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It’s been a while but I have had shit to do and well I’m lazy so here is my first attempt at a game review. First off I must begin by saying I love the Devil May Cry series of games. Yes I am biased, and I don’t care. Devil May Cry has almost everything I ever wanted in a game. Violence, explosions, demons, blood, flawless action, a large variety of cool moves (that are easy to pull off), and most importantly a smart ass main character. The original Devil May Cry is still one of my favorite games of all time. What it lacked in good story telling it more than made up for in extremely fun game play and all around badassedness! That’s right I said it, BADASSEDNESS! Devil May Cry is the story of Dante, a demon hunter (who just happens to be half demon himself, on his father’s side) who works out of a bar called (yes, you guessed it) Devil May Cry. He gets a call that there is some demon mischief, and he goes and gives those nasties a spankin. Fairly simple story I know, but like I said you DO NOT play for the story. The second game was a let down mainly because it was way to easy which made it very boring. The creators of the game apparently realized this and made the third installment more challenging. WAY MORE (I am not a writer by profession so get ready to see a lot of bad grammar and/or made up words) challenging! The boss battles were ungodly difficult, but the game surprisingly enough was still a lot of fun. They made improvements on the story telling, and gave Dante even more awesome moves by giving him four different fighting styles. Which brings us to Devil May Cry 4…

In this instalment of the series, Dante is not the main character (WHAT!? Tragic I know.). The hero in this story is a young, angsty soldier named Nero (who just so happens to bare a striking resemblance to a certain devil hunter we all know and love). Nero is a member of a group called the Order of the Sword, or some such thing, and they just happen to worship Dante’s father Sparda as a god. This group is led by a crusty old priest named “His Holiness”. The story starts off with “His Holiness” being assassinated by Dante, and it’s up to Nero to hunt him down and bring Dante to justice. Eventually Nero figures out that Dante isn’t evil and that the Order of the Sword are actually trying to take over the world. Not very original I know, but trust me (I just realized anybody who doesn’t know me has no reason to trust me therefore that statement is meaningless) the game more that makes up for it’s lack of originality.

The games strongest feature is the combat. Both Nero and Dante are playable characters and they both have a vast array of moves to beat the living crap out of their enemies. Nero is armed with both a sword and a double barreled pistol, and if you’ve played any of the other games in the series you’ll know that you are able to switch between the two weapons seamlessly. One button controls the pistol while one controls the sword enabling you two pull off crazy combos with your weapons. Nero has one more weapon that Dante doesn’t, his demon possessed arm. With it he is able to grab onto enemies from a distance and pull them to him, and he is also able to grapple his opponents (even bosses) with this arm. Some of the smaller creatures you can even use as shields to protect yourself from enemy attack. Nero’s sword is even chargeable enabling you to increase the speed and power of your attacks. However as cool as Nero is he pales in comparison to Dante.

Dante is almost overwhelming to use because of all of his possibilities. He has 4 different fighting styles to choose from: Trickster (kinda of turns you into a Nightcrawler like character), Weaponmaster (unlocks more combos and power attacks with your melee weapons), Gunslinger (same as weaponmaster but with your guns) , and Royal Guard (giving you the ability to block and absorb the energy from an attack that you are able to unleash later). There is actually a fifth style called Dark Slayer that is unlockable late in the game. He also gets access to three different guns and three different melee weapons. You are always armed with one melee weapon, one gun, and one fighting style, and unlike previous games you are able to swap between each fighting style, gun, and weapon with the push of a button giving you damn near unlimited options on how to combo your attacks. And this comes in real handy since, just like in the previous games, you are rewarded for how stylish you are when killing your enemies.

Besides having a wide range of moves for each character the game gets very creative when it comes to throwing enemies at you. Early in the game the enemies are pretty basic. Slow moving creatures that try to swarm you. As the game progresses the enemies get tougher, faster, stronger, and even more intelligent. By the end of the game they are tossing almost every single type of monster they have at you in single battles, and rather than getting frustrating the game becomes more fun because you are able to use every single trick that are at Dante and Nero’s disposal. There is even a really good mini game that is unlocked when you beat the game for the first time called The Bloody palace. All it is is level after level of combat enabling you to not only practice your moves, with both characters, but since it is just combat you don’t have to worry about story or finding hidden missions. You just get to unleash Dante and Nero’s fury upon your hapless victims.

As good as the game is there were a few things that could have been improved about it. The first thing is that the game, on normal, wasn’t as challenging as the first and third games were. It was way more challenging than the second game was but that didn’t take much. This was a pretty minor thing though and did in no way take away from my enjoyment of the game (I am currently playing through it for a third time). The second and biggest disappointment though was the fact that Nero, not Dante, was the main character. Nero was cool and all, but once you are able to play as Dante, in the story, you wish that you could have been playing him the entire time. The way the game is set up you don’t get to play as Dante until you are about half way through the game, then you switch back over to Nero for the finale of the game. Again, I in no way thought that Nero was a weak character (He is way cooler than Raiden from Metal Gear Solid 2). He is a lot of fun to play, especially when you have him leveled up some, but he just doesn’t compare to Dante. The last thing that I thought could have been improved was the games length. The game isn’t actually all that short, it’s at an average length for a game, but the game is so much fun to play I just didn’t want it to end.

One final note about the game. I really couldn’t put it as a strength or a weakness because some people will like it and others won’t and that is the story and dialogue. I personally think that the game has made vast improvements in this area in comparison to it’s predecessors, but some people will still think the story is weak and the dialogue is cheesy. My response to those people would be that there right. If they are expecting depth then they will be very disappointed. It’s a VIDEO GAME!!!!! It’s supposed to be cheesy and fun and over the top. Hell, the game at one point even pokes fun at itself for being such. That is how the game makes up for it. Unlike other games that take themselves to seriously and suffer for it, this game acknowledges the fact that it is being goofy and it makes the game better and that much more fun. So I would have to say if you are a fan of the Evil Dead series, and like that sense of humor then this wont be a factor for you.

If you are a fan of this series then this is a definite buy. If you are a fan of action games in general I would highly recommend this game to buy. If you aren’t a big action game player I would still recommend this game as a definite rental, and who knows this just might be the game to get you into the genre.

Grade: 4 out of 5 Arizona Green Teas