For the last time, it isn’t about the hair!
By Lo-Ping - Wed Jan 16, 3:50 pm
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Welcome to January. With a new year comes a new release quarter, and the game to herald the charge of new games to the market is Ninja Theory’s DmC: Devil May Cry. A re-imagining of the series, a new Dante is thrust upon hopeful gamers en masse. And most of them resisted. But why? Is it generally a resistance to change? Are these people being tantrum-throwing tear-spewing children who don’t want a new blankie to replace their old one? It depends on who you ask, really.
Upon the game’s release, it received mostly positive praise across the board. With an average Metacritic review score of 86, the game sports a “generally favorable” review across most outlets. As expected with a game that garners this much following, the user reviews sport a different story entirely. Clocking in at 3.4, zero-point reviews continue to flood the site. Why? Why such hate? Why such vitriol from a fan-base?
The reviews themselves cite the game as having its share of low-points as well as positive marks. The combat, while having stuttering here and there, presents itself as a solid hack-and-slash with its share of charms that can wear thin at times. But let’s get to the meat and bones of the issue here: the writing.
The writing from the first iterations of the game were far from solid. Cheesy, tongue-in-cheek, and bombastic were standard fare in your average DMC title. And at times, Dante really was kind of a douche while his female companions were anything but likable. So how did they get away with it? Simple really: It didn’t take itself seriously. At all. And it did a good job of telling you it didn’t take itself seriously.
Dante was a douche, yes. But he was a likable douche. What more, he was OUR likable douche. The man had a sense of timing, class, and vibrato that could not be topped. I mean compare Dante receiving Lucifer in DMC 4 to him receiving Eryx in DmC. The guy just looks at the gauntlets, and slams them together. No comment, no innuendo, no CCCCCCRAZY.
And when the one-liners DO come? Oh god are they hackneyed.
“I am Mundus!”
“You’re an asshole!”
“But,” you may point out. “That’s not any worse than presented in the first four titles. Why should this be any different?” Here it is again: The first DMC titles did NOT take themselves seriously. Never did Kamiya or any of his staff nor any marketing materials claim that the writing in any of his games would be “Shakespearean.”
Oh, but God forbid you complain. I mean what’s the point? Bring it up to DmC’s new handler Tameem, and what will he do? Take a drag of his cigarette, gaze off into the distance, and say, “I don’t care.” What about games journalists themselves? Surely they’ll side with the fans and act as an impartial buffer between consumer and creator?
Go outside. Get some fresh air. Volunteer at a soup kitchen. Grow the fuck up. And try DmC: Devil May Cry, because it’s a good video game.
The article possesses an extremely narrow viewpoint of the overall fan response. And the tone the writer takes puts her on the same level as the indignant fans she so claims to abhor. There is no justification for this article’s existence, let alone the tone it takes on taking the so-called offenders to task.
So why? Why are people so willing to ignore the problems with the game, and just arbitrarily label it as fans being mad because his hair isn’t white? Is it the same game being played here? Did they not notice rifle-assisted abortions, “little wet chunks”, WUBWUBWUB, a fetus pulling his mother into his vagina (yes, HIS vagina) and literally attacking with dub-step, and “My dick is bigger than yours”? The writing isn’t subtle. It isn’t clever. It isn’t even in the same area code as “decent”. But the marketers had the audacity to label it as “Shakespearean” and label any decryers as “haters”.
What’s more, the biggest worry fans had wasn’t that NT would turn Dante from a likable douche to an unlikable douche, but if NT could even make a good DMC game. Because be honest, Ninja Theory isn’t exactly known for having the slickest of combat mechanics.
This game exists to be try-hard and edgy for the sake of edge. Even the walls say “FUCK YOU”.
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Good for Tameem for not giving the usual “we understand your concerns” response to these entitled whiners.
These rabid morons have jumped on anything since day 1 to shit on this game. Game is good, get over it.
