Devil May Cry 4: Trial Version

I should mention that the Devil May Cry series never really appealed to me. Too button mashy and too much flipping between character-relative and screen-relative controls for me to enjoy exploration and combat; and the mood, story, and setting isn't enough to offset those issues.

That said, it's a popular and well-hyped series, so I jumped in on the trial version.

I started by just mashing the A button until I was dropped into game play. I wandered through the environment and kind of paid attention to the occasional "tip" billboard that appeared. Combat was not that exciting to me as the enemies weren't that impressive and basically I just needed to mash buttons until they died. There didn't seem to be any need for strategy (just don't use the gun because it seems useless) at this point.

Navigating the world was more challenging than it needed to be. I found myself playing the minimap (instead of finding my way by landmarks and lighting) to figure out where to go next. This was especially helpful when it came to locating doors. Doors generally did not stand out at all (looked bland; weren't lit well) and gave no indication that they were interactive. I eventually started smashing everything and accidentally opened a door by using my "B" attack (which is also the command to open doors and interact with objects in the world). I'm hoping that the level design doesn't have me opening doors during combat when I mean to attack...

While it is tough to tell what you can and can not interact with in the world, it certainly is fun to smash things. Not as rewarding as in Lego Starwars or Ratchet and Clank, but fun enough.

I wish I could understand the appeal of this game. I'm not sure whether the trial version would appeal either to noobs (the combat went from rather dull to almost impossible with no real ramp up) or experienced players (the combat didn't seem very over the top). But, I didn't get very far, so it's possible that the really cool content came further along in the demo which would be rewarding for people who played the previous versions.