All things considered, Devil May Cry 1, 2, and 3 are all titles worth playing. Whether or not they appeal to you personally, it cannot be denied that these games are all absolute juggernauts of the Hack & Slash genre, and are iconic PlayStation 2 titles in their own right. That said, their dated gameplay and menu systems can be a barrier for some modern audiences, although they're still worth checking out, especially at their sale price, if they seem interesting to you. This port is a little buggy at times, such as occasionally crashing/freezing when trying to "tab out" of the window, or bizarre game speed slowdowns in certain sections, but nothing that completely turned me away. Play these games in release order, not chronological order, as each of the games included in this collection build upon one another developmentally, and assume that you're familiar with the characters and world already.
Devil May Cry 1 was born out of a scrapped development prototype for 2005's Resident Evil 4, and it absolutely shows. While the sword combat here differs substantially from what you'd find in that series, the general idea of rooting around an old mansion, solving illogically-fashioned environmental puzzles from a fixed-camera perspective is largely the same. Sometimes, that camera expectedly causes frustration, particularly with timing your dodges in certain boss fights, but the entire game can casually be cleared in about 5 hours, so the time spent with it is limited. This game introduces franchise staples, characters, and narrative context that will be with you throughout every title; it's an essential play.
Devil May Cry 2 gets a bad rap, and is generally underrated. To be clear, that doesn't mean it's an excellent game by any means, but it's far from being as "unplayable" as many fans would have you think. With industry legend and Game Director Hideki Kamiya stepping away from the project after the first title to work on Bayonetta, this game's development was troubled to say the least. Devil May Cry 2 is too easy, and while it plays like something that would have released on the Nintendo DS, that's its biggest crime. Dante's twin pistols, Ebony & Ivory, both stun-lock and automatically juggle enemies in the air; they're way too powerful. Not only that, but they can be used in this way to defeat nearly every boss with ease, trivializing combat entirely. The narrative can be played with two different characters, and while there are some extra cutscenes to be found with the second one, no additional context is revealed for the game's events, so it's superfluous to do so. The story here is self-enclosed, somewhat hard to follow, and frankly, pretty bland. This title is theoretically skippable, but I would encourage fans to give it a shot: put on some Linkin Park in the background and enjoy the power fantasy for its roughly 4-hour runtime.
Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening is probably the strongest title in this collection, while I would still maintain that it's not perfect. The addition of combat styles diversifies Dante's gameplay in a meaningful and engaging way, but this effect is really only felt after having experienced the previous two entries. What I believe to be the franchise's worst trope, requiring you to battle every boss multiple times, is still present. The narrative, this time, is far more coherent, and it effectively illustrates the larger world of Devil May Cry by using the audience's character familiarity to subvert expectations, despite being a prequel to the original title. Play it after the first or second one, but definitely play it. If you've experienced any part of the original God of War trilogy from over 20 years ago, you've got a pretty good idea of what to expect here. With Devil May Cry 3, the franchise's identity really begins to take shape in an impactful way, and I believe that's part of why people praise it so much.
They're not for everybody, but they might be for you. Devil May Cry is a cult classic franchise, and as such, is either thought of as being nearly flawless, or an experimental mess. The truth is somewhere in the middle. Give it a shot, and you probably won't be disappointed.
