wide enough. You'll encounter all sorts of awesome and unnatural beasts, from tumbling skeletal fiends to frightful three-faced larvae, and while they have a set number of attacks, they still behave unpredictably. You will undoubtedly take a lot of damage until you learn the subtleties of fighting each enemy, but combat feels just right. You move with the right amount of weight, combos take time to pull off, and animations are silky smooth. Everything moves and interacts in the way you'd expect. If your sword hits the wall instead of the enemy, it will glance off. If a demon knight rears back just before you do the same, his sword will make contact at the part of your body that you left unprotected. These touches may seem small and unimportant, but when every second counts, and when life and death are separated by a millimeter or two, you rely on such consistency.
The challenging combat is enhanced by a number of innovative online features that invite players to interact with each other. To survive, you not only need to pay careful attention to your environs, but you must be mindful of the clues other players have left for you, both purposeful and accidental. The game's online integration is nothing like you've ever seen, and it's a core component of the Demon's Souls experience. The signs and indications of other players are everywhere. You'll see translucent white ghosts roaming your world, moving about and swinging their weapons, though you can't directly interact with them. These spirits are actually other players. They are fighting the same enemies and sprinting across the same bridges, but they inhabit their own worlds, not yours. You see only their apparitions, but those apparitions may be enough to clue you in to a surprise ambush up ahead or a bit of hidden loot around the corner.
These ghosts are only one of several ways other players will be assisting you on your journey. You'll notice plenty of bloodstains coating the ground; by activating them, you'll witness an instant replay of another player's final few seconds before the unfortunate victim succumbed to death. These bloodstains may warn you of an upcoming drop into nothingness, a particularly difficult enemy encounter, or a deadly trap waiting to be sprung. If you wish to assist a player more directly (after all, self-sacrifice might drop a helpful bloodstain for your fellow players, but it doesn't do you much good), you can leave a note. You must choose from a preselected list, but there are dozens of messages to choose from, and you'll likely find a sentiment that communicates exactly what you need to share. If there's a deadly drop ahead, leave a note (which appears as a rune on the ground) warning your fellow players. Not only will it help them out, but if they find it useful, they can rate it. When a note is rated, it replenishes some of the note-givers health. Low-rated notes fade away quickly, while high-rated ones stick around longer. It's a superb system of give and take in which the writer and the reader can both benefit. Those who offer and receive true help are rewarded, and those who provide incorrect, pointless, or misleading information are simply wasting their own time.
The most direct way of helping other players, however, is to join them on their quest. Demon's Souls' ingenious implementation of co-op play is hardly straightforward, though it is incredibly imaginative. Players exist in one of two forms: body form and soul form. If you are in body form, you have full hit points, while in soul form, your hit points are generally halved (though a terrific ring you can find early on will give you a boost). You start your adventure in body form, and when you die, you are resurrected in soul form. Because you are only restored to body form when you defeat a boss or use a relatively rare stone, you'll spend most of your time as a soul. When in soul form, you can drop a soul marker; a player in body form can then activate that marker to summon you to his or her world. At that point, you join the player in his or her realm and tackle the challenges at hand together. If you are in body form, you can summon either one or two players, for a maximum party of three. There is no way to invite a friend, and no voice chat to communicate strategies or warnings. Yet while that sounds limiting, this imaginative system works in the context of Demon's Souls' harsh world and backstory. You feel as if you occupy a single node on a vast web of interconnected realms that mesh and overlap in mysterious ways.
The result of this unique and amazing set of online features is a curious sense of camaraderie. On one occasion, we joined two other players in the host's instance, and using Demon's Souls' built-in emotes, all three players bowed to one another at the same time. That friendly moment was a microcosm of the sense of community that the game's tightly balanced cooperative features create. By dropping your soul mark, you are not only offering your service to a player in need, but also reaping rewards in the way of souls, as well as learning new combat strategies in your own realm. This is particularly helpful when it comes to Demon's Souls' exceptionally difficult--and exceptionally rewarding--boss fights. The first main boss you fight may give you an idea of the awesome character designs you'll see elsewhere, but its relatively low level of challenge won't prepare you for the dual monstrosities known as maneaters or the nail-biting and exciting storm king battle. Not all of these boss battles are as hard as the gameplay that leads to them, but they are tough nonetheless, and the boss designs are deliciously grotesque.
