The gameplay of DMC is one of the game's best aspects. The rhythm always stays on high levels, and probably you won't have the time to be annoyed while playing Devil May Cry. The controls are extremely intuitive and it won't take too much time to get used to them. Dante's movements are so fast and flowing that it really is a joy, especially for a skilled player, to control him. There's nothing in common with the well-known and so much hated slowness of Resident Evil.

That's why we can surely define Devil May Cry one of the best action games ever. Dante has many cool abilities: first of all he can jump (this is a novelty, because in other Capcom games, and in general in all other classic survival horrors, characters never jump) higher than you can imagine and he also can attack his enemies while in the air. We must thank Capcom's staff for the great possibility of movement that Dante shows during the game; he can perform fantastic somersaults and other unbelievable movements proper to a half-human half-demon creature. I'll come back later to the supernatural powers of our hero.

I have talked briefly about controls, but I must add that the most addictive feature is Dante's ability in using his huge collection of weapons. First of all, Dante can use for the same attack his two big handguns, called Ebony and Ivory, and one of his swords, like the beautiful Alastor, the sword of lightning. You will be amused by the possibility of performing combos, as for example launching your enemies in the air with your sword to suddenly shoot them with your powerful guns. Dante can switch from sword to handguns in a moment. His movements are so fluid and smooth that you won't believe you are only playing a videogame. Handguns and swords are not the only weapons you can get during the game: there are plenty of other appealing weapons you will get while playing DMC (devil gauntlets, shotguns, a grenade launcher etc etc...). Not to forget that you'll have an infinite supply of ammo for all your weapons. You will be able to upgrade easily your weapons and also character's abilities collecting various colored orbs (red for cash, yellow for extra lives, green for health, purple for your demon skills and so on). You won't be able to proceed if you don't get the necessary quantity of orbs from your enemies, for example the ones required to get certain items.

Like in an adventure game, you will need to get some items in order to go on and complete the game. This means that DMC is not only an action game - action is Devil May Cry's core, but you'll need to solve puzzles, get keys and find other items too. Exploration of the in-game world plays a certain role in the adventure.

There are dozens of different enemies and bosses, some of them pretty hard to beat, all with their particular strengths and weaknesses to discover. Phantom, Shadow, Frost, Nightmare, are just the names of a few of them. You'll have to face terrible spiders, terrible giant marionettes, scorpions and so on. To beat the hardest bosses you'll need to use Dante's supernatural devil abilities which require a Devil Trigger state: in this state, Dante gains more power and causes more damage to enemies as well.

The only fault I can find in the gameplay is the fixed camera angles. Also in other games, for example Resident Evil, Capcom decided to use fixed cameras. The difference is that Resident Evil is a much slower game, so fixed cameras are not a great problem, even if a little annoying in some parts of the game. In Devil May Cry battles are always very hectic, and an enemy out of sight can be more difficult to manage than it should. Thankfully, this is not a decisive problem because usually the camera frames a vast space, and Dante's automatic lock-on aiming action is very helpful to take care of enemies not shown on screen.