Devil May Cry 3: Dantes Awakening Special Edition review

Friday 21 July 2006
Fact: if you haven't played Devil May Cry 3, you don't understand how hard it is. You might think you know - you might even have had a chuckle at people who complain about it - but you just don't get it. DMC was that special sort of hard that doesn't care about focus-testing or everyone seeing all the beautifully-designed later levels.

Don't get us wrong, compared to most games, this Special Edition's still harder than Batman - it just won't make you cry any more. The biggest change is the Continue option. Previously, DMC made you go through each level - boss and all - at one go.

If you wanted to continue, you had to use a yellow Vital Star, which were expensive and only guaranteed one more go anyway. If you made a mistake - say, getting a bit careless with the low-level monsters - it was almost worth starting again. If you made a bigger blunder - like not bothering to buy the Air Hike ability before the third boss - you might have to redo two levels.

Now, though, things are different. Although the entire game's ever so slightly easier, the Gold option (as opposed to International) adds continue points at key moments and before every boss. Simply by adding these, Capcom hasn't just made things less frustrating - it's actually easier to play DMC the way you're supposed to.