Though initially mindblowing the game shoots itself in the foot with some bad design options & excruciating music.
When you initially begin the game it simply blows you away. I thought this game could be one of the greatest ever. Visually the game is stunning & it runs very smoothly indeed. Audio is excellent until battle commences then cue the worst music I have ever heard. Design idea flaw number 1: to include such terrible music. I've yet to hear a single person say they like the music in this game. It's wretched. I think even a booming techno beat during battle would have been a huge improvement.
The battles themselves are the games definite strong point. The game does require time & skill to be truly devastating with your attacks but it's a lot of fun learning. Yes they can get repetitive and the music does not help, but you earn new moves as you advance through the game. Theres two characters to play - Dante & Nero - & Dante doesn't get the demon arm which is a bit of a loss & you have to fight the same bosses which is the games second design flaw. It just smacks of laziness.
Another bad idea was to include crash bandicootesque platform sections. Life is too short for these platform shenanigans & they completely stifle the flow of the game. One that particularly griped me was the flexible arm when trying to grasp those blue balls of light. It would often lock onto the wrong one & I would be falling down to the bottom to start all over again.
When the action is on though, DMC 4 is one hot game. The most amazing cut scenes to, even if the story is weak. I would recommend DMC 4 if you can handle frustration but love intense colourful battles. Obviously you have to have a gamepad. My 360 one worked perfectly.
Overall I felt that this game could have been a lot more enjoyable. The designers do seem to go out their way to lower the games quality with dire platform sections & uninteresting puzzles. I'm quite pleased to be uninstalling it to be honest.