I won’t spoil anything about DMC4, and I’m not talking plot either. While passable, I don’t think anyone is here for the narrative. Spoilers in this sense are what I would call gameplay spoilers. There are moves you attain, weapons you get near the end of the game, which make the first ten hours look like kindergarten.

Devil May Cry is a long running series that has consistently pushed the action genre envelope. I can pinpoint exactly what has made it so successful. God of War had it too. It’s that pause, the moment you hit an enemy in this game, with a melee attack or ranged, or anything. This pause is civilization. It is everything.

It gives you a tangible feeling of connection. That thirty-button face-melting combo you just delivered actually hurt them. It is almost imperceptible; most people won’t notice it. In fact, the best way to understand just how much it means is to play an action game that doesn’t have it. What I am trying to say is that combat has never felt so good. DMC4 was expected to deliver thrilling and deep action and it does not disappoint. Contained in this game is some of the finest third person combat ever seen in a video game.

Anyway, let’s talk about this fine game’s other features. No, that’s not Dante, it’s Nero. While you may dismiss this as nothing more than some kind of marketing move, be warned: Nero plays completely unlike Dante from previous installments in this series.

The biggest change is a very real emphasis on timing. While the Devil May Cry series has always been about precision combos and almost inhuman amounts of combat, DMC4 takes it to whole new levels. Be prepared to spend hours practicing on this game, pulling off combo attacks with ever-increasing accuracy.

Combat in this game is fast paced and varied, but it’s not all air juggling (while that certainly plays a role). The controls are king here, and work fluently. You rarely find yourself puzzled at how to pull off an attack - the smooth nature of the way Capcom has constructed the fighting really shines. By this I mean that even if you fail to pull off the move you intended, you can still salvage badass from the jaws of defeat.

While both Dante and Nero appear in this game, you play as the latter for the vast majority. His primary weapon is essentially an arm you can rev. Confused? Don’t be. It works seamlessly in the Devil May Cry world. Named, predictably enough, The Devil Bringer, you can perform ridiculously impressive attacks with it, assuming you can nail the timing. As mentioned, this title in the Devil May Cry series puts a bigger emphasis on timing than any other, and it is most evident in this one weapon. Revving it before battle charges power, which is deadly when unleashed at the right time. You can also snap-charge it with perfect combo timing. The details aren’t important, as the game introduces this mechanic to you expertly from the start so that it becomes a natural rhythm of combat by the end. Sections without it feel strange, because it becomes so ingrained in your combat procedures.

But here is where I think Devil May Cry 4 stutters. Without spoiling anything near to the end of the game, you acquire certain items which improve the game beyond what you could possibly imagine. To put it succinctly, it becomes even more fun. But in this way, it highlights some of the more lacking aspects of the rest of the game which you may have missed. The combat, while excellent, is incredibly repetitive. It is only when the game steps it up a notch does the rest become boring, killing any replayability.

Slick in presentation and graceful in gameplay, this title lets you perform moves that are not only incredibly complicated, but unbelievably impressive. It rewards perfection, yet doesn’t punish mediocrity. It provides endless fun while also being occasionally boring.

DMC4, then, is a contradiction, once again a shining example of a game getting one aspect so perfect that the rest of the game feels worse in comparison. The combat in Devil May Cry 4 is without peer and yet the level design is both linear and unimpressive. Character design ranges from the wonderfully imaginative to the woefully generic.

On that note, I for one am willing to forgive. When the highs reach as high as they do in this game, you don’t care as much about the lows.