Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening Special Edition

Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening is an action hack-and-slash from Capcom that rebooted the series with a return to high difficulty and an emphasis on stylish combat combinations. Playing as a young, still inexperienced Dante, the player makes his way through the mysterious tower Temen-ni-gru, switching between combat styles — Trickster, Swordmaster, Gunslinger, Royal Guard, and Doppelganger — between floors; two of these can be selected at a time, and both are unlocked and upgraded through progress. The game emphasizes a style score that rates the fluidity, variety, and daring of the combos used, and the boss fights rank among the most demanding and elaborate in the entire series. The story follows a conflict with his brother Vergil and the dark cult Order of the Sword, which is trying to open a gate to the demon world, and it also offers item collecting and secret rooms for players who want to tackle some light exploration alongside the combat. Thanks to its high difficulty and precise combat system, the game earned a reputation as one of the toughest titles of the genre of its time.

The PC version arrived a full year later, and directly as the Special Edition, which the Japanese PS2 version had already received as an expansion of the 2005 base game. Compared to the original PS2 release, the PC port thus included a playable Vergil with his own set of styles and weapons, the Bloody Palace mode for an endless string of fights against increasingly stronger enemies, and a new, low Very Easy difficulty setting for less experienced players. Controls were designed primarily for a gamepad, with only limited support for keyboard and mouse, which made playing harder for some players, especially when quickly switching styles and weapons. Graphics options offered resolution settings beyond what the console versions provided, but otherwise this was essentially a direct port of the console game with added content, not a technologically far superior version. Still, for PC owners without a PS2, it was the only way to play the game at home in its year of release.

Why play it: Thanks to the playable Vergil, the Bloody Palace mode, and the extra lower difficulty setting, the PC Special Edition clearly has the edge over the original PS2 release — just be sure to have a gamepad in hand.