With no pre-conceptions of the game, I was pleasantly surprised with the end result.
For possibly the first time ever the boss battles were maybe the highlight of a game for me. It's just a shame that in 20 levels you have to fight the same 4/5 bosses maybe three times each. They could've had the odd new one. The problem lies in that you play the first half of the game with the new character Nero, and then you switch to Dante for the second half. Although the story has progressed you kinda get the impression you're playing the same game again with a different character. It's hard to get used to Dante after playing as Nero - his devil arm is a tool most people would've been relying on in combat. Dante is no worse though; he has some cool moves and a greater range of weaponry so I wasn't complaining.
Overall though I really did enjoy the game from start to finish. The cut scenes are incredible and so stylish I could just watch them all day. They look great and really help ramp up the excitement making you just want to get back to the game yourself. It's been a long time since I've played such a story driven game which was great. There are many similarities between this and Resident Evil 5 seeing as it's made by the same guys, but even though Resi is technically a better game and is far more replayable, DMC should by no means be overlooked if you liked that.