Before we get into it, let's pause for a second to consider what's at stake. The original Devil May Cry was a winking psycho of a game with melon-sized balls, adrenalin for blood and nothing in its pretty head except an all-consuming desire to look cool. It ruled with an iron fist and we were its bitch. The second game was much like the first, but photocopied a zillion times until all sorts of things that used to be right suddenly became wrong. It rocked like Charlie from Busted's new band.

Now the third game arrives and... hey, have you looked at the score already? Jesus, every time! Okay then, we might as well tell you this: Devil May Cry 3 is utterly brilliant but hard like little diamond hammers. Being smashed into your face. Hard.

First though, a quick word about the cut-scenes. We wouldn't normally bother, but they're truly amazing. The choreography's astonishing, the 'camera' would be impossible to pull off anywhere other than a game - hence its brilliance - and the sheer cheek of it makes your brain fizz. One shot is from inside Dante's coat sleeve. In another scene Dante does the Matrix-limbo under a rocket fired by boy-haired demon-slayer Lady - except, instead of just dodging it, he plants both feet on it and surfs it around the room. Later, Dante's newly introduced brother Vergil catches six bullets on his sword and flings them back at Dante, who splits them all in half with one blow.

Every time you think that they've pushed the outrageousness as far as it can go, the next scene's set to rock your face like Jimi Hendrix doing an extended solo in the middle of a volcano. Even when he's just eating pizza, answering the phone or putting on his jacket, Dante looks like the coolest man since Han Solo got defrosted. The plot's terrible, but the wincingly awful dialogue's almost forgivable, just because Dante's so hard he can say what he likes.

The game. Fundamentally, it's the same as previous instalments - lots of shooting and hitting things with swords, broken up by the occasional puzzle about, um, shooting and hitting things with swords. The biggest change is the style system. At checkpoints, Dante's got the option to switch between up to six styles, each of which changes the way you shoot or hit things with swords. Trickster, for instance, is best for dodging aggressive adversaries and reaching hidden areas, with wall-runs and aerial dashes available. Swordmaster is handy for those who like to keep things pointy, and Gunslinger is best for big babies who'd prefer to stay at a distance. Favour one style and it'll gradually level up and increase its powewr in the style of a role-playing game, rewarding you with better, flashier moves, and encouraging you to form your own playing style.

In contrast to the earlier games, it's possible to progress without collecting every weapon, so kit like the (kickass) Spiral Cannon and the (awful) Artemis Laser are optional extras. Only two of each weapon class can equipped in each level, but it's now possible to switch between them in real time, or even mid-combo. As in earlier games, you can enhance guns and buy weapon-specific moves, so by the final levels you'll have your own fully customised Dante. Team OPS2 favours a super-nimble Trickster with a full-powered sword - you might prefer a Gunslinger with a vicious pair or revolvers. Whatever your preference, there's constant pressure to get the elusive S-Rank by chaining together kills and using more and more outrageous tactics - there's a real sense of satisfaction to devising your own combos.

Elsewhere there's been a sensible return to the Gothic setting of the original Devil May Cry, rather than the grim, neo-futurist stylings of part two. So it's adios to burned-out blocks of flats and bonjourno to huge, vertigo-aggravating cathedrals - a change that immediately makes Devil May Cry 3 feel a lot more sweeping, epic and more comfortable than its predecessor.

The shift in design extends to enemies, too. New adversaries are as nimble as Dante, forcing feats of extraordinary thumb agility to avoid harm. They swoop, dive, throw things, fire secondary enemies out of weird back-mounted cannons, self-destruct and even teleport, so every new adversary demands new tactics. To make matters even worse, some areas are astonishingly claustrophobic - again, it's a stark contrast to DMC2, where it was possible to shoot scores of enemies while they weren't even on screen. In Devil May Cry 3, some of the best sections happen on speeding lifts or wagons, forcing Dante to fight in extremely close quarters. There's still that odd quirk of not being able to fall off most platform ledges, but that actually helps out, because this isn't really a platform game. This time, it's all about dodging.

Quick aside: If all of the above sounds a bit tricky, it is. As pointed out earlier, Devil May Cry 3 is hard. The whole game is a granite middle finger to everyone who whined about beating Devil May Cry 2's bosses with one move. For starters, there are no mid-level save points, and even the orb trade-in statues where Dante buys energy stars are a rare treat. Now while you're digesting that, chew on this: nearly all the bosses come at the end of a level, and losing against them means playing the entire thing again.

And it's unlikely that you'll beat any of the later bosses on your first go. Consider the vampire lady, who flings energy fields and electrifies the entire floor at the same time as she's attacking you, and is only vulnerable for five seconds every couple of minutes. Or the millipede-thing, which stitches you up with 20-odd homing globes on every pass. And dare we even mention Dante's brother Vergil, with his near-invincibility and endless blow-up-the-entire-screen attacks. Strictly speaking, it's never unfair, but you're guaranteed to need a firm hug (or a suitable alternative) every few hours. Even in Easy mode, you'll be buying health units like they're shares in Natalie Portman - and this is the toned-down European version.

Of course, you could view this new-found hardness as a hat-tip to Viewtiful Joe, Capcom's other, more niche, fisticuffer. Dante's Doppleganer moves are practically identical to Joe's slow-mo abilities, enabling him to dart behind enemies fast enough to leave after-images. Meanwhile, Royale Guard - the defensive style option - liberally swipes moves from Street Fighter. All nice additions, although they're unlikely to be the moves that you'll be concentrating on during your first run through.

It's also important to remember that, even the original DMC wasn't perfect. Looking back through nostalgia-misted retro-specs, it's all too easy to forget those first-person swimming sections (cumbersome), a wobbly shooting-on-rails bit before the final boss (out of nowhere) and the bizarre pacing (pretty much all over the place - some levels lasted five minutes; others dragged out for half an hour).

Devil May Cry 3 does rectify most of these problems (despite the boring puzzle level five missions before the end). It slots in some inspired sections, too - like the frantic scene where you're on a constant rampage to top up your energy bar. It's better designed than part two, flows better than part one, and it's hard enough to keep you going until the inevitable fourth part, even if that doesn't happen until PlayStation 3. Nice to see you again Dante, you've made one hell of a snappy comeback.

Graphics 90%
Beautiful animation and cut-scenes.

Sound 80%
Grunts, squeals and endless power chords.

Gameplay 80%
Repetitive, but endlessly stylish.

Lifespan 90%
Hard like advanced maths, but just as fair.

Overall 90%
A worthy closer to the trilogy, and a return to form for Dante. Now, if he can just get some decent dialogue...