Devil May Cry 5
Capcom Development Division 1 · Action
Overview
The ultimate Devil Hunter is back in style, in the game action fans have been waiting for.
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The Devil you know returns in this brand new entry in the over-the-top action series available on the PC. Prepare to get downright demonic with this signature blend of high-octane stylized action and otherworldly & original characters the series is known for. Director Hideaki Itsuno and the core team have returned to create the most insane, technically advanced and utterly unmissable action experience of this generation!
The threat of demonic power has returned to menace the world once again in Devil May Cry 5. The invasion begins when the seeds of a “demon tree” take root in Red Grave City. As this hellish incursion starts to take over the city, a young demon hunter Nero, arrives with his partner Nico in their “Devil May Cry” motorhome. Finding himself without the use of his right arm, Nero enlists Nico, a self-professed weapons artist, to design a variety of unique mechanical Devil Breaker arms to give him extra powers to take on evil demons such as the blood sucking flying Empusa and giant colossus enemy Goliath.
FEATURES
- High octane stylized action – Featuring three playable characters each with a radically different stylish combat play style as they take on the city overrun with demons
- Groundbreaking graphics – Developed with Capcom’s in-house proprietary RE engine, the series continues to achieve new heights in fidelity with graphics that utilize photorealistic character designs and stunning lighting and environmental effects.
- Take down the demonic invasion – Battle against epic bosses in adrenaline fueled fights across the over-run Red Grave City all to the beat of a truly killer soundtrack.
- Demon hunter – Nero, one of the series main protagonists and a young demon hunter who has the blood of Sparda, heads to Red Grave City to face the hellish onslaught of demons, with weapons craftswoman and new partner-in-crime, Nico. Nero is also joined by stylish, legendary demon hunter, Dante and the mysterious new character, V.
From the game's Steam store page.
THE GAMEQ VERDICT9,999 reviews analyzed
What players are actually saying
1. Summary
A recurring line in the reviews is that Devil May Cry 5 is one of the best action games ever made. Combat is the main subject, discussed in half of the longer reviews: three characters (four with the Vergil DLC) who play completely differently, a style meter that rewards variety over spamming one safe attack, and a skill ceiling that keeps people in the training room long after the credits. Next come the soundtrack, which builds as your style rank climbs, and visuals that reviewers say still look current years after release. A visible group of the 2025 and 2026 reviewers are newcomers who bought it cheaply on sale, some after years of seeing the memes, and several say it pulled them into the rest of the series.
Being made to play as V comes up often. His critics say the summoner's button-mashing style breaks the flow, while a smaller group names him as their favorite. Other complaints cover a short campaign, levels that blur together once the action moves inside the demon tree, and a PC version that lacks the console Special Edition's extras and has some rough defaults (forced HDR, awkward keyboard controls, no ultrawide). Opinion on the story is split between people who enjoy the campy one-liners and people who find the dialogue cringeworthy.
2. What keeps coming up
What players praise
Deep, stylish combat that rewards practiceHigh
51% of the longer reviews talk about the combat or gameplay, more than any other subject. Players describe it as easy to start and very hard to master: you can mash your way through the lower difficulties, but the style ranks (from D up to SSS) push you to mix weapons, guns, dodges and taunts, and the better you get, the more there is to find. Dante gets much of the attention for his four switchable styles and large arsenal, including a motorcycle that splits into two saws and a hat that makes him dance. Nero's swappable Devil Breaker arms and Vergil's Judgement Cuts are the other favorites, and the built-in Void training mode gets credit for letting people practice combos. Several long-time fans call it the best-playing entry in the series, while some veterans of DMC4 feel it is floatier and that a few advanced techniques from older games are gone. Boss fights are mostly praised, with the final fights singled out.
Visuals and cutscenes that still impressHigh
The graphics, art or cutscenes come up in 22% of the longer reviews. A recurring point is that a 2019 game still looks better than many recent releases, with detailed faces, heavy particle effects and choreographed cutscenes that players compare to action films and anime. A minority dislikes the shift to a realistic look, saying the gray, washed-out palette and photo-scanned faces lose the gothic, stylized feel of DMC3 and DMC4.
A soundtrack that rises with your style rankHigh
19% of the longer reviews bring up the music. Players love that each character's battle theme gains layers and vocals as the style rank climbs, which turns fights into a reason to keep a combo going. "Devil Trigger" and Vergil's "Bury the Light" come up by name often, and one player put it simply: "The soundtrack gets louder the better you play". A few reviewers find the regular battle loop repetitive or dislike Dante's theme, and some of them swap in older series music through a DLC.
Vergil, as the final boss and as a playable DLC characterMedium
Vergil comes up in 21% of the longer reviews, some of them the running joke about Vergil hiring his own brother and son. Several reviewers call the DLC that makes him playable worth buying, and players describe him as overpowered and great fun, especially on higher difficulties. The main caveat is that his campaign replays the same 20 missions with almost no story cutscenes, so several reviewers warn new players not to start with him. One review opens with "do NOT start with Vergil mode" because "Vergil is basically a separate combat-focused mode, not the main campaign". Some wanted a story of his own.
