Devil May Cry 4 features some enjoyable combat but it is too easy and repetitive to be wholly recommended.

User Rating: 8 | Devil May Cry 4 X360
Last generation was somewhat of a rebirth for developer Capcom. While the PS1 generation saw the company introduce its popular Resident Evil series, the PS2 generation saw them perfect the formula. Maybe as important was the creation of a new franchise by Resident Evil creator, Shinji Mikami. Devil May Cry defined a generation of action games and paved the way for such beloved games as Ninja Gaiden and God of War. Now a new generation is upon us, and though Mikami has moved on, Capcom isn't throwing in the bucket on either Devil May Cry or Resident Evil. While we'll have to wait until next year to experience the latter, players can right now play through the latest in the DMC series, Devil May Cry 4.

The biggest and most obvious change to the classic demon hunting formula is the hunter. The majority of DMC4 sees the player assuming the role of Nero, a fiery young warrior working for The Order of the Sword, which worships past DMC hero Dante's father, Sparda. As the game opens Nero loudly walks in on a ceremony praising Sparda. Leading the chanting is Nero's beautiful girlfriend, Kyrie. Doing double duty as the sister of the order's top knight, Credo, Kyrie becomes the most important aspect of the twisting, though entirely obvious story. Dante decides to crash the party, killing the order's high priest, Sanctus, and partially destroying the chapel where the order prays. Credo is unable to defeat Dante and so Nero takes up his sword and duels the half-demon. Neither fighter turns out victorious in the end, and Dante escapes. Nero is then sent by Credo to bring Dante back for trial.

So Nero sets out to bring Dante to justice. Along the way he learns the truth about the Order, the reason for Dante's seeming betrayal, and several other important pieces of DMC lore. Of course no mere mortal could hope to defeat Dante and the army of demons that have somehow materialized in and around the Order's city. That's why Nero has a devil arm. Unlike a normal arm, a devil arm can extend its reach to grab enemies from across the screen, and can smash them to the ground. It can also be used in the air for advanced aerial maneuvers.

So with his arm and a special sword known as the red queen, Nero can kick some serious ass. The game plays out similarly to previous games in the series. One button is used for sword swinging and can be hit in different rhythms to achieve varying combos. Though Nero doesn't have ebony and ivory, he does have a single handgun, though it is largely useless. Using a mixture of sword swinging and arm grabbing, intermixed with the occasional bullet, Nero racks up massive combos against his mindless foes.

To assure worrying fans, Nero is every bit as capable as Dante in combat, and is in fact at times more powerful. Though Dante remains the superior character, Nero gets some cool lines and isn't the lame excuse for a series revival most thought he would be. Instead, Nero serves as a great change of pace from Dante, and, while not as cool as the series' signature hero, has plenty of interesting aspects that keep things interesting.

There happens to be a negative aspect of Nero's incredible power. Devil May Cry 4 is a cakewalk compared to the third game in the series. I played the previous game on easy and still had trouble getting through many parts. DMC4 on normal is about five times easier than three on easy. Maybe it was too much to expect the series to achieve a strong difficulty balance after failing on the past three attempts, but it is nonetheless disappointing.

Fortunately, the combat in DMC4 feels better than any previous installments. Even though you wont have much difficulty getting through most sections, the combat is still enjoyable and worth playing the game for. Nero has only his starting weapons to use throughout the game, but speaking how useless secondary weapons have been throughout the series it is perhaps better that the game focuses on making Nero's single weapon the best possible. Nero also doesn't make use of the different stances seen in the third game. Generally, combat with Nero is more focused, and much better off for it. To add some depth, Nero can rev his sword up before striking to do additional damage. This feature isn't needed on the easier difficulties, but mastering it is necessary on the harder levels. Of course halfway through the game control switches back to Dante, and here we get all of the different weapons and stances seen in the previous game. Still, with only half a game to evolve them they seem weaker than in previous games. In fact, and I never thought I'd say this, I actually prefer playing as Nero. He is more powerful, and using his arm can combo longer making it easier to achieve the all important S ranking at the end of a level. I still prefer Dante when it comes to personality, but I wouldn't mind seeing Nero return in DMC5.

Like in previous games, weapons can be upgraded using orbs, although this time the orbs used for upgrades are proud soul orbs, which are earned at the end of a level based on your ranking. Also new to this game is the ability to remove orbs spent on one upgrade and move them to another upgrade, should you find that your first choice proved less useful than you originally thought. Red orbs are still used for recovery and stat boosting items, and without the need to spend the orbs on upgrades there is a tendency to buy more health regeneration items making a lot of the bosses much easier. The game is also kind enough to put a shop right before every boss so that you can upgrade your weapons or buy new items if the boss is too hard.

Enemies in DMC4 are great in number but few in variety. Though you'll often face double the amount of enemies as in the first game, there are only about a half dozen different foes in the game. While they are all well designed and have their own attack patterns and weaknesses, it would have been nice to see more enemies, especially in the second half of the game when you retread over previously beaten ground as Dante. Additionally, most enemies look very similar. You will fight numerous green and blue foes, most of which are versions of macabre puppets similar to those found in the first game. The enemies animate well, but they are largely mindless targets and offer little challenge during combat.

Speaking of retreads, you will once more fight a small smattering of bosses multiple times in DMC4. It seems like the issue of repeating enemies and bosses would have been cleared up by the fourth entry in the series this is not the case. Actually, by the end of the game you will surely get the feeling that Capcom is merely padding the length of this game with repeating sequences that could have been resolved the first time around. Not that the game ever becomes unenjoyable, in fact it has to be the most fun game in the series. It just feels like the game could have left out the Dante portion and been all the stronger for it.

The levels that you travel across look great, at least the first time through. The art isn't as impressive as what was on display in DMC3 but the high quality textures and ambient lighting go a long way towards hiding this. What isn't excusable is how slow this game runs. I'm not talking about framerate drops, which are almost non-existent, but more how slow the game runs at normal speeds. I realize that NG2 has some major framerate issues, but I would rather a blisteringly fast game that has some bouts of slowdown than an average speed game that holds things solid. This is especially true after the special edition DMC3 which had a turbo mode that brought things almost on par with the original NG.

The audio in DMC4 though is by far the best in the series. The opening opera sequence is great, and the VO, while still corny, doesn't sound as laughable as in the first three games. Nero especially gives a great, if rather overblown, performance, and does a much better job than Dante ever did in the previous games. The music is once more a mix of techno and rock, though, again, the opening opera sequence is really mesmerizing. Fans of the original game will also get a great blast from the past in the form of a character theme they may not be expecting.

Overal DMC4 is a great action game that elevates the series to new levels of playability with a finally solid camera and an excellent new devil arm mechanic. The game stumbles for a bit with the inclusion of some less than stellar Dante levels, but ends with a bang. Here's to hoping that Capcom chooses to bring Nero back for the inevitable next game in the series, and that they finally choose to end the backtracking and boss regurgitating