Devil May Cry 3 is unpolished, frustrating, and occasionally fun.
Dante can equip 2 devil arms and 2 guns at any given time and you can switch between them instantly, in mid-combo if you want to. The devil arms are all unique and interesting, with the exception of the throwaway guitar one, and lead to a huge variety of possible combos. The guns, on the other hand, are all fairly generic and do negligible damage to enemies, even when upgraded. As you may have heard the game is extremely difficult, but not because of aggressive enemies or creative bosses. The game is hard because the lock-on is inconsistent, the bosses have wildly inflated stats, and the game punishes you unreasonably for every death.
To top it all off, the camera is horrendously stupid (and only occasionally movable). Example? If you walk into a new room, the camera will often shift to a view facing Dante. So if you were holding the left analog stick forward (which I'll assume you were, in order to walk into the room), forward now becomes backward and you'll promptly walk back out of the room. This will happen to you so often you'll want to snap the disc in half by the time you finish the game.
Story - 5/5
The storyline was thoroughly enjoyable and the only reason I persevered till the end. The characters are realistic, the dialogue is natural, and the game is full to bursting with style and attitude.
Graphics - 4/5
Devil May Cry 3's graphics give it great atmosphere, with dark environments and imposing Gothic architecture to help suck you in to the setting. The long cinematics that tell the story show off some skilful animation and dramatic effects. During battles though, the game lacks visual clarity, and too often you'll lose track of what's going on in the mess of attacks and particle effects.
Sound - 4/5
It's a pity that Capcom didn't match their graphical setting with a decent background score, but this category was saved by the consistently top-notch voice acting in all of the cutscenes.
Lasting Appeal - 1/5
When your only motivation for slogging through the game is the storyline, there's not much reason to play it through a second time.
Overall - 3/5