Nevertheless, other players aren't always your best pals; sometimes, they may be your worst enemies. Once you've progressed far enough (and procured the necessary item), you can invade another player's realm as a black phantom--and other players can invade yours. Don't worry that you'll suddenly be attacked by another player many, many levels above you: your invader must be around the same level as you, so you should be on more or less equal footing. Even so, the presence of an enemy player changes the very nature of your exploration. Not only must you cope with the array of demons seeking to slaughter you, but you must also be on the lookout for the telltale blood-red shimmer of your intruder. As a result, you'll move ahead much more cautiously--and when you do finally meet, the ensuing encounter is tense and exciting. Don't be surprised if you let out an audible gasp when you receive the notification on your screen that another player has penetrated your realm; no matter how often they happen, invasions never lose their potency. If you're the one being invaded, the intrusion is exciting and a little bit scary; you'll look around, wondering if you're being followed, and listen for signs of your foe. When you're the invader, you'll feel vaguely evil scouting about, trying to stay out of your victim's sight, and looking for the best opportunity to attack. And there may be surprising moments in which these various systems coalesce. For example, you may join another player in his or her realm, only to have a black phantom appear. The unspoken (there is no voice chat) partnership between you and your collaborator makes banishing a black phantom from his realm almost as satisfying as banishing one from your own. Of course, the souls you earn sweeten the deal.
Amid all of its elegance, Demon's Souls has a few small but noticeable flaws that bear mentioning. The game's targeting system is picky, so you may find it a chore to lock on to certain enemies when you need to most. The camera is occasionally hard to control when you're targeting demons, like when you need to deal with multiple flying gargoyles as you simultaneously climb a narrow, suspended staircase (there's no death in Demon's Souls more heartbreaking than a falling one). And there are a few areas where the frame rate tends to stutter, though these occurrences aren't frequent and are never overwhelming. Of course, the game's greatest potential drawback is its level of difficulty. If you are easily frustrated, or looking to unwind for the night, Demon's Souls isn't going to fit the bill, though that doesn't mean it's generally cheap: it always abides by its own laws. When you die, it's because the section is legitimately hard--but when you die, you learn. And you can minimize death by paying close attention to the tools you're given: player spirits, notes on the ground, bloodstains, and the cackles and groans emanating from around the corner. You know that walkway that crumbled underneath you and dropped you in the middle of some menacing fiends? Chances are you simply didn't read the note another friendly player left urging you to sprint across.
Demon's Souls harbors many more intricacies as well--nooks and crannies loaded with extra loot, a mechanic known as world tendency that changes the difficulty level depending on certain actions you take, and additional benefits (and risks) should you rescue (or kill) certain non-player characters you encounter on your travels. There's a lot to discover, and the game wants you to figure it all out on your own. But while Demon's Souls doesn't serve the answers to you on a gilded platter, it gives you a number of refined and inspired tools to help you succeed, and its astounding, oppressive world will cast its spell on you. If you crave true innovation, a fair but relentless challenge, and gripping exploration in which every step has consequences, then you crave Demon's Souls.
There have been a number of Spider-Man games in recent years, and they have often been as frustrating as they have been fun. In this latest outing, however, developers Treyarch and Shaba Games have gotten it right. Freed from the confines of a movie license, Web of Shadows is a game that, while not free of blemishes, is a superpowered blast from start to finish.
