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Dante may have moved out of the spotlight, but the newest entry in the Devil May Cry series is still as sharp as ever.

The Devil May Cry series has always held a soft spot in my heart as one of my favorite gaming franchises thanks to the way it took the traditional hack n’ slash framework, and injected about 150 cc’s of style into it. No longer was I content with just finishing enemy after enemy off with repetitive ten hit combos. Now I had to get in three sword slashes, knock the enemy into the air, jump up after him, fill him with about four magazines of dual pistol lead, slam him to the ground, switch weapons, and turn my attention to how I will stylishly annihilate the other five monsters in the room. While they stumbled with the painfully mediocre Devil May Cry 2, Capcom came back and came back hard with Devil May Cry 3, which I personally consider to be one of the best action games of all time, along with God of War and Ninja Gaiden for the Xbox. Now with new and more powerful hardware and a new main character, does Devil May Cry 4 have what it takes to hang with the upper echelon of the action genre?

Not quite, but it is damn close.

Devil May Cry 4’s story is a bit of a departure from previous games in the franchise. Our favorite red coat wearing, dual pistol wielding, silver haired badass takes a back seat this time around to make room for a younger silver haired badass in Nero. The game kicks off with a ceremony put on by the Order of the Sword, a religious organization that worships Dante’s father, the Legendary Dark Knight, Sparda. The ceremony is rudely interrupted, however when the Son of Sparda himself crashes through a ceiling window and proceeds to shoot the leader of the Order of the Sword point blank in the head. Being a member of the Order of the Sword himself and being unaware of whom Dante actually is, Nero dropkicks Dante in the face, beginning a fight that has the two exchanging sword blows, bullets, and plenty of snappy insults. The battle ends inconclusively with Dante leaving to take care of other business and Nero setting out after him to finish their fight. But as you might expect, not everything is as it seems in the world of Devil May Cry, and as Nero continues on his journey he’ll begin to learn the truth regarding Dante, himself, and the Order of the Sword.

Like the other DMC games, the story of Devil May Cry 4 is fairly interesting with enough twists and turns to keep your attention until the climatic finale, but it’s the fast paced action oriented gameplay that makes this series such a classic, and Devil May Cry 4 does not disappoint in that regard. The biggest change in Devil May Cry 4’s gameplay is the addition of Nero as the main character who brings all kinds of new powers and abilities to the table. The first of which is his demonic right arm, the Devil Bringer. With a simple press of the B button, Nero will grab an opponent and perform some kind of throw, slam, or scripted action sequence depending on the type of enemy grabbed. It’s a pretty standard throwing system, but one that the Devil May Cry games have always lacked and so it’s a welcome addition to the combat system.