Platform: PS3

Played to completion on devil hunter difficulty

STORY

If you have played any previous DMC games, you will know that the story has never been the main focus, and nothing`s changed here. During the install there is a brief explanation of the plot from each of the first three games, which may help you get up to speed with all things DMC but in my opinion you can enjoy this title just as much without ever reading it. Unlike the last three DMC`S in which you play as Dante, this time around you play the role of a guy named Nero. At the beginning of the game an “event” causes Nero to go in to pursuit of former Protagonist Dante, however as the journey continues Nero starts to realize the very people he is helping are not who they seem and so there is a shift in his priorities. Eventually there is a climactic moment in the story for Nero, then the plot shifts focus and puts you in control of Dante to finally tie up the story and save the day once again. The dialogue consists mostly of cheesy one liners and the cutscenes are short and sweet making the plot very direct and easy to follow. Overall the story is nothing special but again the story is not the main reason to play this game.




GRAPHICS/SOUND

This game looks really good. The textures are very hi-res and the lighting effects are spot on most of the time. The characters animate realistically with good lip sinc and bodygestures. The choreography in the cutscenes is some of the best you will ever see, reminiscent of something in crouching tiger or the matrix. I also like how the cutscenes are done in engine and not pre rendered meaning there is a smooth transition back to gameplay. My main complaint though is that I am tired of being in a gothic castle environment for every DMC game and this game does exactly the same bar a brief period in a jungle. I found the continuous grey walls to be really boring however the architecture was beautifully done. DMC is definitely one of the best games graphically but they played it too safe with repetitive environments.

The Music is just like always with an eerie ambient music playing in the background that then changes in to heavy metal when in a fight with an enemy, this is done well but the heavy metal song never changes and can be annoying after a while. Even though the dialogue is mostly cheesy the voice acting is also very well done and helps bring the characters to life and convey their personalities. The sound effects are perfect and add to the visceral nature of the combat.






GAMEPLAY

The gameplay is what I feel DMC has always been about. I would argue that DMC has probably the most solid fighting mechanics of any hack and slash type game and in DMC4 it is refined even further. If you have played DMC3 you will feel really comfortable with the controls when you start out. At first glance Nero may look and fight a lot like Dante however the inclusion of his devil bringer arm adds a whole new layer of depth to the combat. Neros arm gives him the ability to snatch or pull himself to enemy’s at a distance, this means that you can chain together massive combos and free form with much more ease .As soon as you get a hang of it you will find yourself always using it and I feel its probably one of the best additions to combat system. Nero can also do context sensitive grab moves on enemy’s, which look great and adds to the style factor of the game, however as soon as you switch over to Dante you loose that ability and it does feel hard to adapt as you become so reliant on it before, however this is good in defining that your playing as two totally unique people rather than 2 character models with one move set.





Once you get over the loss of your precious arm you will realize how much Dante kicks ass. He may not have the arm but he has way more moves combos and weapons meaning a greater variety in combat. The styles system from DMC3 has carried over meaning you can change from swordmaster to gunslinger to trickster and to royal guard. Each of these styles changes the way Dante plays adding new attacks or defensive maneuvers to the repertoire, whats even better is that you can switch styles on the fly meaning you can chain together styles and weapons switches to rack up those stylish points with ease. Its quite apparent that Nero is aimed at easing newcomers in to the franchise whilst Dante is for the hardcore veterans of the series. I like how this also makes you realize how much more experienced Dante is in comparison to Nero kind of like what they did with Raiden and Snake in mgs2, through the two different combat styles you feel like there is a difference in power.

The camera is for the most part fixed but now the camera is free in confined spaces. The fixed camera is mostly in the best place possible but sometimes it wont give you the right angle for a jump or an enemy off screen will hit you without you noticing. The bosses are big and tough as always, some will leave you swearing at the T.V with their difficulty but it’s the usual formula of working out the pattern of attack and then capitalizing for the win. One thing I hate is the puzzles in the game, I don’t mind so much a puzzle put in front of me to solve but most of these involve grind rather than brain power, with a lot of backtracking needed in order to progress.







FUN CYCLE

Don’t get me wrong, this game is solid and I doubt most will be disappointed but to me the amount of backtrack really harmed my enjoyment of the game. In my opinion backtracking is a way of extending playtime without having to go to the effort of creating anything new. Besides the backtracking from the puzzles or being lost the worst case is that when you switch to dante you are basically going all the way back to the beginning of the game, walking back through all the old environments you already traversed with Nero this even includes fighting the same bosses all over again albeit in reverse order. To me this makes it feel like I have only played half a game which is such a let down especially because dante as a character is so well constructed, it almost seems like a waste to just include him in the game in this way. Capcom could of easily sent the final “objective” to a brand new location but I guess that was too much work. Other than this gripe, the game is pretty solid and the inclusion of built in achievements, higher difficulties and the bloody palace survival mode will keep you coming back for more.

8/10