I'm doing something a bit different with this one, after some constructive criticism from some friends I've decided to throw a few more opinions in there. It may or may not turn out that well.

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DmC: Devil May Cry is the fifth installment in the Devil May Cry series. Developed by Ninja Theory (Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, Heavenly Sword) with Capcom closely looking over their shoulders DmC was looking to change things up a bit. Capcom deliberately wanted a new design for Dante and I daresay they succeeded. Dante's new design, the change from a mystical demonic takeover to a more "coporate demon" prison and adding more industrial music to the soundtrack were all good choices as it really made an improvement and added personality to the game to make it truly unique.

Setting

DmC takes place in a city controlled by the king of demons: Mundus. Mundus, who was previously a giant statue in the first Devil May Cry, is now the head of all the big businesses in the city. Most of the game takes place in Limbo, an alternate reality that dimensionally sits right on top of the real world, which does a fantastic job of making sure environments are never repetitive. I'll admit I went into this game fully expecting it to have repetitive levels as that seems to be a common theme among games that try to be more "realistic." The game surprised me and through to the end kept things fresh.

Levels had a tendency to shift whenever the demons wanted them to leaving Dante to navigate through a bastardized version of the real world that could change the size and shape of everything about him. This was a visually appealing in the sense that when you pass through an area you never know how it will change on you. It could take away the floors, obstruct your path or even extend the length of hallways and this made levels far bigger than they originally seem. They definitely went to great lengths to make sure you never see the same room twice and I'm grateful for that.

Story

The story in DmC is far more fleshed out than in past games. In previous games you could go two or three levels with no story and then when they do show story it's little more than a fight scene between two characters or an intro to a boss. (Example: When Dante runs into Lady for the first time in DMC3 and she starts shooting at him thinking he was one of the demons in Temin-ni-gru) The only time any significant story takes place in the older games is toward the end of the game. True enough big spoilers are best saved for the end but without those the story in the DMC franchise stays very short and succinct and leaves you wondering why Dante is doing what he's doing beyond the reasons given at the beginning of the game. Why does he do this? Why does he go down that hallway? Very little reason is given, at least on the story front since the gameplay tends to be the reason he goes anywhere: To get a key, to get a new weapons, etc.

DmC does a far better job of telling a story. There's a little bit of story at the beginning and end of each chapter. Dante himself has become far more in-depth in this game; he interacts with characters on a much deeper level than "shoot first, ask questions later" like in the last few games. Throughout the entire game I felt Dante was far more emotional when he was around non-antagonist characters, going so far as to ask the new DMC girl Kat about her past. It almost felt like he was trying to make a connection with her but she was half-ignoring him because she was so infatuated with Vergil who had saved her from a demon foster father. Dante did a total one-eighty when Vergil brought them to their home as kids and he remembered his past (he had previously been told he lost his memory to Meningitis) and suddenly opened up to Vergil and Kat and their cause to free the humans from under the thumb of Mundus.

Dante never loses his cocky charm from the previous games though. He still toys with enemies both verbally and physically but now he's started cursing. Some might say this is going overboard but I think it really adds to the characterization of a young Dante.

Overall I'd say this is the best story of the DMC franchise. It's far more fleshed out, characters are more than just demons and hunters cursing and playing with each other and even holds a few plot twists in that make things just that much more interesting.

Music

This is one of DmC's strong points. Not only have they kept the death metal aspects but also have added a lot of industrial music to it. There's also a level dedicated to a strip club and you can imagine with how changing the world around with Limbo how this particular level is very interesting.

I've always been a metalhead myself so I've always enjoyed the music in the DMC franchise but this game really makes something of itself. The music really adds to the general feel of the corporate demon city.

Gameplay

The gameplay in DmC was based on the original games but adds so much more to it. They've added a logical system to allow you to switch between your standard, demonic and angel weapons simply by holding down the shoulder buttons. This gives great potential for long combos and really makes you feel like a badass when you juggle enemies until they die. Though it is a little annoying when they die mid-combo and you fall to the ground. The combat largely takes place in the air; most of your best combos and attacks are aerial and they do everything they can to help you stay in the air by adding grappling attacks that pull you toward enemies or vice versa and also have attacks that lift you farther into the air.

DMC has always been known for it's combo/style meter which adds points to your overall rank in the level. DmC makes it easier to not only do combos, but maintain them as well. Aside from when you get hit your style meter will take longer to dissipate which makes getting S, SS and SSS ranks that much easier. I, for one, enjoyed getting such high stylish scores. It made me feel like I was actually good at the franchise for once even though it's mostly because DmC is actually easier than the rest of the franchise except maybe the second one where it was super easy.

I knew ever since the game was announced at E3 that the platforming would be intense thanks to the grappling and changing environments and I was absolutely right. I love levels that make you platform like that. It keeps you on your toes and feels amazing when you can jump, pull yourself to the next platform only to have it disappear from under you so you have to pull another platform from somewhere else to you so you don't fall into the abyss

Overall

DmC is a vast improvement on many aspects of the franchise that were good in the first place but could use a bit of tampering or were not very good and needed to be improved. I had a blast throughout the entire game and I haven't even had a chance to try the higher difficulties where enemies actually have different behaviors and they even introduce enemies from later in the game early on. I played one level in Son of Sparda (fourth difficulty setting) and I was fighting end-of-game demons right there in the first level. I would easily rank DmC as my favorite Devil May Cry game, except maybe the first one which was pretty awesome.