Premise:

Dante, a bad-ass demon hunter, is attacked by a mysterious woman named Trish. Trish tells Dante that a demon emperor named Mundus, who was once defeated by Sparta a demon-turned-good, is once again trying to take over the human world. Dante is then lead to an island that serves as a gateway to hell. Fighting blade-wielding puppets, Dante must fight and win, or die trying. He fights his way through different areas of the castle eventually encountering Phantom, a giant demon who is part spider and part scorpion. Only when Phantom is defeated can Dante continue to try to find out what exactly is going on on Mallet Island.

Notes:

• The gameplay is decent with fairly tight controls and the ability to rack up long combos between wielding a sword and dual handguns.
• The game uses a fixed camera system which can lead to walking into walls in places where the camera changes view and the forward direction changes to match the camera.
• I am really, really bad at this game. I got through the first few missions, levels, with ease but got stuck on the first boss battle, the battle with Phantom. I died again and again with no success.

Grade:

The game is a bit dated now and the sequels within this franchise have further refined the controls and design. Even though I got stuck with that one battle, I’d still recommend this game to fans of fast-paced action games with moderate to high difficultly. 7/10