Dante's Inferno

I was hoping this game would be a mindless hack and slash game when I got it with some nice scenery to look at. It accomplished this task for the most part, but was not quite as good as I was expecting it to be. The story has Dante defeating death and making his way into the depths of hell to reclaim the soul of his love, Beatrice. So you battle your way through the nine layers of hell using the scythe you steal from death and a cross from your beloved. Throughout the game you also run across damned souls who you get to either punish or absolve and this constitutes the leveling process of the game as you can add attacks to the scythe which is a unholy weapon and the cross which is of course a holy one. The combat is rather fluid and I tore through the enemies no problem. Of course, I had the game set on minimum difficulty so no surprise there. The game did offer some frustrations in the form of jumping from place to place and doing some swinging and climbing tricks. The enemies probably did not kill me once, however, I died numerous times thanks to falling into various pits filled with gold, blood you name it I fell into it. The level designs were somewhat good, somewhat not as good as I was expecting. I was expecting the lust phase of the game to be more risqué than it was and the final levels were rather underwhelming after the forest portion of the game. Still, it was a nice diversion for a bit, but this is made by EA so expect an underwhelming ending.

"Dante's Inferno" the game is epic enough to be worthy of the poem it was based on. Sure, people are going to compare it to "God of War", and, from what I hear, with good reason. But I've never had the opportunity to play "God of War." On it's own merits, Inferno is an amazing game.

Dante Alighieri, the poet behind The Divine Comedy, has been transformed, for video game purposes, into one very cranky Crusader. He's as hardcore as video game heroes come. The kind of hardcore who sews his life story in pictures into a cross on his chest. The kind of hardcore who is willing to endure all nine circles of Hell to save his girlfriend, the "radiant Beatrice." The level design is the standout factor here. Inspired by Dante's poem, the 9 circles (with the possible exception of Fraud) are done justice. Lust is filled with phallic and yonic imagery. In Gluttony, platforms are made of what looks like huge slabs of fat and meat. In Greed, there's a river of melted gold. In Violence, the river is made of boiling blood. Notably, the game forms a steady descent through each. The only noticeable loading screen is when starting a game or loading a save file. Otherwise, each stage transitions naturally as Dante climbs lower and lower into the depths. At the same time, each circle has a color scheme and look that makes it unique from all the others.

Gameplay fits the classic "beat 'em up" or "hack 'n' slash" genre. Dante must defeat waves of hellions before moving on through each level. He can attack with either Death's Scythe (ganked from the Grim Reaper himself), a cross that shoots holy beams (way cooler than I make it sound), or various magic attacks (based on a supply of manna that can be depleted and replenished). There are also plenty of special moves and combos, all wonderfully simple and fun to execute, that can be unlocked with souls, the in-game currency. Each Circle of Hell introduces new enemies that will be encountered for the rest of the game. Limbo features unbaptized babies with blades for arms that coo when they attack and cry when being attacked. Lust adds half-naked temptresses. Gluttony brings forth nasty "Gluttons" who will swallow Dante whole. Heresy sees heretics, enemies that can perform black magic and are immune to cross attacks. And so on and so forth.

The only circle I found less than perfect was "Fraud." A few lines are spoken about the type of souls that reside in Fraud between bouts of Dante fighting enemies under certain conditions (fight with unlimited manna, fight without the ability to use manna, and the completely inexplicable, protect the innocents. What are innocents doing in the eight circle of Hell?) It feels more like some mini-games that should be unlocked after beating the game than part of the storyline. Fun, but it leaves me imagining what it could have been like if Visceral Games took the time to design a Fraud that was as detailed as the other 8 circles.

There's also some platforming and puzzle-solving mixed in there (though all the booby traps had me wondering where people go when they die in Hell.) Also, along the way, there are plenty of opportunities to talk to Virgil, Dante's guide from the poem. All Virgil does is quote stanzas from The Divine Comedy, but in this case, that definitely not a bad thing. In fact, one of the best things I can say about the game is it made me want to read Dante Alighieri's epic poems. Along the way, Dante also can collect hidden relics that effect his abilities and choose to absolve or punish the souls of historical and mythical characters that are condemned to the Inferno (such as Pontius Pilate, Orphues, and Attilla the Hun), causing Dante to level up either a Holy or Unholy Path.

Best of all, there's none of the cheese factor I was expecting when I started playing the game. The acquiring and trading of souls, the attacking unbaptized babies, the power of Beatrice's cross and the various magic spells, and the monstrous boss battles are all integrated in ways that I imagine are right in line with the spirit of Dante's epic, if not exactly the letter of it. Also, the voice acting's pretty good, especially when the closest thing to a big name celebrity doing the voices is Vanessa Branch, the Orbit gum spokeswoman, as the voice of Beatrice.

A fairly enjoyable God of War hack n' slash clone with Dante imagery. Unfortunately, it's just not as memorable or groundbreaking as God of War, leaving it a pretty forgettable gaming affair. In fact, I'd forgotten this game existed for years, even after having beaten it!

I've bought Dante's Inferno shortly after its release, simply because I needed a hack'n slay fix. To be honest, I regret that purchase. I really don't understand all the high praise this game got.

While it does copy God of War wherever it can, that in itself isn't a bad thing in my opinion, games do that all the time. Sadly, it doesn't offer the same quality as God of War does.

First and foremost, the controls just aren't tight enough. They work and after a bit of time you will be able to pull off some decent moves, but overall it just doesn't feel as if you're directly in control. To me, it often felt like shouting instructions to the guy and waiting for him to do as I say.

The next important thing about a game such as this, level design, isn't that great, either, and often gets pretty atrocious: Camera angles in platforming sequences often make it hard to judge where your character really is in the scene. Jumping forward onto a slowly moving, rather large platform, shouldn't be a gamble. Checkpoints are regularly placed before menial tasks, but not before harder bits. The result of this can be pretty infuriating: For me it's just plain annoying to open several chests and do some very easy platforming time and time again only to die at the following fight.

Presentation-wise the game isn't bad, but not jaw-dropping, either. Often it looks good, sometimes even offers some vistas that are worth the ride, but some of the things that get repeated throughout the game simply look like a PS2 game (the souls swimming in a liquid or the walls "of the damned", for example).

It's a bit sad that they wasted all the potential the idea of the game had. If you really need a hack'n slay and have played all the others out there, just rent it.

I bought Dante's Inferno because I read so many reviews stating that the game is very similar to God of War (it was also very clear from the trailer). I never thought that even the controls would be the same! Although Dante's Inferno is a nice game, with an OKAY story, but I am very disappointed that the creators of this game seem to have taken everything from God of War. Also, when you plan the game, the environment around you does not change, you are in inferno for almost all of the game. The change of background is very important in making a game succeed.

I rated this game as 7 because it is nice to play, bashing all the minions of Lucifer. My opinion is that I do not feel that this game will be as good as God of War, although the creators have tried very hard to do so. God of war will be released in a couple of days (16th March 2010). We'll see how that game would compare to Dante's Inferno.