I've beaten DMC1, and I beat Dante's Campaign in DMC 2. Man Lucia plays reaaallly good. Can't say I want to replay the later half of DMC 1, or any of Dantes campaign in 2.
In 2, I killed three Abrams Tanks by pumping 12 gauge rounds into them at pointblank range. That was neat.
In 1, I had to carefully break the Shields of a group of Lizard men by Shoryukening them. That was ****ing awesome.
Nothing in 2 has really hit that high that fighting Nero Angelo or Phantom in 1 gave me. Learn their fighting style or get your head pounded into the ground. IIRC, they changed the difficulty in 2 since it was the the one thing people complained about in the Quizzes sent out during it's development.
Which is... kinda good? I mean, the frustration of getting my face torn off by Phantom was pretty frustrating. But this is kinda overkill. I'm really not having ANY challenge, except for some later bosses like Bolverk or Trismaga. And the fact that most enemies go down in like 3 shotgun blasts, and they throw them at you like candy, plus how they respawn if you leave certain zones in the rooms. Makes the entire game a slog. I mean, I had tonnes of fun. But yeah except for the bosses. I basically just held down the fire button.
I both like and sort dislike the control changes, since your roll in 2 is now set to the same button as interacting. Yeah... I can't see that being a nuisance sometime ingame... no sir. :3
Dante at-least starts with his double jump and a faster run speed.
1 is a little clunky, and the levels dragged on. But since every room was very cramped. You had to use the little space available, but there's tonnes of space to dodge in 2. Plus the limited space and how the moves you had like Stinger in 1, increased your mobility made it very easy to keep enemies within reach for combos. I found myself accidentally knocking people across the room in 2, and having to roll or shoot them to keep the combo going. But why even melee them in the first place? Stay at a distance and pump them with lead.
I really like the ability to customize your Devil Trigger, that's ****ing awesome. I wonder how that would work in a later game. Also thank the Elder Gods, they changed the Yellow Orbs to not take you to an entire different menu, just to say you used one to revive yourself. In 2, they just get consumed and you come back. DMC 2 is definitely worth a play through, it's much shorter than 1. Mostly because they didn't add allot of backtracking and increased how fast you can move.