Devil May Cry 5 review: pure action bliss

Even if you’re terrible at action games, it shouldn’t take you too long to start juggling bad guys in the air using only a pair of pistols.What’s perhaps most remarkable about Devil May Cry 5, though, is how strictly it sticks to the formula that has made the series so beloved. Games like this, particularly ones as lavishly produced as Devil May Cry 5, are a dying breed.Though it’s the fifth proper entry in the series and the first in more than a decade, Devil May Cry 5 is very welcoming to new players. One of the best things about the game is its hideously inventive creature designs, which offer new and disturbing takes on familiar monsters like fiery hellbats and scythe-wielding skeletons. It’s all bone and blood and burned monsters with far too many eyeballs.For a game that is almost entirely about action, DMC5 also has a surprisingly elaborate and engaging story. At one point, when Nero miraculously survives an ambulance crash, he shouts, “Somebody call a doctor?” Later in the game, the grim demon hunter Dante does an impressive Michael Jackson impersonation after acquiring a new weapon.All that said, action is the core reason to play this game. Despite its stunning presentation, it can feel like a game from a different era, as if you were playing the best-looking PS2 game ever made — and I mean that as the highest compliment.The hallways may all look the same, but no two encounters are alike.Devil May Cry 5 launches March 8th on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.