Rating: 4 Pulses

ESRB Rating: M

Devil May Cry 4 is the latest installment of the DMC series, which brings back Dante and introduces a new hero, Nero, to the game. With an intriguing story, amazing visuals, smooth controls and wonderful gameplay, DMC4 is easily one of the most fun, stylish and entertaining games in the series.

The story starts off with Nero at a sermon for a group known as the Order of the Sword, who is known to protect mankind from demons. In the middle of the sermon, a man in red (Dante) suddenly falls from the rafters and kills the head of the Order. Being a knight of the Order of the Sword, Nero takes action and starts to duke it out with Dante. A tutorial of the game begins as you fight Dante, but he eventually escapes and now its Nero’s mission to find Dante and the truth about the Order of the Sword.

Just like other DMC installments, the action in the game is a stylish blend of guns and swordplay, with numerous attacks and combos to be learned. Nero has three types of weapons: the Red Queen (sword), the Blue Rose (gun) and the Devil Bringer, which is his demon possessed arm. Throughout the game you’ll be able to acquire new power ups and skills for each weapon, including new combos and attacks. Throughout most of the game you’ll be playing as Nero, but once you get to half way through the game you’ll be able to play as Dante. Just like Nero, Dante has his own different arsenal of weapons that can be powered up, but Dante can also change his fighting style in the middle of battle. Dante has four different fighting styles: trickster, gunslinger, royal guard, and sword master. At first, I liked using Nero more than Dante because I was used to him and I loved his Devil Bringer and it’s ability to grab enemies. But the more I played with Dante and the more I got used to his fighting styles, I began to like him more especially after powering up his attacks.

Most of the game is spent moving from one area to another, killing tons and tons of demons, trying to figure out puzzles and eventually fighting a boss. The boss characters in the game are both fun to fight and carefully designed as well. It’s nice to play a game of this genre and know that you’re going to have to fight a challenging boss to get to the next mission. The puzzles in the game, however, are not nearly as fun and sometimes slow the game down. Luckily, there aren’t too many puzzles to interfere with the fast gameplay. Throughout the entire game, there are many beautiful and amazing cut scenes that help tell the story and keep players intrigued. The cut scenes really show the personalities of Nero and Dante, even though Nero can be really corny at times. The cut scenes are some of the best I’ve seen in an action game and the amount of cleavage in the game is both ridiculous and awesome.

With its beautiful action sequences, breathtaking visuals and amazing cut scenes, DMC4 has some of the best graphics to be seen in a video game. Although there are parts in the game with a lot of backtracking and repetitiveness, the smooth controls, sweet animations and thrilling gameplay make up for it. Devil May Cry 4 is hands down my favorite game in the popular series and easily one of the best games on the PS3.