DmC: Devil May Cry PC Analysis

I prefer PC games. There, I said it. I don’t know what it is about them, maybe it’s because while I was growing up convincing my parents that a PC would “help me learn” was a lot easier than convincing them that a SNES would, or maybe it’s because after many years, lots of jobs and University bills later, I could finally afford a computer that could run the latest games at the top settings. Whatever the reason is, when I get the option to play a PC game I jump at it, and if it’s a game that’s running through the Steam platform, with all of the achievements and perk that I’ve come to love with the home consoles, then I love them even more.

When I was asked if I’d take a look at the PC version of the brand new DmC: Devil May Cry from Ninja Theory and Capcom, I stopped replying to my emails for a short time, instead I had flashed back to an article I read a month or so before when it was revealed that the PC version of DmC would be capable of running at whatever frame rate your PC was able to run it at. It was like some sort of fever dream, all I could think of was the words “Unlimited Framerate”, and I snapped up the opportunity.

Reading through the dregs of the internet it’s obvious that one of the main problems that people have with the new DmC is the fact that it runs at 30 frames per second (fps) on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The developers have truly worked their magic with the often forgotten PC version of their latest title and DmC does in fact run at whatever fps that your PC can handle. Granted, it fluctuates a little bit more than the home console would, depending on various different factors that a PC gamer is more than likely used to by now, but there were times when I was playing when I was pulling in a whopping 100fps. I’m sure that there are people that can push it even harder but let me tell you, 100fps in a game that already looks silky smooth is absolutely glorious.

In terms of content, the PC version of DmC is exactly the same as its console counterpart, nothing has been taken away and nothing has been added, and if you’ve gotten the game on Steam then you’re going to be getting all of the same achievements that friends on the consoles are enjoying. The only thing that would make things better would be if the leaderboards were amalgamated into one giant leaderboard that encompassed all versions of the game.

The visuals look better on the PC version of the game, with everything looking generally smoother than it does on any of the consoles. The biggest graphical improvement comes from the way that the Unreal Engine streams in high resolution textures. The Xbox 360 version that I previously reviewed seemed to have problems streaming in the textures in a timely manner, lowering the overall graphical experience of the title. However, the PC version doesn’t suffer from these problems at all, players will still be able to see textures streaming in but they won’t take nearly as long as they do on the Xbox 360.

Should You Buy It?

Hopefully the two videos that accompany this scribbling of writing will show people just how beautiful the PC version of DmC actually looks, the smooth animations, the massive frame rates as well as the wonderfully modelled characters and environments. Basically, the PC version is the best version of DmC: Devil May Cry around, but if you don’t have a PC that’s capable of pushing it to its limits – and it’s a hugely scalable game thanks to the Unreal Engine so most people shouldn’t have that much of an issue – just make sure you play the game on one of the available formats. While the PC certainly looks better in almost all aspects, it’s still an amazing game in its own right, and one that deserves to be played.