Dante’s first trio of adventures is back in the Devil May Cry HD Collection now on Playstation 4 & Xbox One. Originally released on Playstation 3 & Xbox 360, this re-port of the classic Playstation 2 DMC trilogy tries to make way for the modern console hardware, but it unfortunately fails to live up to it’s true potential on the third go round.

Devil May Cry HD Collection is a 2018 8th generation port of the 2012 port of the same name. It is developed and published by Capcom. It is currently available on PC, Playstation 4, and Xbox One.

A great trio of games that deserves far more than this collection could provide.

I’m a huge fan of the Devil May Cry series, I’ve played just about any and every game that even remotely had a presence of Dante or the DMC name even the originals on PS2 and the original PS3/360 ports. So I have to be honest here, this review kind of hurts. Actually it hurts a lot, because there was so much potential here, especially with the provided power of the Playstation 4 Pro & Xbox One X, let alone the base consoles and it just feels unrealized.

Gameplay is (mostly) the same magic it was from 2001-2006.

THE GOOD: Most of what we experienced in the original 2012 trilogy is in this “new” collection set and that’s fantastic. Gameplay still runs smooth as hell and graphics are as solid as they were six years ago, I know that sounds like a bad thing but it really isn’t and now you don’t have a reason to pull out your last gen consoles just for the sake of revisiting Dante’s journey. If you skipped out on the collection in 2012, then by all means this is a must buy, especially if you’re completely new to the Devil May Cry franchise.

Despite being as bare boned as it is, DMC HD Collection is great for new fans and even older fans who skipped the 2012 counterpart.

THE BAD: While it’s great for newer fans and those who skipped it on the seventh gen consoles, it doesn’t really do major fans much justice. The only real upgrade is the full 1080P as Capcom didn’t really take advantage of the Playstation 4 Pro and Xbox One X. While it’s possible that these performance and graphical updates can be patched in at a much later date, it feels quite odd to have not had it ready at launch if the plan is support the Pro & X at all even. Some how they managed to make the camera for Devil May Cry 1 & 2 extremely worse than they were. I’ve played these games dozens of times throughout my 28 year old life and I don’t remember the cameras being as bad to the extreme that they were here. You’ll often find yourself battling enemies off camera after performing many of Dante’s lightning fast combos. Again these can be fixed with a minor update so it’s more of an annoyance, but one that happens more frequently than it should.

The second collection for the Devil May Cry franchise is a re-port that could have been far more ‘Stylish’ than it is.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Honestly, I’ve never not recommended a Devil May Cry game to anyone before and I probably never will (I’m one of the few longtime fans who love DmC). However, I can’t quite put my finger on many reasons any long time fans would go out of their way to own it again if they purchased this on Playstation 3 and Playstation 4 outside of a general collection sake. If Capcom opts to upgrade the trilogy accordingly for Playstation 4 Pro and Xbox One X in the future, then there’s no denying any reason to own it, but for now there’s not too much reason to pick up the collection again.

Have some extra time on your hands? Check out this Kirby Star Allies review from our friends at Thebiem.