Replay value beyond the first runMedium
Replaying is the subject of 12% of the longer reviews: higher difficulties (Son of Sparda, Dante Must Die, Heaven or Hell, Hell and Hell), S-ranking every mission, Bloody Palace and the full achievement list. Some say the first run feels like a tutorial and the game opens up afterwards. Completionists also report that the grind for 100% is long and punishing, with Hell and Hell (especially as V) and the S-rank requirements on a few missions (8, 10 and 18 are named) called brutal.
Great value on saleMedium
7% of the longer reviews mention the price, almost always to say they bought it at a deep discount, often around five dollars or euros, and got far more than they paid for. A few say they would only buy it on sale because the campaign is short, and one negative reviewer felt it was not worth even a low price for a single run.
A workable entry point for newcomersMedium
6% of the longer reviews come from players for whom this was their first Devil May Cry. Several found it easy to follow, helped by the in-game "History of DMC" recap and the self-aware tone, and one wrote "I never felt lost". A smaller group recommends playing DMC3 and DMC4 first because the story and Dante's moveset land harder with that background, and some newcomers admit parts of the plot confused them.
Runs well on modest hardware and Steam DeckMedium
Players report smooth frame rates on old GPUs, integrated graphics and laptops, and good results on Steam Deck and Linux through Proton; 5% of the longer reviews praise performance. One short review reads, in full, "Very optimized game with nice graphics." Technical complaints come from a separate, smaller group.
Where players are split
The story and writing: campy fun or cringeHigh
35% of the longer reviews discuss the story, dialogue or cutscenes, and they pull in both directions: 11% praise the story, characters or ending, while 7% criticize the plot or dialogue. Fans enjoy the over-the-top tone, the Dante, Nero and Vergil family drama and an ending they call a fitting close to the series. Critics call the dialogue cringeworthy or Marvel-style, the time-jumping structure confusing, the plot twist predictable, and say Lady and Trish are sidelined. Nico, the new mechanic, divides people: some call her the best new character, others single out her voice and accent as grating. One reviewer summed up the gap as "corny lines uncorny gameplay".
Three characters with three playstyles, chosen for youMedium
Players like the variety, and 5% of the longer reviews praise how differently Nero, V and Dante play. The catch is that each story mission assigns the character, and 2% of the longer reviews complain about that: just as they learn one moveset, the game hands them another. As one put it, "as soon as I was getting the hang of one, I had to learn another". Fans of Dante also resent waiting until roughly the halfway point to play him, and several note that only the DLC Vergil can play every mission. A few mention wanting Lady and Trish playable, as in DMC4's Special Edition: "Not having Lady or Trish playable in any way is a big downer".
Difficulty: too easy at first, hard to masterMedium
4% of the longer reviews say the first run is too easy, with plentiful gold orbs for revives and button-mashing that still earns high ranks ("On normal difficulty, it is almost childishly easy"), and some are annoyed that the harder modes stay locked: "Higher difficulties are locked until after your first playthrough, which feels like a bizarre decision". Another 5% have the opposite problem: the controls and combo system are hard to learn and poorly explained, particularly for newcomers and on Dante. A couple of players who reached Dante Must Die say it mostly inflates enemy health and damage.
Cutscenes: lavish but frequentLow
The cutscenes get plenty of praise, but a smaller group, including some who stopped after a few hours, says the game interrupts too often with short scenes, tutorials and camera pans: "would you please let me go 5 meters without a cutscene". The on-screen "Starring" overlay for online cameos and the fact that the pause button skips cutscenes instead of pausing them also draw complaints.
What frustrates players
Playing as VMedium
V comes up in 15% of the longer reviews: 6% criticize playing as him and 4% speak well of him. Critics say his remote-control summons reduce combat to mashing two buttons, that his familiars are rarely where you need them, and that he falls apart on the higher difficulties. "Every time the game switched to V, I just wanted it to switch back." A few say he made them drop or uninstall the game. His defenders find him a refreshing, strategic change of pace, and one wrote that "V ended up being my favorite character to play." Some of his critics still like him as a character in the story.
A short campaignMedium
Reported clear times run around 8 to 15 hours, and 5% of the longer reviews call the story short. Often this is a mild gripe in an otherwise positive review ("Love the game its just a bit short. Wish there was a bit more."), but for players who only want one run it is the reason to wait for a sale.
Samey environments inside the demon treeMedium
4% of the longer reviews criticize the levels, and the complaint is twice as common among negative reviews (8%). Players say the ruined city gives way to long stretches inside the Qliphoth that all look alike, gray and red corridors leading to closed combat arenas, with little exploration and few puzzles compared with the castles and towers of earlier games. "Half of the game consists of you going through the Qliphoth, which is incredibly uninteresting and aesthetically boring". A minority prefers the streamlined, no-backtracking structure.