The terrific introduction throws you right into the midst of a crisis. The forces of SHIELD have occupied New York and are fighting a losing battle against a massive symbiote invasion. Amid the chaos, Spider-Man is desperate to find Mary Jane. After a quick tutorial that has you swinging across the city pummeling symbiotes, you encounter MJ, and it's clear that all is not well between Peter and her. As she chastises him for using his black symbiote suit, a mysterious figure emerges from a nearby explosion, extends its symbiotic tendrils to envelop Spider-Man, and everything goes dark. Then the game flashes back to four days prior, when Venom assaulted Spider-Man and part of the symbiote that gives Venom his power attached itself to our hero, giving him greater, more destructive strength. This lets you pick up cars and hurl them at Venom, which is as spectacular and satisfying as it sounds. With Venom defeated, everything seems normal again in New York, and Spidey has more run-of-the-mill problems to deal with, like full-scale gang wars. But we know the crisis that looms on the horizon. It's a great setup that pulls you in and makes you eager to keep playing to find out how things get so bad and how it all ends.
Swinging and zipping your way across Manhattan is easy and tremendously liberating, and Spidey leaps, soars, and dives through the air with a preternatural grace. It's such a joy that you may want to spend some time swinging high above the city enjoying the sense of freedom and ignoring the crimes happening far below, of which there's never any shortage, should you feel like breaking some skulls. A few of the game's more thrilling moments have you putting your webswinging skills to good use as you pursue villains across the city; though the chase sequences aren't especially challenging, the breathless sense of speed (and, in one case, the wake of destruction the villain you're pursuing leaves behind him) makes them a lot of fun.
While Treyarch's movie-based Spider-Man games tried to shoehorn a lot of content into the game using side missions that made much of the action seem peripheral, here, everything ties in to the game's excellent story, resulting in a cohesive, compelling experience from start to finish. As in past games, you'll swing around the city to take on various missions, which are given here by a selection of characters from the Marvel universe. Whether you deal primarily with heroes or with villains depends on some choices you make. From time to time, you'll have to decide whether to do the moral thing or to give in to the temptations of Peter's dark side. These choices don't have much impact, though, because the missions you undertake are largely the same regardless of whom you're undertaking them for, though there are a few different endings to the game that vary based on whether you're more aligned with the red suit or with the black. You can also call on an ally for support at almost any time, and whether you're joined by a hero or a villain will also depend on the decisions you make, but you probably won't feel the need to use this feature much.
There's an excellent variety to the missions and to the enemies you fight that keeps things from growing stale. You'll take on easily dispatched thugs, hulking mechs, and enemies who fly around on Green Goblin-esque gliders. Combat against airborne enemies is especially thrilling, because the camera generally does a terrific job of circling around to stay focused on the action, creating a dizzying sense of altitude as you see the city spinning below. There are also a number of great boss fights, including a fight with Vulture that has you swinging from flying enemy to flying enemy to reach him, and a knock-down, drag-out brawl against Wolverine, who doubts your identity and so will periodically quiz you on obscure bits of Spider-Man lore to determine if you're the real Peter Parker, which is a nice bit of fan service for hardcore Spider-Man fans.
It's in the game's final act, though--when New York is once again the symbiote-infested, SHIELD-occupied city glimpsed in the game's introduction--that the missions become outstanding. Pockets of humans need to be rescued from buildings and rooftops throughout the city, and there's a real sense of desperation as you accompany SHIELD APCs and hovercraft and fight to protect the civilians from oncoming swarms of symbiotes that you can see approaching even through walls, thanks to your handy spider sense. The symbiotes are relentless and a bit creepy, and the feeling of dread is enhanced by the gloomy red sky and the desperate skirmishes taking place all over the city between SHIELD troops and symbiotes.
Red skies or blue, the city looks beautiful, especially when you're swinging high above it. You can see the skyscrapers of Manhattan stretching far off into the distance, with light reflecting convincingly off their surfaces. The city still looks sharp when you're on the ground, though it's not especially detailed and doesn't have the amount of activity you'd expect. You'll occasionally see odd things, like people walking up against walls or vehicles with their front wheels on top of the car in front of them, which can be distracting, but they don't happen often enough to severely impact the experience. The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions look nearly identical, though we did encounter a few instances of screen tearing on the PS3, which seemed to be absent on the 360.
