Dante’s Inferno Review

Posted on 16. Feb, 2010 by Freak_c in Games, News, Reviews

If you have read other reviews on this game you will notice that they compare it heavily with the God of War series. Agreed yes when you first play the game you will notice a lot of similarities, but I am going to review the game for what it is and not compare it to God of War. And this is the mind set that you need to have when you boot up the game to play. Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.

The game is based on a poem, Dante’s The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri which was written during the 13th century. Visceral Games has taken on the task by taking the core of it and adapted it for the game. In a nutshell Dante’s Inferno is about a man’s fight to save the woman he loves. Dante is a young crusader who becomes disenchanted with war and returns to his fiancée Beatrice in Florence. When he arrives, he finds his house destroyed and Beatrice lying dead outside. Even worse, as he approaches, Lucifer appears and steals away her soul, dragging her screaming into the depths of Hell. Dante chases them through the nine circles of Hell, trying to save his love before she is lost forever. He faces his own sins and mistakes before a final showdown with the fallen angel. This is the epic adventure that you will undertake.

Limbo

Gameplay
One thing that stood out is the pace of the game and how fast and action packed it is. You will move from one boss battle to another and when you think you will have time to rest, you are thrown into another huge battle. The combat system feels really quick and responsive, there were some instances where I would have preferred for it to be a little more responsive but it is not game hindering. Your main weapon is a huge scythe for hacking the demons and damned but a nice introduction is the ability to wield the power of a holy cross as a ranged attack to keep monsters at a distance. The really great thing about the cross is it never runs out and doesn’t require manna or time to recharge, it is always available for use during battle.

Once you slay the demons you acquire it’s soul which you can use to upgrade your weapons and/or get new moves. The way they have implemented the soul system is pretty cool as it allows you different choices for upgrading. During your play through you will come across some famous people in hell where you learn what they did to be part of the damned. You then have the choice to punish or absolve them. Choosing absolve takes you into a quick mini game that allows you to gather more holy points where if you punish them you are given a set number of unholy points. A little strange that the mini game only appears for absolving souls because this makes you choose to absolve more to gather more souls and holy points. The holy and Unholy points are split into upgrade trees, for upgrading moves, and your health and manna bars. It is very similar to the good/evil system that is found and used in inFamous.

Lust

There are other ways to improve Dante’s abilities to help you through your travels and that is with the help of relics. These are found through out the game or are awarded for accomplishing certain things. These you can fit to do certain things, such one relic will give you more holy points when equipped or one that will help by dealing more damage etc. It is nice because you can equip these at any stage during the game so you could even change them during a boss battle if you wish. Dante’s Inferno comes packed with a solid amount of platforming as well and is not just hack and slash, as you climb walls of the damned, push boxes around, and solve puzzles to access new areas. For the most part, these are solid, well-designed breaks from all the fighting of demons. One puzzle that stood out is an Escher inspired type room, it was a little tough but the only problem is that it seemed out of place as it appeared during the circle of Gluttony, but the majority of the puzzles are good.

Graphics and Sound
The visual style of Dante’s Inferno sets it apart from other games, or should I say it’s disturbing style. With its vivid and very mature depiction of Hell from Wayne Barlow’s mind. His disturbing vision of the circles of hell and the creatures that reside there is truly unique and well done at the same time. Each circle has a unique and memorable style, from the substantial amounts of sexual imagery in the Lust level to the circle of Greed, which looks like a gold foundry. The visuals are striking and run at a solid 60 frames per second, with slowdown only for dramatic effect on powerful attacks. Dante’s Inferno uses a fixed camera and I found that it never hampered the gameplay or blocked things from view. The story is also told through the use of CG movie clips, anime style animation and in game cut-scenes which were very cool but seemed a little strange over used when it would keep swapping between them.

The sound is very well used, especially the ambient effects as you will constantly hear people in pain and calling out there sins and sorrows and the many that are falling to their damned fate. The soundtrack is notable, thanks to the orchestral score and choral presentation. The delivery of some lines can be hit or miss, but for the most part, the voice acting is solid.

Boss battles

Conclusion
Dante’s Inferno takes a good stab at bringing a literary classic to the gaming world. It’s adds some intense action, some new ideas to bring us a very fun and enjoyable action game. Yes the game copies a lot from other games in this style of game but so has have many others, because it works. This game should be played at least once by anyone who owns a PS3 or Xbox 360 simply to experience the journey through the nine circles. This game has a unique story, good graphics, excellent sound and fairly solid gameplay, what more could you ask for? Play this enjoyable game.

Story – 7 An intriguing twist on a literary classic.
Gameplay – 8 Fun solid and action packed with a nice upgrade system.
Graphics – 8 Twisted visions of the nine circles but each circle works well.
Sound – 8 Excellent sound and even better score.

Overall – 8 / 10

Written by Claudio Cecchi (Freak_c)

A HUGE thank you to Electronic Arts South Africa for supplying the game for review.