I have to admit it - I'm a bit surprised to be here, writing this review for the fourth installment in the Devil May Cry series. Even though the original is now seven years old, it doesn't feel like it was that long ago when a friend of mine, who bought it on a whim, first showed me Devil May Cry and I found myself enthralled by its fierce action and unrelenting challenge. Two sequels followed, the first stumbling out of the gate and the second rushing past the previous games to take its crown as the series' shining gem, before being outshined by the Special Edition release. After that Special Edition though, there were questions lingering on my mind - where else could the series go? What else could it do to further refine itself? A sequel would of course eventually materialize -or I wouldn't be writing this - but what could it possibly do to induce a coup and steal the series' crown after the bar was raised so high?

Not too long into my first hour of playing Devil May Cry 4, any and all doubts I had about the series' ability to one-up itself and remain interesting and fresh were immediately evaporated. The move to true HD isn't the only bullet point that makes DMC4 truly impressive - newcomer Nero pushes the frenzied action to its limits with his 'Stretch Armstrong' right arm known as the Devil Bringer, the gigantic levels are packed with secrets to discover, set in a variety of unique locales keep each mission brimming with intrigue and filled with all the ghoulish enemies and bosses you can shake a sword, gun or demonic power at. If you thought that DMC3 was the epitome of the series then think again, because DMC4 has brought it to a state of unrivaled Zen, truly raising Devil May Cry into the upper echelon of gaming's elite franchises.

So, what makes the DMC series - and DMC4 in particular - all that great and worthy of such a lofty pedestal to rest upon? It starts with the gameplay. Much like Dante before him, our new hero Nero is a walking badass. He is cocky fellow who rarely misses a chance to mouth off; call his bluff on the validity of his attitude though and be prepared to pay. With his customized weapons - the fuel-injected sword, Red Queen, and the hand-crafted dual-barreled revolver, Blue Rose - and demonic power stemming from his right arm, Nero never thinks twice before handing out round after round of gracefully furious violence with very little prejudice. As has been a staple since the series' inception, controlling this brutality is as smooth and engaging as possible. With each of Nero's weapons - sword, revolver, demon arm - getting its own button to go along with complimentary functions such as the lock-on, fuel injection and direction held, the sheer amount of options at your disposal is massive (you still have to purchase many of the moves that will make or break your arsenal though). Here's what ten seconds or so of battle could look like: warm up with some rounds from the revolver before running in with the sword for a few good swipes. Jump up to avoid an enemy counterattack, blast a few more rounds into them to keep you up in the air before using the Devil Bringer to reach out, grab and bring the enemy up in the air with you. Follow that with a couple more sword slashes before calling on the Devil Bringer again to execute the enemy specific grapple move and hope that was enough to end the fight.

What makes Nero so much fun to play is not the same power that fuels Dante - namely the Devil Bringer. So at first, the change to Dante halfway through the game can be jarring, especially to newcomers (relative or not) to the series. As his arsenal of moves is much the same as he had in the last game, he brings very little new to the gaming table. Hopefully you will feel like I do and consider it nothing more than a minor observation, as opposed to an annoyance. What Dante lacks in a completely fresh repertoire of mayhem he makes up for in sheer badass, erm, ness. Not the most elegant word, or possibly even an actual word, but it's definitely the perfect choice, as Dante's increased strength, crazy combos and access to three incredible items - the armors Gilgamesh and Lucifer and the briefcase Pandora - makes him a truly undeniable force to be reckoned with. His sheer destructive abilities, along with a slightly different take on the missions that Nero went through, definitely make up for the fact that he is simply just backtracking.

Thanks to a rock-solid frame rate locked at sixty frames per second and a deep and well-integrated animation set, every button press and analog stick nudge happens with the precision needed to stand your ground against the hordes of varied and deadly enemies. Every move just happens so fast! Its like, 'bam, bam, slash, slash, bam, bam, bam, dead - now you're next!' DMC has always been about frenzied combat, but DMC4 has brought that out to such a refined degree that other games will just feel as if they're attempting to trudge through wet cement - which is important if you are to score high ratings on your combos. Don't take that as a red flag if you happen to fall under the category of button masher though - DMC4 will do little to necessarily impede your progress. What it will do is make it painfully obvious that as the game progresses and the more dangerous, varied and grouped-together enemies become, the need for not only stronger attacks but a larger variety of them is the key to refraining from entering a loop of constant death.

Though it takes a necessary backseat to the development of the gameplay, the folks at Capcom have done yet another fine job of weaving interesting characters into the fabric of engaging situations and snappy one-liners. Nero effortlessly takes the spotlight from Dante, just as a cocky youngster will usurp a popular, though aging, veteran in professional sports (think Bull Durham if Tim Robbins and Kevin Costner played the same position). He has spirit and self-esteem to spare, and even though he's been stricken with the moniker of outsider from the people and knights of Fortuna due to his nomadic behavior and overt disrespect for their religious ways, he is quietly respected as one of the strongest Holy Knights of the order that he belongs to. The few people he does consider meaningful - his adopted brother and Supreme General of the Holy Knights, Credo, and Credo's sister Kyrie, who he clearly feels very affectionate towards - are more important to him than even his own life. So when Dante swoops into the scene in the midst of a sermon and blows the brains out of the Order's elderly leader at point blank range, a challenge like no other has been brought forth into Nero's life - to find and subdue Dante.