The sound is generally good, with some strong performances from the voice cast. Spider-Man delivers his so-bad-they're-funny (sometimes) one-liners with great geeky charm, while also giving a sense of the inner conflict he's experiencing in his struggle with the black suit. The music is sweeping and cinematic, but the best accompaniment to Spidey's swinging is the whistling of the wind you hear when there's no music at all. The sound has its technical issues, though; music and dialogue will sometimes cut out for a moment, and dialogue during cutscenes occasionally gets out of sync with the action.
Web of Shadows doesn't break the mold of earlier Spider-Man games, but its cohesive, engaging story, varied missions, and consistently thrilling action sure make it a big improvement for the series. The campaign is a good 12 hours long, and the gameplay is solid enough to hold up to a second play-through if you want to find out how it ends when you choose a different path. There are a number of minor technical issues, but they're far outweighed by the sheer enjoyment of the gameplay. Web of Shadows delivers nearly everything you could want in a Spider-Man game.
Nobody likes a bully, and nobody likes being bullied. But what do you do when confronted by a bully? Do you sit there and take it out of fear that standing up to the bully will lead to even more torment? Do you rat him out and hope for the best, knowing that it'll lead to a parking-lot brawl after school? Or do you stand up, fighting fire with fire? Rockstar's latest game, appropriately titled Bully, puts you in that situation and gives you the tools to stand up to those bullies, knock them around with your fists, and rise to the top of a boarding school's social scene. The interesting story and unique setting set Bully apart from the pack, and the result is simply exciting.
Bully opens with you, 15-year-old troublemaker Jimmy Hopkins, getting dumped off at a boarding school by your newly remarried mother and her rich husband. Your mother and her new husband intend to spend an entire year away on a cruise while you languish in what might as well be a teenage prison with slightly better-looking uniforms. Bullworth Academy is run by a clueless administration and a series of social cliques that are always scrapping. As the new kid thrown into the equation, you're quickly painted as an outcast. You're also befriended by another such outcast, a weird kid named Gary, who is apparently off his attention deficit disorder meds and has delusions of taking over the entire school. However, crazy Gary removes himself from the picture relatively early on, leaving you to fend for yourself against the school's different factions while attending classes, avoiding authority figures, and occasionally kissing girls.
While the gameplay is certainly strong, it's the setting and storyline that make Bully worthwhile. The characters are over-the-top caricatures of what you'd expect to see from jocks, principals, nerds, cheerleaders, and so on. Jimmy, however, is sort of the street-smart kid in the middle of it all. His dialogue is well written, portraying him as the one who can see through almost all of the personalities before him. That, plus the high school setting, is relatively untapped for this type of game. The conflicts seem real and edgy without being gratuitous, and the game maintains a T-for-Teen rating, without making you feel as if it's pulling any punches. It's like a modern-day River City Ransom.
Bully is an open-ended mission-based game, but don't mistake open-ended for a lack of structure. This is school, after all, and you're expected to attend two classes each day. You wake up at 8 a.m., have a morning class at 9 a.m. and an afternoon class at 1 p.m., and after that you're free to take on additional tasks until 11 p.m., which is curfew. Of course, rules were made to be broken, so as long as you dodge the prefects who roam the campus or the police who roam the nearby town, you can stay out and about until 2 a.m., at which point you'll automatically pass out from exhaustion and wake up at 8 a.m. the next morning. The game time moves pretty quickly, but because there's no real deadline for getting things done, you can take missions and classes at your own pace. So the game does have a specific structure to it, but it never feels as if you don't have enough time to get things done.
