I never played the previous Devil May Cry games but I did know of them.  The series is known for it's stylish combat and the difficulty of Devil May Cry 3 is legendary.  What I didn't know is how well the game uses cut scenes to tell the story in the game.  These have to be some of the best cut scenes I've seen this generation.

The game is at it's core an action game where you fight demons that have escaped hell and are now in your realm.  You play as a human but have some demonic powers. There are two characters in the game Nero and Danta, both have demonic powers and different fighting styles.  Nero's right arm gives you special punching and grabbing powers. This allows Nero's missions to have a bit of a platforming element to them.

Now the game is a stylish action game, meaning that you are graded on building massive combos.  The grading is D, C, B, A, S and SS that is used to not only judge your fighting skills but also to measure how fast you complete a level, how many red orbs you gathered and how much style you fought with.  These scores seem to be a standard game play element in Japanese games.

For the most part the combat in the game is sword combat with guns.  The guns are very weak but do offer a ranged attack.  As Nero I tended to use the demon arm to grab and throw demons around.  Often I used the sword almost as a secondary weapon.  Playing as Dante I'm forced to use the swords more often because the demon arm is not there.  Dante has a much large arsenal of fighting options.  I have not explored them all but I'm sure I will as time goes on.

A couple of gripes I've seen revolve around the save system and the item inventory.  It seems almost expected that a game from Japan is going to have a bad save system.  You can not save progress within a level, all you can save is your attributes.  Since most levels can be cleared in under 30 minutes this really isn't an issue for me.  It is annoying when you hit a boss you can't pass through.  I'll have to replay the entire level just to get to that point again.

The other issue is with buying items.  If you by a small vial of help for 1000 red orbs the next time it will cost you 2000 red orbs.  So as you buy stuff it gets more expensive and the game doesn't exactly rain red orbs on you either.  The game is designed to reward the better players and hinder the less skilled gamers.  To say the least this makes Devil May Cry 4 less approachable for casual gamers. 

One of the big flaws this game has is backtracking.  Often you will come to an area you can no longer progress so you find some other way then fight a boss and get an item that will remove that previous barrier.   This is somewhat permissible considering it makes some sense.  What really doesn't work is replaying through previous areas as Dante.  It almost feels like the Dante missions were added on to add length to the game. 

Even with these faults the game is still a very enjoyable experience.  The story in the game is good and it's fun to kick demon butt.  I'm interested on how well this game does at retail because it is a very hard core game.  As you become better at the game it becomes a lot more rewarding to get high combos and improve your scores.  I think this game will have a lot of replay value since there are multiple difficulties to unlock and achievements for getting a S rating on each level.  If you are into games like Ninja Gaiden or enjoy a skilled hack and slash game then give this one a try.