Recent reviews by Sminem

this is one of those games that you really just have to experience in your lifetime. re4 seems like it shouldn't work on a fundamental level, however through the power of sheer camp alone it defies expectation in every asset to create one if the most fun, absurd, and engaging experiences you can buy. play this.

Easily one of the best (if not THE best) character action games of all time. Unlike the rest of the games in the series excluding the first, every puzzle piece fits to form a coherent whole: No excessive or mundane platforming, enough content to fill the entire 8-10(ish?) hour experience without any major backtracking, a fair and consistent difficulty curve and a narrative that manages to compel the player without interjecting with excessive cutscenes. Accessible but deep, challenging but fair: DMC3SE hits all of the right notes.

BUT



The PC port is garbage. Limited resolution, botched controller support (Xinput didn't work without excessive tinkering and the use of third-party mods, and the legacy controller I had was simply unrecognized), downgraded graphics from the PS2 version (missing effects, seemingly lower resolution textures in some areas?), very inconsistent performance, and missing music are the highlights of this seemingly rushed release. Many have found success with the Style Switcher mod, which not only fixes most of the issues listed but also adds the gameplay element of switching styles that was previously not present. Unfortunately, as with all mediocre ports, these solutions can often be inconsistent. After multiple reinstalls I was seemingly unable to get my controllers working until I downloaded a cracked version of the exe that fixed the issue.
A cracked version of the game's executable from a shady website solved problems that the patch could not: this is the type of port you're dealing with. You can fix a lot of issues with the game, but as I've shown, those fixes may not always be conventional.

If you can deal with this, I can wholeheartedly recommend this title (the game itself) to anyone who loves character action games as the peak of its genre, If you are inevitably turned off this due to the shoddy port, there are alternatives: the game can be emulated fairly well on higher end hardware, or can be purchased with the excellent HD collection for the 360/PS3.

As it stands, don't pick up the game at full price. If Capcom re-released the HD collections version on PC for this listed price I would almost certainly recommend it, but as is, the stock game is a glitchy mess. It's worth noting that certain third party websites have versions of the game available with Style-Switcher pre-installed: I'd recommend one of those if you know where to look, as the game isn't worth the dough in the state that it comes in.

This thumbs up is for the game itself, and not the mediocre port it is attached to.