While it may be tempting to blow off all of your classes, staying in school has very real benefits. Each class has five minigame sessions, and succeeding at each task gives you a bonus. Doing well in gym class teaches you new fighting moves via wrestling and gives you increased accuracy by winning at dodge ball, which is a simple take on the game and serves as a bit of an homage to the classic '80s game Super Dodge Ball. English class gives you a set of letters, and you have to come up with as many words as you can by using those letters. Passing English gives you increased verbal abilities, allowing you to beg off from beatings or apologize to authority figures to avoid getting busted. Chemistry class gives you access to a chem set in your bedroom that lets you make firecrackers and stink bombs. Shop class has you pressing buttons in a set sequence to build BMX bikes, which are then unlocked for your use. Art class is a Qix-style minigame (or, more accurately, it's maybe a little more like the seedy naked lady Qix clone, Gal's Panic) that has you claiming parts of a painting while avoiding erasers and other enemies. Photography is the least essential of all classes because it just unlocks the ability to take photos and save them to your memory card. It also gives you a side mission as a yearbook photographer, with the goal of finding and snapping pictures of every student. Once you complete all five sessions of a class, you're no longer branded as a truant for skipping that class. So on top of getting some necessary upgrades, getting school out of the way early opens up your schedule for more missions.
Bully is broken up into chapters. Each chapter has you butting heads with one of the school's different factions, so you'll be going on missions to trip up that faction. For example, the preppie kids prefer in-ring boxing to street fighting, so one mission will have you head to their boxing ring and take on some challengers. In the segment where you take out the jocks, you work more closely with their nemeses, the nerds. You'll sneak into the girls' dorm to take naughty photos, steal the school mascot's uniform and use it to sneak around and pull off some nefarious deeds, and so on. Some missions are less about your current target, though. During the course of the game, you'll also help out some teachers, like the pervert gym teacher who asks you to go on a panty raid or the alcoholic English teacher who needs a little help cleaning up his act. None of the missions are lengthy or difficult, but the variety of the tasks you take on will keep you interested from start to finish.
Jimmy's abilities grow as you unlock new attacks and get new items. You interact with specific students by holding down the L1 button to lock onto them. From there, you can greet them positively or negatively. These social buttons are also used to hire bullies as bodyguards, to attempt to kiss girls, and so on. Of course, locking onto a target is also the best way to fight it. You get a good number of weapons during the course of the game, and they're all appropriately adolescent, like a slingshot, firecrackers, a bottle rocket launcher, a potato cannon, itching powder, stink bombs, the occasional baseball bat, and your fists. Your fists and feet are your most potent weapons, and there are no guns, knives, or anything else that would just straight-up cause death in the game. Enemies can block your basic attacks, but you can learn overhand hits, low sweeps, and other moves that can get around an enemy's block. On top of that, you can also grapple enemies, taking them down and kneeing them in the groin or hitting them in the face some more. The fighting system is really satisfying, though no single enemy is ever very tough. The enemies do, however, provide more of a challenge when you're outnumbered. Many of them drop life-restoring cola, so even when you're outnumbered, the odds never seem too overwhelming.
From a technical perspective, Bully won't immediately blow you away, but that's because of the age of the PlayStation 2 platform. Taking the platform into consideration, Bully looks great, with a lot of lifelike animation that makes the characters come alive during its cutscenes. The frame rate isn't 100 percent solid, but it always maintains a playable speed, and things like camera control rarely get in the way. The voice work is fantastic. The characters are perfectly cast with voices that fit them, though you won't recognize many, if any, of the names behind those voices. The same goes for the music. Rather than being filled with a bunch of instantly dated modern music that any teen might listen to, Bully has an original score that is thematically similar throughout, with plenty of harpsichord, all of which helps give the game a cinematic feel. The game has widescreen support and Dolby Pro-Logic II, which both work about as you'd expect.
Bully isn't a very difficult game, and it's likely that you'll be able to get through the storyline and see its somewhat predictable conclusion in about 15 hours or so. If you're a completist, there are plenty of hidden objects to collect, clothing items to purchase, and side missions (like bike races) to take on, and you can go back and do those things after finishing the main game. Overall, it's interesting from start to finish and most definitely well worth playing.