PC technical snags: forced HDR, launch trouble and crashesMedium
Technical problems show up in 4% of the longer reviews and 8% of the negative ones. Those that recur: HDR switched on with no clear toggle ("Starting this game, it had HDR forced on"), a first launch at the wrong resolution or refresh rate that can make the menus unusable, keyboard input dying after alt-tabbing, audio desync or flickering in cutscenes (several suggest switching from DirectX 12 to DirectX 11), shader stutter, crashes and, for a few, a save that kept resetting.
Camera and lock-onLow
Lock-on must be held instead of toggled, and 2% of the longer reviews (6% of the negative ones) call the camera and lock-on clumsy. They add that target switching is unreliable ("The lock-on system almost always picks the enemy that you want to lock-on the least."), the camera zooms close in big fights, and platforming suffers from limited vertical camera control. Some say you adapt to it.
Console extras missing on PC, and no ultrawideLow
2% of the longer reviews regret that the Special Edition's Turbo mode, Legendary Dark Knight difficulty and ray tracing never came to PC: "PC has been excluded from Legendary Dark Knight difficulty and Turbo mode". Ultrawide and super-ultrawide owners complain there is no native support ("No ultrawide with this game."), and a few say patches broke the mods they used to fix it. Several note that community mods restore most of these features.
Microtransactions and the paid-revive promptLow
1.5% of the longer reviews object to paid red and blue orb packs and to the revive screen, where running short of orbs can send you to the store: one player wrote that "the game will prompt you to go to the Steam Store and get more red orbs". Several who mention it call the purchases unnecessary and easy to ignore, while a few call them pay-to-win or a reason to stop playing.
Keyboard and mouse feel like an afterthoughtLow
The game is built for a controller, say 1.3% of the longer reviews, with awkward default bindings, tutorial prompts that mix keyboard and controller buttons, and combos that are hard to execute on keyboard. One reviewer's advice: "Just make sure to plug in a controller to bypass the lazy keyboard mapping". A couple also want PlayStation button prompts. Some players say they finished it on keyboard and mouse without trouble.
One save slot and no New Game optionLow
A small group is frustrated that there is no way to start a fresh playthrough without deleting files and disabling cloud saves: "You can not start a new save file unless you have a Masters Degree in Computer Science." It mostly bites returning players who want to relearn the game from the start.
Updates that break modsLow
A handful of players, mostly heavy modders, complain that patches broke their mods ("Last update broke mods for this game"), a complaint that has come back after several updates, with a few of these reviews written in late September 2026. Mods come up often in the conversation, from character swaps to co-op, so breakages land hard on that group.
Co-op that is only a cameo systemLow
A few players are disappointed that there is no real co-op: the online feature mostly shows other players' runs at a distance, and one reviewer said of the multiplayer, "Might as well not have it." Others enjoy the cameos or use a community mod for real co-op.
3. The player conversation
The tone is celebratory and loud. More than half the reviews are a word or a line, built from the game's own memes (Vergil's "motivation", "Bury the Light" lyrics, the plastic chair, "jackpot", Nero as "deadweight"). Two groups stand out among the longer reviews. Newcomers, many of whom bought it on a deep sale and some of whom arrived through the memes or the Netflix anime, tend to write about discovering the combat and planning to go back to the older games. Series veterans write about how it compares: 3% of the longer reviews call it the best entry, while 2% still prefer DMC3, usually for its story, harder enemies and gothic setting.
The negative reviews are a small, fairly consistent group. They cluster around V, the look and repetition of the levels, cutscene interruptions, the camera and the PC port, and they split between people who quit early because the controls and pacing never clicked and long-time players who wanted more challenge, more variety or console features on PC. Story complaints run through both groups.
Week to week the picture held steady: through the busiest weeks of 2025 and 2026, the weekly share of positive reviews stayed between 89% and 100%. Some reviewers in those bursts mention buying the game on a deep discount, and small clusters of modder complaints appear after some updates.
4. What the developers could do
- Let players choose any character for any mission after the first clear. The complaints about V and about being forced to switch characters mid-campaign come up often, and players point out that the DLC Vergil can already play every mission.
- Fix the PC defaults and controls. Reviewers ask for an HDR toggle, a sane first-launch resolution and refresh rate, input that survives alt-tabbing, full keyboard rebinding, consistent prompts and PlayStation button icons.
- Give any follow-up more varied locations. Reviewers who criticize the levels say the stretches inside the demon tree blur together and miss the distinct castles, towers and puzzles of earlier entries.
- Bring the Special Edition features and ultrawide support to PC. Turbo mode, Legendary Dark Knight and ray tracing are the extras PC players name, alongside native 21:9 and 32:9 support that does not depend on mods.
- Make Son of Sparda selectable on the first playthrough and allow difficulty changes mid-campaign. Experienced players find the first run too easy, and struggling players want to drop the difficulty without restarting.
- Make lock-on a toggle, improve target switching, and let the pause button pause cutscenes. These small control fixes come up across positive and negative reviews alike.
- Remove the store link from the revive screen. Players who otherwise ignore the orb packs object to being sent to the Steam store in the middle of a fight.
- Add a New Game option and multiple save slots. Returning players want to restart cleanly without deleting files and switching off cloud saves.
