Devil's Third | Wii U1/1/2016  Well, well, well, what a strange, curious game Devil’s Third is. Created by the revered Tomonobu Itagaki’s (Ninja Gaiden) new studio Valhalla Games, Devil’s Third has been through development hell.
The frame-rate also stutters, huffing and puffing constantly, and although that certainly isn’t game-breaking (many of our favourite retro games are filled with this) it is disappointing considering we’re in 2015. The gunplay feels so overpowered in comparison to the melee-combat that when able you’ll often find yourself backing away from fisticuffs to find cover and pick enemies off with your gun instead. Occasionally, the developer forces you into hand-to-hand combat with a gaggle of goons suddenly appearing from behind a door, but it all feels so contrived, and ultimately, unsatisfying. The online aspect of the game runs and plays a lot better than the single player campaign, thankfully! Drill mode offers players several gameplay options, from the usual battle royales and team deathmatches, to stranger chicken collecting and fruit-tossing modes. Once you’ve levelled your character up sufficiently, Siege mode becomes available - here you join or start your own clan and face-off against other clans around the globe. New weapons and attachments can be purchased with in-game dollen and golden eggs (these can be purchased with real life coins of the realm). There are two main problems here though; the real lack of people online and the shoddy aiming sensitivity (even when you toy with the settings nothing much changes). The general art style and level design also caused us to doze off on the gamepad. A dark colour palette rules for most of the game, occasionally being juxtaposed with garish reds and blues (in the Havana based mission) to make for a mirky, ugly aesthetic on the whole. This wouldn’t matter if the missions were well designed and paced, but they are so banal and tedious you’ll be praying for the end of the campaign. Pretty much every mission follows the same structure: engage in gunfight with baddies > run through bland empty corridor/crawl through ducts filled with bats > engage in gunfight with baddies > rinse and repeat. A few basic puzzles or stealth segments could have broken this up and made the game that little bit more interesting. lingerie is obviously the best attire for killing bone-headed action "heroes" The boss fights are a mixture of the game’s most enjoyable moments and most hellish of frustrations, as you face off against over-sized, Schwarzenegger-esque guys and under-dressed gals (lingerie is obviously the best attire for killing bone-headed action “heroes”). Most of the bosses are best tackled with melee combat, which is strange as you don’t really practice it during the preceding and following segments. It’s a shame as they play pretty well for the most part, and provide a good challenge - but the dodgy camera and often sketchy button command translation can result in what feel like unfair deaths. There is some fun to be had here, specifically the Japan-based level, which is actually quite good fun and even looks OK-ish too. Here the pacing and blend of melee and gun based combat work, and combined with the lovely colour scheme and lighting make for an enjoyable mission. Unfortunately though, this is the only part of the solo campaign where we felt Itagaki-San’s vision of a hybrid melee-shooter actually works, which is one of the biggest issues facing the game.  The gunplay feels so overpowered in comparison to the melee-combat that when able you’ll often find yourself backing away from fisticuffs to find cover and pick enemies off with your gun instead. Occasionally, the developer forces you into hand-to-hand combat with a gaggle of goons suddenly appearing from behind a door, but it all feels so contrived, and ultimately, unsatisfying. The online aspect of the game runs and plays a lot better than the single player campaign, thankfully! Drill mode offers players several gameplay options, from the usual battle royales and team deathmatches, to stranger chicken collecting and fruit-tossing modes. Once you’ve levelled your character up sufficiently, Siege mode becomes available - here you join or start your own clan and face-off against other clans around the globe. New weapons and attachments can be purchased with in-game dollen and golden eggs (these can be purchased with real life coins of the realm). There are two main problems here though; the real lack of people online and the shoddy aiming sensitivity (even when you toy with the settings nothing much changes).  In closing, we’d have to say that at its current price,Devil’s Third is definitely a no-go. There are just too many issues, and as much as we can enjoy senseless shooters (and we really wanted to like this one), this is just one step too far into the realm of stupidity. The online portion is OK, but really nothing more than that. If you have a PC you can play Devil’s Third online for free, although it’s filled with backside-sweating micro-transactions, the scourge of modern gaming.
Let’s hope Itagaki-San and his team learn something from Devil’s Third, because this is the kind of game only pre-pubescent boys could truly enjoy, where shirtless chain-smoking men and bikini-clad women kill each other, and our patience. Pros
Cons
Score 3/10 Comments are closed.
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