Prepare to face your demons! Again and again and again.

User Rating: 8.5 | Devil May Cry 4 X360
The Devil May Cry games have always been about dispatching your foes in style and this fourth installment definately doesn't disappoint in the gameplay department. Some may be disappointed to hear that the main hero Dante is only playable for about half of the game whereas the first half you take control of a new character, Nero. He is no slouch in fact his new features such as being able to rev up his sword for more damaging hits and his Devil Bringer arm which can grab and throw enemies around with bring forth some excellent and exciting gameplay opportunities. His arm is also used to grapple onto specific grapple points in the game to traverse some key areas. These areas are usually just pretty straight forward things such as getting across or up to an area.

Graphically this game is very polished and everything is well designed. The backgrounds look very nicely detailed as are the enemies themselves and the bosses. There isn't a huge array of enemies but there is a good variety from your standard Scarecrows to new ones like Frosts and Blitz which are pretty cool additions to the DMC demonology. There aren't a whole lot of bosses either but again they are well done, are generally quite large, and are alot of fun to fight.

The music is pretty much the same as DMC3 with a metal undertone and lyrics sung in a gravely/growling like voice. The sound effects are really good from the metal-on-metal sword clashes to the Frost's ice attacks.

Difficulty wise DMC4 is a step down from DMC3 but that's not a bad thing since DMC3 initially shipped with a busted difficulty setting which was fixed up in DMC3: Special Edition. At first you start out with Human and Devil Hunter difficulties. Human is what should be considered as 'Easy' and Devil Hunter as 'Normal'. After beating the game on Devil Hunter you unlock Son of Sparda then by beating the game on that level Dante Must Die is unlocked. Beat that mode and Heaven or Hell unlocks followed lastly by Hell or Hell so there will definately be plenty to challenge the hard-core players. The Bloody Palace also makes a return with 101 levels of crazy combo stylin' action. Each level getting more difficult with more and stronger enemies all while working under a time limit which can be increased by beating a level with high combos and taking no damage bonuses.

While everything looks and plays great there are some things where DMC4 falls short with. First and foremost there is too much backtracking and repetition in the game. Basically you go through the first 10 Missions as Nero then the next 8 Missions you play as Dante but you end up just going backwards through the same levels and fight the same bosses. Also there are a few puzzles in the game and while they are mostly of the mundane nature a couple points in the game they can be pretty annoying. In particular one where you hit a giant die with an attack and move around a 'board' depending on the number the rolls up. You need to land on a specific place but sometimes it can be quite frustrating if you keep missing these specific spots as you keep rolling and rolling and rolling the die.

The camera can also be a pain at times and makes some aspects of the game more difficult/frustrating then they should be.

All in all though this is a very solid game and fans of the series will most likely be quite happy with it as the gameplay and action is as solid as ever and Nero turns out to be a great new character with some very cool toys to play with. Some other characters make a return appearance although it's just pretty minor cut-scene stuff for the most part.