I played a good part of this on Xbox 360 over the past week and came away pretty impressed.  I never played the original series so can't comment on any differences (and am indifferent about the supposedly controversial character design change), but as a hack-and-slash and platforming "stylish action" title it hits the mark (much more than my previous foray in the genre, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow).

I didn't quite make it to the finish (controller battery died and I no longer have the 360 on me) but some impressions from playing to stage 11 of 20...

The Good:

- Imaginative visual design: The "limbo" concept allows some interesting fantastical takes on real-life environments, and some of the platforming-heavy levels in particular are a near-psychedelic trip - imagine Mario Galaxy meets Spawn.  A similar Spawn-like influence applies to the cast of demonic enemies, which are nicely varied and make C:LoS look downright plain in comparison.  The color filters and grain effects give the game a slightly gritty look that I find a nice change from the shiny graphics of so many other titles.

- Visually exciting combat: I know this is the series' trademark and I can't comment on how it compares to previous entries, but in any case between the exaggerated attack animations and the dynamic camera work the action looks fantastic.  Even without mastering the myriad combos, the combat stays fresh thanks to regularly placed weapon upgrades.

- Some extremely cinematic boss encounters: The succubus battle is one of the few times I've come to think that gaming can fully match the visual effects and cinematicism of live-action film while being truly interactive.  No QTE button-press crap - it all plays out through the actual game controls.

- Good cut-scene voice acting and animation: The writing isn't always the greatest (see below) but the actors do a good job with what they have, and the facial animation for the most part doesn't suffer from the stiffness and marble-like eyes you often see elsewhere (though the secondary characters could be animated better at times).

The Bad:

- Gratuitous sex and profanity: The occasional sex scenes don't seem to have much purpose other than trying to make the game feel more mature (unsuccessfully).  The profanity fits the mood of the game better but just goes overboard on occasion.

Mixed:

- Hit-or-miss writing: The progression from Dante completely not giving a f--- to wanting to help out his comrades is fairly well developed (by game standards).  The frequent one-liners get old though, especially around stage 8 or so where it's just one after another.

- Hit-or-miss soundtrack: The grinding electronica-and-guitar action music I found an immediate turn-off, though either by design or just from exposure it becomes more tolerable as the game progresses.  On the other hand the ambient music for some of the ethereal platforming levels is pretty nice.

For a game in which I had no prior interest and isn't the tone I usually go for, I was surprised to find myself enjoying it as much as I did.  I'll be looking forward to finishing it off when the chance arises to pick it up on the cheap or as a rental.

It's funny that thread is focused on DmC, yet you causally mention LoS because I've gotten these under my belt this year as well.

Lord of Shadows wasn't bad by any means but the fact that it borrowed heavily from other games did kind of dilute my enjoyment of it. Quite honestly I'm expecting a lot more out of Lord of Shadows 2 next year yet I hope it doesn't fall into the trap the first one did were the game just felt overly long even though it wasn't.

As far as DmC goes so many people blew this out of proportion. While I do think the Capcom produced games are better (well, I've only played 4 and it's a bit of a mess...) I really don't have much of a problem with DmC in general. I was able to separate myself from the older games when I played it so I wasn't ceaselessly comparing it to previous titles. I think that's were a lot of people went wrong. To a certain extent I guess that can't be helped but it's far from an abomination in my eyes - at least gameplay wise. As far as the characters and other problems I just kind of phased them out and enjoyed the better parts of the game.

Good write-up, Adam.
I agree with pretty much every single word of it.

I tried the demo when it was first released and came away with mostly a "meh" feeling, but I picked up the game (for cheap) anyway, because it came recommended by some people who tend to be right about things, and I ended up totally loving the shit out of it, for the reasons you described above.

I ended up quite liking LoS as well, shameless God of War clone it may be.
I didn't mind the fact that it liberally borrowed gameplay elements from other games; it's the numerous Portal references that left a very bad taste in my mouth.