Devil May Cry is a very good game, although it might have a slow combat, it is memorable for the boss battles.
Now there are quite a few good points, the action is simple yet addictive, however some of the enemies like Phantom can tend to be quite irritating, especially on some of the higher difficulties. The music is nicely done, with the theme of tradegy and Gothic Rock, it is very good, like the "Legendary Battle (Devil Emperor Mundus Battle 1 Sky)" music. There are 2 main Devil Arms in this game, Alastor being your standard sword with the element of lightning, and Ifrit, some gauntlets and briefs with the element of fire.
This is where half the problems start, changing between the weapons is an annoying, as you have to press R3 to change weapons, which takes about 3 seconds to do, leaving you vulnerable to be attacked. Like I mentioned earlier some of the enemies and even bosses can be annoying, with them doing a certain attack that will damage you 2-3 times, taking a lot of or all of your health of instantly. The music can sometimes get irritating, and some of the puzzles are either too easy or too hard. I managed to complete this being a true DMC fan, but I left it after going through Hard, as I found I was spending too much of my time trying to remember the light puzzle!
Besides from these problems, the game is pretty good, I mean it doesn't get in the way a lot, but it is stops this game from being completly perfect, it deserves a 9 overall, with the flaws it has. Luckily Capcom picked up after themselves with DMC3.