Trademarks of the Devil May Cry series include ridiculously over-the top violence, gorgeous visuals, wonderfully silly Japanese melodrama, and, unfortunately, an insane level difficulty certain to turn off all but the most devoutly masochistic of gamers. Devil May Cry 4, the franchise's first foray into the current generation of gaming hardware, takes the first three of these signature features to new heights while happily making the fourth a distant memory.

Thanks to several game modifiers that can be adjusted before starting the campaign, players of almost any skill level can now try their hands at demon rending DMC-style. Just choose "Human" difficulty to make the bad guys a little more vulnerable and turn on an option called "Automatic," which will let you randomly hammer attack buttons to make Nero, the game's primary protagonist, pull off all sorts of crazy-powerful moves. On the flipside, you could leave the Automatic setting switched off and select Devil Hunter difficulty, in which case you'll be hurling your controller in frustration by the middle of the second mission. Why anyone would willingly subject themselves to this sort of punishment is a mystery, but there it is; to each his own.

And, as accessibility has gone up, so too has the franchise's already-impressive production values. Every level is filled with the same brand of beautiful gothic architecture seen in previous DMC games, and character design remains as overtly stylized as ever: fluffy white coifs, ornate buckles, long and impractical trench coats, etc... And, of course, you still have plenty of wildly entertaining and sensational mini-movies, cutscenes, that feature inhuman combat acrobatics, slow motion camerawork, and corny (yet somehow cool) cinematic direction.

But visuals are, of course, just the icing on the cake. It's the series' clever mishmash of sword and gunplay that will either have you glued to the screen or reaching for your console's power switch. As in previous games in the series, DMC4 offers up some bizarre and hyper-violent battles that often call for mind-bendingly quick reflexes and an intimate familiarity with available attack combinations. And don't count on your knowledge of past games to pull you through; along with our new hero you're given new fighting styles, each of which need to be learned pretty much from scratch. Of course, if you switch on the aforementioned "Automatic" option, you won't have to worry as much about such exasperating intricacies, but hardcore players intent on experiencing the game as it was designed to be played will find a seriously daunting new challenge in DMC4.

Suffice to say your opinion of the action in previous Devil May Cry games will likely apply to this one as well. The big difference is that now there's no longer a barrier for those who previously enjoyed the series' panache but were put off by its unfair difficulty level. Capcom has opened the door to players possessed of merely Human gaming skills.