Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening Special Edition review

No more tears - Dante's back with an easier remix of his best adventure yet

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The main improvement, though, is the Style system. Dante's got four styles and each suits a certain style of play, levelling up with prolonged use. Our favourite is Trickster - allowing you to nip in and out with quick hits and combo-kill enemies - but veterans might want to test themselves with the elegant Royal Guard for huge combos and massive style points.

The whole system works beautifully - and again, the slight alteration in difficulty means you're less likely to be punished for flitting between styles rather than sticking with just one all the way through.The trouble is, though, once you start to prod under the surface of 'new' Devil May Cry, you realise what else has changed - almost nothing.

There's exactly one new boss (Jester, the tricksy character who dances past bullets and bleeds streamers), who turns up halfway through for a scrap. Trouble is, this doesn't fit the story and it's rubbish anyway, because all he does is sling some generic electro-balls around while you hollow-point his confetti lungs out.

Above: It looks like he's taking a bow. What a performance - bravo! Encore!

Meanwhile, Dante's evil brother Vergil turns up as a playable character, but goes through exactly the same story as his sibling, which makes no sense at all. Compared to Resi 4's excellent Separate Ways adventure, which featured totally redesigned levels, it's poor stuff indeed.

More info

DescriptionAbsolutely essential if you've not played the previous Devil May Cry 3. The same game at heart - just not as ridiculously difficult
Platform"PC","PS2"
Alternative names"DMC","Devil May Cry Three"
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Joel Snape
Joel Snape enjoys Street Fighter V, any sandbox game that contains a satisfyingly clacky shotgun and worrying about the rise of accidentally-malevolent super-AI. He's also the founder-editor of livehard.co.uk, where he talks a lot about working out.