Now, anyone who has mingled in the many formats of storytelling - print, moving pictures, artwork, etc. - knows that there really isn't anything new in the above synopsis. Without interesting and engaging characters or the lack of precedence, the story takes over the gameplay and this would be a rather glaring flaw. But much like the constant arguing and struggling seen in Bull Durham, it's the interactions of Dante, the growth of Nero, the constant barrage of table-turning and 'what the hell?!' moments that keep your attention span. Oh, and those wonderfully choreographed, ass-kicking cut scenes help a bit too.

While I'd like to say that the first thing you will notice when popping DMC4 into your PS3 will be the superb craftsmanship of the graphics engine pumping out one excellent and entertaining opening cut scene, that's just not true. As I am sure many of you reading this review have heard, there is a twenty to twenty-five minute mandatory install onto the PS3's hard drive to help speed up loading times - a feature notably absent from the Xbox 360 version. Knowing that this existed ahead of time left me caring very little when the install popped up, as I had already anticipated the wait; I can understand someone unknowingly coming across it and being annoyed. But really, that's all it is - an annoyance, and a minor one at that unless you're the type of person who just looks for a reason to whine. While there needs to be an option in the future that allows the player to pass on the install, if the developers felt it necessary to include this option to improve the overall experience then I'm inclined to take their word for it and enjoy the swifter load times.

After the install though, you will be treated with the marvels that the jump to HD has done for the series (my apologies to those still in the composite cable age). If there is one thing that Capcom have shown me recently with Resident Evil 4, Dead Rising and Lost Planet, it's their ability to create worlds that take on realistic characteristics - and DMC4 is no exception. The obscenely deep palette has allowed for incredible amounts of environmental depth, scope and size. Mountains shoot into the sky with organic crevices, cracks and colors. Each room and hallway in the Fortuna Castle is decorated with unique furniture, artwork and other accessories to accompany the deep variation in floor and wall textures that make the castle into a believable habitat. The lighting and water effects are equally impressive, especially the roaring waterfall outside Fortuna Castle.

Not to be outdone, the characters that populate this world are wonderfully outlandish and oozing with personality. All the humanoid characters have amazing depth, from realistic facial features and flowing hair to textured clothing and smooth animation. Watching Nero and Dante move so elegantly, participating in a clash of violence and art, results in an almost choreographed quality, simply because of the flawless and varied animation that moves them along. This is where the unmovable 60 FPS flexes its muscles, as it would be quite the downer if slowdown plagued such beautiful massacres.

The enemies have not been left out of all this graphical hoopla, as their designs and visual implementation are as over the top and intriguing as they have ever been. I couldn't get enough of the enemy designs - everyone from the lowly sword fodder known as scarecrows (think the Heartless from Kingdom Hearts, melded with a potato sack) to the many phenomenal and intimidating boss battles with large-and-in-charge monsters, such as the giant demonic toad Bael (who conceals one of the best "what the hell?!" moments in the game) and the screen-filling demon hell resident known as Berial. The DMC series has always been about epic boss battles and that tradition does not appear to be going anywhere. Eventually the variety begins to dissipate, which is expected in this type of game, but thankfully there is enough strength in the look and action of what is here that its far more tolerable than an endless swarm of similar goons in different colored outfits.

If you haven't been able to tell by now, Capcom didn't let any aspect of DMC4 stumble, the sound included. The mostly electronica-meets-metal soundtrack works surprising well, despite not really consisting of any one piece that stands out above the others. It's forgettable but far from annoying and when it ramps up, it sets a perfect tempo for the action, which is more than enough for me. The voice acting, while extremely campy at times (I'm looking at you, Agnus), is generally very solid. The voice acting for our two main heroes, Nero and Dante, is top notch and can always be counted on to raise a laugh. But speech isn't the only way these guys get their points across - the clinking of swords, firing of bullets, pounding of enemies and all the other combat-related sounds have been captured brilliantly and add a much appreciated visceral element to the experience.

One of the staples of the DMC series from the beginning has been its countless, well-hidden secrets that will truly test the skills, eyesight and patience of all completists who attempt to achieve 100% of what the games have to offer. DMC4 is no different, offering hidden missions of varying difficulty (generally from quite hard up to "I threw my PS3 out the window and am going to move to a monastery and become a monk because my current ability to find inner peace has been shattered"), secret items, four difficulty settings, an art gallery and more. Outside of the hidden missions, most of this is unlocked by scoring as many points as possible during each regular mission and receive a high grade. If you just want to play through the game once then you are looking at around a fifteen to twenty hour experience depending on your skills, difficulty level selected and secrets sought out. A game this engaging and appealing doesn't need much more core game than that, as what is here is doesn't fall into tar and drag itself out far past its welcome. If you want more then all of the secrets will provide quite a bit more gameplay, not to mention that after you beat the game, you can tackle a higher difficulty with all your newly earned powers! And trust me, you will want to play this game again, even if to just show off certain amazing parts to friends.

Very few games offer the killer combination that Devil May Cry 4 brings to the gaming table; flashy, exaggerated action that is as effortless to control as butter melts on freshly cooked corn on the cob and outstanding art direction and graphical implementation that perfectly melds the realistic with the outlandishly demonic to generate enough attitude and secret goodies to make even the most jaded gamer crack a smile. What was near perfect at the third notch has now raised the bar even higher, not only for itself but for any game brave enough to attempt to copy the unique blend that Capcom has brewed to a science here. Unless stepping into the shoes of a total badass and wreaking havoc like it's going out of style isn't your 'thing' then you should proceed directly to your nearest store and purchase Devil May Cry 4 - it's unlikely you'll see another game quite like it until the inevitable DMC5.

Reviewed by Tony Peters for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).