On a pure mechanical level the game is quite fun, with a few minor control gripes (having to hold triggers to use different weapons as opposed to just being a toggle was a bit tiring for me) but DmC was poised as the mature reinvention of the franchise that would elevate the story telling of the series to a new level. And on this DmC falters, and it falters hard.

A takedown of capitalism that appears vicious at first but ends up ultimately toothless, every single woman in the game being mistreated in scores far beyond what happens in the original series, and the subtextual queerness of Dante from the original game being replaced with a textual "No Homo" punctuate the story of this game like bullets shot from dual demon pistols. Establishing a setting with all demons being unquestionably evil and all angels being unequivocally good results in a story with even less nuance than the original Devil May Cry. Why does Dante want to help humanity? It's the angel in him that tells him he should be nice to people.

A lack of emotional vulnerability cuts to the core of DmC and is ultimately its biggest weakness. A Devil May Cry game where our main character never actually cries because that would be "uncool" and not punk enough could never really understand what made the original games special.