Devil May Cry 4: Video Game Review (PS3)

Devil May Cry 4 is a "beat 'em up" video game released for Playstation 3 and developed by Capcom. One of the more recognized franchises in the past few years, fans have been clamoring for a Devil May Cry sequel every time another is released. Capcom serves up another sequel here, but does it deliver?

Story : I don't want to ruin the story here. Let's just say that compared to previous Devil May Cry games, the story takes a lot of chances but ultimately falls flat. You don't really care for the characters, you don't really care for the plot. At least I didn't, but you mileage may vary.

Graphics : The graphics are good enough but I can't help but feel like there aren't enough improvements over the previous versions of Devil May Cry. Don't get me wrong, they are quite good but there's nothing here that blows me away. The graphics are quite appropriate to other games of the time however. Everything here including characters, animations, and backgrounds are all nice but not much else.

Sound : The music is a bit too repetitive here. The songs are good, but there's not much variety. This can really wear you down for those long playing sessions but isn't much of a problem otherwise. The sound design is very good for this game and is one of the high points. The sounds in combat are all very satisfying and feel quite good to hear.

Game play : If you've played any of the previous Devil May Cry video games, you'll know what to expect here. Let's talk difficulty first. This game is just as easy as Devil May Cry 2, which many people said they didn't like about that game. Personally, I think a game with an easier difficulty can be good for no stress fun. But, if you're looking for a challenge you will probably have to look elsewhere. There are new game play features, like the devil bringer and Red Queen, and they're all quite fun to use and don't require much practice. The bosses are pretty generic and boring unfortunately, and none really got me all that excited. A real shame.

Now we come to my biggest gripes of the game. There are tons of backtracking. One of the things I dislike in video games is backtracking, and unfortunately Devil May Cry 4 has obscene amounts of it. This makes the game rather boring for one long play through, so you'll probably have to break it down into parts which is unfortunate.

Re playability : Is this game re playable? Unfortunately, not really. If you've beaten this game once you've seen a lot of what the game has to offer.

Overall : 5/10. The game is strictly average for the casual gamer. 7/10 if you're a huge Devil May Cry fan.