Way of the Samurai 3 is a unique action hybrid with role-playing elements that immerse you into the ancient world of the samurai. Its most distinctive feature is its interesting focus on cause-and-effect relationships, which it promotes by rewarding you for good behavior and punishing you for acts of reckless villainy. Unfortunately, the gameplay is complicated by an annoying camera and an occasionally sluggish frame rate, while repetitive combat and quests severely lessen your motivation to replay. Its core mechanics and interactivity options also remain primitive and outdated, culminating in a substandard samurai adventure.
The game opens in feudal Japan during the Sengoku era, with numerous warlords vying for territory. You're cast as a wandering samurai who stumbles into Amana, a once peaceful countryside torn apart by war. There are three main faction storylines to explore, with each being distinctly different and satisfying to unravel. There are plenty of townsfolk to interact with, and their witty dialogue can trigger subplot storylines that drive you to continue playing. The most intriguing aspect of Way of the Samurai 3 is its design as an open adventure that gives you total control over your destiny; you're completely free to join any faction or make a living out of beating villagers with sticks. The game capitalizes on a cause-and-effect mechanic, prompting you to perform certain actions during key moments, such as bowing in apology or sheathing your weapon. This makes something simple, such as drawing your sword, problematic because it has both immediate and unforeseen consequences. This also keeps the action enticing because it affects potential alliances and endings. It's disappointing that your interactive options are so limited and recycled from previous games, but this is still the franchise's most novel and exciting facet.
Combat utilizes basic, fast-paced mechanics that are easy to learn but also repetitive and boring. You're limited to two attack types--swift, weak attacks or slow, powerful blows--but both are crude hack-and-slash maneuvers. You'll find a healthy variety of combat styles to master along with an abundance of skills to unlock by leveling weaponry, but these "skills" are nothing more than simple combo strings that promote mundane button mashing. An instant kill feature lets you finish off an opponent in one ferocious strike, but the amount of depth it provides is miniscule because slashing targets works far better. A push/pull mechanic enables you to knock opponents off balance by "pushing" through weak attacks and "pulling" back during strong ones. The system takes some skill to master, but it's worthwhile because it can afford you crucial time to counterattack or regenerate health via a handy quick-select item feature.
Unusual design flaws and irritating quirks make combat cumbersome. A fussy camera blocks your view whenever you're fighting near objects or backed into tight corners, which happens constantly and often results in you getting hacked to death while adjusting the camera. The combat system's intense speed keeps you moving across cluttered battlefields, but the poor physics means you'll get partially lodged inside rocks or be slammed into--and sent rolling up--trees. Targets, meanwhile, can get stuck walking into poles or other obstructions. Combat is somewhat cheapened by advantageous opponents that'll knock you down and slash you to bits before you can get back up. You'll also trigger significant slowdown when facing multiple opponents, which is especially irritating because it makes it tougher to dodge, which is something you'll need to do in busy situations.
Though the game incorporates some RPG aspects, most of these paltry offerings are rudimentary or irritating. Weapon enhancement is limited to modifying the basics, such as attack power and defense. There are no combat abilities or character growth options. Your weapon's statistics determine your character attributes, so the only customization you can do is the limited weapon enhancement. Amusing jobs are implemented for you to gain trust with each faction and help determine your ending, but they are made dull and tedious because missions are constantly recycled with only eight areas to investigate. Character customization options are fun to unlock and let you create a unique look; however, most of these only modify your character's appearance, which is marginally disappointing.
Combat is challenging, but its exacting nature is relentless and not for the impatient. A single slipup usually leads to death, which is frustrating when these mistakes are caused by elements out of your control, such as slowdown or the irritating camera. The game also starts slowly because it takes a good deal of time to finish jobs, unlock skills, and improve your weaponry before you can tackle major opponents. You'll also stumble across random cutthroats and ninjas that can finish you off in a single lucky strike, which is quite vexing for the unprepared.
