A Capcom game? On the PC? We know what you’re thinking, because we had the self same fears before installing Devil May Cry 4 too. Capcom is a publisher/developer that is rightly worshipped by console gamers around the world but has constantly neglected the PC community, consistently releasing shoddy, substandard ports that somehow manage to be worse than on their original comparatively primitive hardware. Resident Evil 4, converted to PC by SourceNext, was a famously poor conversion that needed several official patches and unofficial modifications before it looked on par with the PS2 version. Yet it never quite managed to reach the level of the GameCube original. Devil May Cry 3 suffered similar problems, again failing to match the quality of the PS2 game despite the huge gulf in potential between the two formats.

Capcom’s record up until this point has been, in a word, shameful. Yet the tide does seem to be turning slowly. With the arrival of ‘next-gen’ consoles, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, Capcom has built its multi-format games primarily on PC hardware in order to facilitate easier cross-platform development. It has also shifted conversion duties away from third parties, instead using the same team to create both the console and PC versions. The fruits of these changes were first seen in Lost Planet, a conversion that, while not flawless, was leagues ahead of Resident Evil 4 and DMC 3.

Now Capcom is back for another crack of the whip and has delivered a console port that doesn’t treat PC gamers like second class citizens. For all intents and purposes, Devil May Cry 4 looks, plays and sounds just as good, and in certain cases, better than the 360 and PS3 game released earlier this year. Crank the settings all the way up and the game holds up very well. Excellent lighting, realtime shadows and high-resolution textures all feature and a high, steady framerate (even on a relatively underpowered set-up) keeps the trademark stylish animation looking as silky smooth as intended. The only graphical blemish we encountered was the occasional screen tear, but when the console versions suffer from this problem too, it’s hardly fair to complain.

Don’t get the impression that Capcom has done anything other than provide an adequate conversion though. There’s virtually no exclusive content here, no reward for having to wait longer than our console owning cousins, no extra modes or levels to take advantage of the PC’s extra power. Bear in mind too, that the only real way to play and enjoy this game is with a joypad. Capcom has made no effort to make the game playable with either a keyboard or mouse and while that may upset the few people unwilling to spend money on a peripheral device, we can’t really blame the publisher. Devil May Cry is one of those games that you simply have to play on a pad and anyone who even thinks about doing otherwise would have to be slightly nuts. Would you try to eat ice cream with a pair of chopsticks? Of course not, and neither should you try to play a Japanese action game with something designed primarily for typing.

So there you have it. In short, Devil May Cry 4 is a refreshingly well made if somewhat vanilla conversion from Capcom. Cast aside any previous conceptions and put your fears to rest. It’s okay to play this one.

Oh, you’d like to know about the actual game itself? Well, thank God, we were wondering what to fill the rest of this space with.

… continued