There’s that word again…
If the shoe fits…
Man, if we’re talking about writing NT sure did drop the ball so hard it tunneled to the core of the earth. I mean, holy crap, HOW did they convinced the actors to spout this crap? And that;s before getting into a lot of the misogynistic overtones (like at the beginning of the game with the strip club -shudder). For all of Tameem’s bragging about how this was gonna be some revolutionary narrative, he proved he’s got no talent when it comes to writing.
I’m confused, are you saying that every single reviewer who gave the game a good score is wrong about their opinion, and that the game is actually terrible? If so, that’s a damn right arrogant claim to make. What gives your opinion any more credibility than theirs? Maybe they think the combat and story is better than past DMC games and, let’s face it, there’s several of them and only one of you.
Also, I couldn’t care less about what hardcore fans of the series think. They are the most annoying type of gamers, the ones that simply can’t accept change, and instantly dismiss a new entry into the series just because it’s different. We saw it with Diablo 3. We’re seeing it with Dmc. We’re gonna see it with Dead Space 3. Just give it a rest, will you? You’re just making yourselves look like fools.
This ^
You are aware what you’re espousing here, right? “It’s none of your concern, quit whining, you have no right to complain.”
Why? Says who? Why is it that this is the only branch of the entertainment industry where this kind of shit flies?
Awesome article. Very accurate to the situation, but people who support this game would just read this article, put their fingers in their ears and sing, “Lalala, I’m not listening. You guys are just haterz. lol.”
Ironic considering thats exactly what you people did since the game was shown.
About time we seen an article that calls DmC for the piece of shit that it is and call out “journalists” for antagonizing and trolling the DMC fanbase. You’re a good man, Jamal.
“Hey Dante, will we meet again?”
;_;7
He’s not exactly saying that, rather that the games defenders both don’t understand the argument of the “haters” and often act no better, if not worse, for not understanding.
About type i saw an asshole who fails to get the message and bashes DMC as a shitty game that it isnt.
The problem is not the game, its the stupid immature writing. Kinda makes sense on dante’s side, he is an immature teenager at that point. But the bad guys? Nope. Dmc is a fine fuckign game with shitty writing. Thats what this article says not that the game sucks major balls.
The sad thing for “games journalism”, is that since the Mass Effect 3 debacle, these journalists always come out with a new buzzword to describe gamers, and that just shows how narrow-minded they are. Ironically, the buzzword “entitled” that was spewed left and right during the ME3 situation, ended up being used to describe the sad, sad state of gaming journalism. When people decry fan backlash as pure “hate”, then they don’t have any integrity left.
About the game, the gameplay is solid, but there are too many gimmicks to make it an enjoyable experience. What I never saw in any of those “genuine” reviews, was someone saying how the boss fights are all pathetic, full of gimmicks and cutscenes.
It started before that (and probably before the example I’m about to give, it’s just the one I was the most involved with) when the gaming press so virulently turned on detractors of Fallout 3. What amazes me about all this is how the people with any sort of power over the situation, the devs in particular, can maintain such a bizaare seige mentality about the issue…look guys, you make the decisions. If you’re not going to listen to a large section of your fanbase, that’s your perogative, but don’t act like you’re put upon when YOU made the choices that led to the situation.
Other than that it’s just a pitiful game. It tries it’s hardest to simply let you win so you garner some sense of accomplishment. The Style Meter spews out SS and SSSs like they’ve got too many in stock, and enemies are more than happy to let you wail on them, to terrorified of ending your combo to move. All it ends up doing is making you feel like you wasted your time.
Right because dmc 4 was not liek that at all.
Thank God someone else is bothering to expose this grotesque show of hatred for fans as what it really is.
Just wanted to say thanks for writing this. I’m glad someone is actually on our side.
SHUT UP FAG
FUCK YOU
NO, FUCK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
#Demons WE HAVE AWOKEN
YOU’RE AN ASSHOLE!