You won't find breathtaking visuals in this samurai journey, but detailed feudal architecture dots the landscape. Decent texturing enriches buildings and pathways, but noticeable jagged edges and clipping create an unrefined aesthetic. Character models are less detailed and employ some ridiculous motions, though some of this is for comedic effect. The soundtrack is pleasantly tranquil, mixing modern elements with traditional Japanese instruments to impart a dramatic tone. Ambient noises--such as chirping birds and crickets--also work with the music to set a believable exploration backdrop. You can finish the game in less than 10 hours, but you'll spend three times as long unlocking everything and triggering all the different events and endings. However, limited areas and repetitive quests drastically undercut Way of the Samurai 3's replayability. Though the game's cause-and-effect focus is highly distinctive, its gameplay comprises mundane, barebones mechanics that seem almost archaic, while a troublesome camera and choppy frame rate further limits its appeal. Way of the Samurai 3 has its entertaining moments, but its lackluster next-generation debut provides little advancement over its predecessors.
Capcom's notion of what's cool--a concept on which its PlayStation 2 action game Devil May Cry was built--may not find complete synergy with today's gaming audience. In fact, much of Devil May Cry's aesthetic presentation is rooted in stereotypical gothic and cheesy '80s metal imagery. But beneath that overstated surface is one of the most interesting and generally entertaining 3D action games in recent years. Perhaps for the first time in the 3D action genre, Devil May Cry has successfully captured the twitch-based, relentlessly free-flowing gameplay style of so many classic 2D action games.
In Devil May Cry, you assume the persona of Dante, the half-human, half-devil son of a legendary dark knight known as Sparda. A powerful and malevolent ruler of the underworld, whom Sparda vanquished 2,000 years ago, has awakened and, although Dante doesn't quite know it at the game's onset, he--like his father--has been chosen to defeat this evil being. At his aid, at least for portions of the game, is a beautiful woman named Trish, who invites Dante to Mallet Island, a gateway to the netherworld. The game's story, and much of its script for that matter, draws heavily from tired clichés and presents generic plot points. But as Dante descends into the grimy underworld--a great place for blasting a wide variety of demons--it becomes clear that you must accept the game's formulaic story to fully appreciate the fine-tuned gameplay that it veils.
Perhaps Devil May Cry's greatest gift, in gameplay terms, is its highly intuitive control scheme. It is one of those rare games in which simply moving the character around the screen and performing various attacks is innately entertaining. Blasting Dante's dual handguns, which are amusingly named Ebony and Ivory, in rapid succession or double-jumping through some of the game's open areas is simply a lot of fun. Throw in a variety of opponents, including everything from hovering marionettes to ruthlessly persistent, lava-spewing demon spiders, and Devil May Cry becomes one of the most entertaining action games in gameplay terms alone. In practice, the responsive controls mean that the more adept you are with the game's control scheme, the quicker you're able to dispose of the demonic enemies. Once again, like classic 2D action games, Devil May Cry rewards the skillful game player.
Devil May Cry has been cleverly designed, in harmony with the fast-paced gamplay and control scheme, to challenge the player with a steadily increasing learning curve. The gradual unlocking of a variety of weapons and moves, which are secured by bartering mystical red orbs that are collected by disposing of evil souls, means that in general, your strength increases in precise concert with the game's overall difficulty level. Dante is superquick and is able to perform a myriad of attacks, but his enemies are powerful and are generally highly skilled at disposing aspirant demon hunters like our hero. This is another essential success of Devil May Cry, as it keeps you involved in the flow of the game and is constantly challenging without becoming frustratingly so. Devil May Cry will challenge even the most capable game player, while its easy automatic mode, which is unlocked after you finish the first mission, makes the game accessible to players of varying skill levels. In either case, both the intensity and the difficulty build gradually, as the game culminates almost predictably in an epic and multitiered final battle.
