Photo provided by the Microsoft Corporation

Capcom’s latest offering, the fourth installment in the continuing Devil May Cry series, sports a fresh and innovative plot point unheard of in video games: a girl who gets captured and needs rescuing by the lead character.

DMC4 grabs the player by the eyes and ears from the first second the disc spins up in your Xbox 360, PS3 and PC and it doesn’t let go.

The opening scene treats the player to arguably the single greatest cinematic swordfight in video game history (sorry Cloud and Sephiroth, but it’s true.)

After the thrilling opening, the player will begin to notice all the small, amazing touches showcasing Capcom’s attention to detail. Gun battles include intersecting bullets, impeccably detailed environments and fluid, natural character movement.

Controls are sublime, responsive and precise. The mechanics of the fight system really shine too.

Not surprising, since this has always been a hallmark of the series. Newbies need not fear, the deep combo and combat system can be intimidating at first but become very smooth and intuitive quickly.

In short order, a new player begins to forget about the interface and starts to concentrate on stringing longer and longer attack combos together.

The quality of the graphics in this release cannot be understated. The high horsepower equality of the 360s central processing unit and the PS3s cell chip allows even cross-platform releases like this to be truly staggering.

DMC4 absolutely shines as a game.

However, it’s not perfect. The camera is one minor blemish on this game, although the problems with it are intermittent and nowhere near game-breaking. The camera can be controlled by the player in most areas of the game, pre-set camera angles in certain areas are similar to the style found in older Resident Evil games, though far more refined.

It acheives the same effect: a gorgeous, cinematic camera style that sometimes gets wonky when transitioning areas or moving toward the camera. It can make the platforming elements in some parts of the game far more difficult than they should be, and can be jarring when it suddenly does a 180.

Repitition, both in level layout and character speech, are also a detriment to this brillant game.

Nevertheless, DMC4 is one release that many dedicated fanboys have been counting the days for, and all but the most impossibly jaded will not be disappointed in the least. Those not historically a fan of the DMC series should check this release out if only to marvel at the attention and care poured into this game, because it is flooding from every single frame.

This labor of love easily scoreing a 9.5 out of 10, and is well worth buying.