Devil May Cry. It may not have been the reboot or sequel to the beloved franchise a lot of people wanted, but it’s still a damn good game. Dante, the beloved main character of the series, is about to enter the bloody palace, shooting and slicing his way through 101 unique waves of Demon Scum.
At what cost? Nothing.
You might have played it in previous Devil May Cry games, but for those who haven’t, Bloody Palace is an arena style DLC for DmC that lets players battle their way through waves upon waves of demons all for Leaderboard scores and upgrade points. I’ve been playing the DLC for a considerable amount of time now. Here are my impressions..
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Ninja Theory
Release Date: Out Now
Format: Xbox 360, PS3, PC
Version Tested: PC
Price: Free
Angel’s Wrath
As I already mentioned, this DLC is completely free. Just 200 megabytes stand in your way of playing this, not a price-tag. However, as you’ll soon discover, the content isn’t completely faultless.
One thing to bear in mind before playing is that bosses and areas from the main game will be used throughout the whole DLC. I highly, highly, recommend that you finish the main game before you even attempt Bloody Palace.
That said, I won’t be spoiling any of the boss fights or story areas in this review, so feel free to read on if you haven’t completed DmC.
Starting with the gameplay, there is no sure fire way to say how long this DLC will take you to complete. That’s because it really depends on your level of skill. You’re basically put in an ever changing arena only to have waves of demons thrown at your beloved Nephilim protagonist . Bloody Palace features 101 floors of unique waves of enemies. You’ll be fighting the bog-standard Stygian for the first few waves. Gradually, however, new enemies such as Witches and Butchers will be introduced into the mix.
A trip into Limbo.
Demon’s weep
It’s not as boring as all that, though. Remember the boss fights I mentioned earlier? They happen every 20 waves. After completing 19 waves, you are thrown into one of the boss fights from the main game. After completing said boss fight, you receive a full health boost and are then thrown straight back into the action. Bear in mind, health is a precious commodity in Bloody Palace and extremely scarce. Only certain enemies will drop much-needed health orbs. This means that the only real way to get back health is to either beat a boss, hit the right enemy or make maximum use of your Devil Trigger.
When playing the DLC, you will be allowed to use any Skins or upgrades for both Dante and his weapons. However, items are completely removed. This means you can play Bloody Palace to gain upgrade points and they can then be spent later on. In fact, it’s a nice incentive to play the DLC, as it allows you to not only practice your combos and hone your skills, but it provides you with a way of ultimately farming for upgrade points.
To keep the combat fresh, the arena is ever changing. Various arenas are used in the DLC and they often alternate just after a boss fight. You will be fighting in arenas that are both featured early and late in the campaign. To begin with, though, you will be fighting in a new location in Limbo. Overall, the arena changes are nice and at times, dynamic features, such as the Demon-Angel tiles, are introduced to force players to readjust their tactics. Though I wish the arena changes happened more frequently, there is definitely enough variations within the DLC to keep the average DmC player happy.
One of the many arenas within the DLC.
Your blood. My palace
The only real negative with the whole DLC is that the waves can get a bit repetitive. Due to DmC not having a huge variation of enemies, fighting through 101 waves of them can become a bit tedious. Luckily, when boss fights do happen, it breaks the action up quite nicely. Another notable downside to the DLC is that there is no save function. That means, if you want to finish all 101 waves of the DLC, you are going to have to do it all in one sitting. For the average gamer, that will take at least an hour.
Overall, though, the DLC is well worth a download. Boasting 101 levels of pure slaughter all for the low, low price of free, you can’t really go wrong. Bloody Palace has a few issues and as I said, can be a bit repetitive, but overall it’s a very good piece of content.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
So, go grab Rebellion and Slice some demons. Oh, and while you’re at it, why not shoot something with Ebony and Ivory? Bah, what am I saying, go finish all 101 rounds and make Sparda proud.
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