The final stages, although still quite entertaining, also produce the game's few failings. Without giving away the ending, it's safe to say that the game loses its direction, branching into a variety of different genres, some quite unnecessary. The game's final sequence almost feels forced and artificial, as it strays from the game's general course. Also, despite the drawn-out conclusion, Devil May Cry's difficulty level reaches a plateau near the end and isn't nearly as challenging as it could have been.
Another issue that some may have with Devil May Cry is its fixed camera angles. As surprising as it sounds, Devil May Cry began its life as a Resident Evil game, and although it has grown out of the confined conventions of the survival-horror genre, it has retained the static cameras of Capcom's zombie-infested series. Like in Resident Evil, you'll sometimes find yourself blasting away at unseen enemies who are outside the camera's view. Also, at times--although this is relatively infrequent--you will find yourself battling the analog stick and reorienting your sense of direction after a quick camera switch.
Still, the camera issues are not overbearing on you and are generally dealt with quite ingeniously. Usually, the camera is positioned farther from the action than in the Resident Evil games, for example, so that you are given a greater field of view. Also, Dante is quite adept at auto-aiming, which means that even if enemies are not visible onscreen for a few seconds, they're still being battered by the rapid fire from Dante's dual handguns. Besides, the fixed camera angles let you appreciate Dante's fluid and ultracool movements and are useful in showing panoramic views of the game's gorgeous environments.
Devil May Cry is no one-trick pony, and its outstanding gameplay is complemented adeptly by some of the most stunning visuals yet seen on the PlayStation 2. In terms of the game's environments, once again, the Resident Evil influence is vaguely visible. The castle in particular, with its spiral staircases, open courtyards, and stone columns, is reminiscent of the mansion in Resident Evil. Still, in Devil May Cry, the environments have received a healthy dose of texture detail, as the stone walls of the aged castle show cracks and subtle hints of wear and stained glass windows are adorned with elaborate designs. In fact, some of the locations in the game are almost awe-inspiring. Much like in Sony's ICO, there are some areas in Devil May Cry, like the deck of an intricately detailed submerged pirate ship or the black-and-white décor inside a church setting, that you will want to revisit just to gawk at the magnificent scenery. Environmental visuals aside, the characters, although a bit ragged around the limb joints, are generally nicely modeled. Plus, they all move with a graceful fluidity.
In fact, the animation is perhaps the glue that coagulates the convincing synergy between the gameplay and graphics in Devil May Cry. Dante's transitions from one animation to another are done convincingly and with the utmost of ease. The game's signature move, which involves Dante slashing his opponents up in the air with his sword and keeping them suspended with the rapid fire of his handguns, is a perfect example of the game's ultrasmooth animation. But Dante isn't the only character gifted with effortless animation. The variety of demons also moves at a fluid pace. For example, the shadowy feline--which appears near the beginning of the game--twists, turns, and contorts its body into a variety of shapes, all the while moving freely and naturally through the battle area.
Much like the animation, the game's music is quite adaptive to your actions. While engaged in battle, the music transitions to a faster, guitar-heavy vibe, but as Dante swiftly explores the game's environments, the music becomes understated, as the sound of Dante's footsteps and demonic wails fill the air. Still, although the game's soundtrack matches the in-game action and its general visual theme, the guitar-heavy riffs may not be to the liking of some.
Devil May Cry isn't the type of game that will provide countless hours of gameplay--in general, it will take a little less than 10 hours to complete on the harder difficulty levels. And other than the challenge of the increasing levels of difficulty, there really isn't much replay value to speak of. Still, for those hours that you will play Devil May Cry, you will enjoy every second of it. Those able to look past the overly dramatic voice acting and superficial story will find themselves being utterly enveloped by the stunning visuals and, in particular, the engrossing and satisfying gameplay. Devil May Cry generally lives up to its considerable hype and is one of the PlayStation 2 must-haves for fans of the action genre.
