Capcom strikes gold with new HD game collection

Capcom’s “Devil May Cry” series is an anthology of games that has enthralled and enraged its most loyal fans. The goal of an HD collection is to allow the older generation of players to rekindle their love for a series, while leaving each game’s core mechanics set in stone. “The Devil May Cry HD Collection” most certainly accomplishes this for better and for worse.

To begin, the HD collection, which was released April 3 for Xbox 360 and PS3, comes packaged with polished versions of all three “Devil May Cry” games and surprise bonus content.

The surprise bonus content section contains artwork and all of the soundtracks from the “Devil May Cry” trilogy. Shockingly, the original artwork from the original “Devil May Cry” is the most intriguing. It contains many of the ideas that Capcom had to drop during the development process, which could have taken the series in an entirely different direction.

Each game on the disk has been upgraded with audio enhancements that make listening to them a pleasure and the voice acting sounds clean.

Sound effects such as a sword being swung resonates well and listening to enemies scream to their deaths as they crumble is satisfying. Hearing the sound of glass, wood or concrete slap underneath Dante’s boots and a remastered score provides the player with an overall improved experience.

As promised, the gameplay mechanics are all intact. “Devil May Cry” and “Devil May Cry 3” both handle spectacularly and are still extremely fun to play; boss battles are intense and death is around every corner.

 “Devil May Cry 2” on the other hand, is still a highly flawed game with horrible pacing and aggravating boss battles. The title is jam-packed with a vast amount of innovative ideas but its execution is way off. 

A minor problem that plagues all three games is the camera that continuously fights back. It is only a minor gripe and is not a huge nuisance.

Graphically, “Devil May Cry” is the title that appeared to receive the most focus and attention from Capcom. Lighting is inserted where it wasn’t previously and miniscule details such as glass and blood have been added to specific scenes. The backgrounds in “Devil May Cry 2” still look visually unpleasant, and the only objects that are polished are the main characters.  “Devil May Cry 3” is already an aesthetically impressive game. Levels now look smooth instead of fuzzy, plus Capcom cleaned up small defects on the main characters and in-game cut-scenes.

Overall, Capcom and Pipeworks Software did an exceptional job and handled this port with great care. For those who have not jumped on the “Devil May Cry” bandwagon yet, this collection is a good place to start.