Nero is no Dante, but nevertheless DMC4 prevails as a high octane action packed game.
Incase you've never played a DMC game before, 4 is actually a sequel to 2. This is due to 3 being a prequel. Rather than following everyone's favorite over the top, cheesy, half demon badass Dante, DMC4 follows the story of Nero who... for some reason looks almost exactly like Dante.
In the beginning of the game, you're Nero watching your childhood friend Kyrie singing at a festival for the secret society/cult that worships the demon Sparda (coincidentally Dante and Vergil's father.) Its then when Dante busts in and massacres a bunch of people, in the chaos Nero eventually faces Dante with one of his arms in a sling. During the fight Nero eventually reveals his arm to be the Devil Bringer a demonic arm that beats the crap out of Dante. Dante eventually retreats leaving Nero with a cryptic message about them being similar. The rest of the story is Nero being ordered to find and kill Dante, but it doesn't take a genius to figure out that Dante isn't the real enemy.
The Devil Bringer is one of the biggest gameplay additions to the game being that for the gun and sword play, Nero plays somewhat like Dante. The Devil Bringer allows you to grab enemies while you're in the air or grab them from the air, then swing them around, throw them, and slam them down to the ground. This just adds a third element to your combos which will allow for some spectacular combos all involving swords, guns, and throws.
The gameplay can get a little complicated at some points, this is due mostly to the exceed system on Nero's sword. By pulling the left trigger at a certain time you will have the ability to power up your strikes making for more devastating combos. To a novice of the series, its pretty hard to figure this out and master it, and it is really one of those things you need to master or you will just not use it at all.
While Nero is the main character of the game, you will eventually play as Dante, and the bad thing about that is, while playing as Dante is awesome, its far into the game so by the time you get to play as Dante, its about half to 2/3s into the game. And while Dante doesn't have the Devil Bringer, he has many of his attack patterns from DMC3 are present along with some ridiculous weapons to use which are just awesome additions to the game.
I really think Capcoms MT Framework engine is really underrated. Dead Rising and Lost Planet both were awesome looking games, and DMC4 is no exception. The graphics are superb and run at a constant 60fps no mater how quick the action. The only bad thing is the shadows. there are some weird jaggine shadows at some point that just look bad and distracting. Other than that there is nothing bad I can say about the graphics.
The cinematic in the game are also something to be praised. The fight scenes are well edited and choreographed and over all they just have a very movie like theme. The best part in these are Dante's over the top one liners which for some reason some people don't like. Thats part of Dante's badassness just because he's such a badass that he can give stupid one liners and pull them off. Nero on the other hand... no. It really at some times just seems like Capcom really had no intent on trying to make Nero any different than Dante, Nero will at some points try and spit out the lines, but it just doesn't work.
Another little gripe I have with the game is the fixed camera angles. This is what shows that Devil May Cry was originally an aborted Resident Evil game. Resident Evil left fixed camera angles behind in the 4th game, but sadly DMC4 doesn't. This just leaves things to be very awkward when you change from screen to screen. it doesn't really effect the game that much but, its just a very old way of doing things that just needs to be fixed.
In the end, I was debating if I should give the game an 8.5 or 9. Because while DMC is an awesome series, theres nothing completely new and theres a lack of Dante in this game... But I did decide to go with a 9 because of this: the game is REALLY fun to play and thats that. At no point while playing did I find myself disappointed with the gameplay, so if you're a fan of DMC or action games like Ninja Gaiden, pick up DMC4, you won't be sorry. And if you're one of those ignorant Xbox 360 fans who won't pick up DMC4 because you like Ninja Gaiden, for gods sake, don't be that dumb.
Collectors Edition Note: If you are a fan of Devil May Cry, I'm going to have to say that the Collectors Edition is worth it, even though its $10 more than usual collectors editions. With this you will get the first volume of the Devil May Cry anime (four episodes) which is a REALLY good anime, and a DVD with the making of DMC4, wallpapers, icons, music, screen savers, and a digital artbook. So over all, I'd say its a good deal.