The original "Devil May Cry" played like an installment of the "Castlevania" series on celluoid. It was an all-out action game which was initially meant to be part of the popular "Resident Evil" franchise. As development progressed, it gradually turned out be an original title influenced by Japanese Anime and Hong Kong action films.
It was a tough adventure that required lots of stragedy to master. I called it a masterpiece and named it one of the best PS2 games I had played in 2001. "Devil May Cry 2" takes that same non-stop action concept and pays tribute with it to the side-scrolling arcade beat em-ups of the 1990's. The demon hunter Dante, a cross between Marvel Comics' Blade and Anne Rice's Vampire Lestat, returns as the hero with his twin trusty pistols and huge sword.
In this episode, he's partnered with a mysterious knife-flinging woman named Lucia. The two join forces to stop an evil businessman from merging our world with the demon world. Yadda, yadda, yadda; we've heard all this before. The story isn't what made the first DMC an outstanding game and it certainly doesn't do it for this one either.
However, it's servicable for this type of genre and while the game itself isn't great; it succeeds in, if nothing else, taking the over the top action of the original up a notch. Dante now runs up and jumps on walls, shoots in two directions simultaneoulsy and can jump 20 ft. in the air, then dive head-first toward the ground with guns blazing. Lucia, who's a playable character, performs similar moves with more emphasis on the martial-arts.
Like an RPG, you can ungrade their attacks, discover new weapons and special magical powers. Unfortunately, you hardly need to use all these tactics since the game's difficulty is a bit on the easy side. However, I enjoyed DMC 2, I thought it worked on the basis of its fast paced action. I wouldn't recommend buying it, but certainly trying it. I'd give it *** out of **** (or grade it with a B-).