Introduction
I’d been awaiting Dante’s Inferno on baited breath since October, and I was absolutely delighted when my copy arrived a day early. I find myself criticizing games a great deal due to their unoriginal premise – if you’ve seen one conflict between heaven and hell, amnesiac protagonist and/or political war, you really have seen them all. A game based on the first – and arguably most infamous – part of The Divine Comedy, a classic piece of literature, sounded highly appealing. However, it is with some dismay that I come to review it now, not only because of the unjust criticism it has been receiving online as a God of War clone, but because I finished it extremely quickly and feel somewhat cheated. It performed better than expected, but also let down in several key areas. Still, read on for my take on it:
Storyline: 7.6/10
Dante’s Inferno begins in the Third Crusade – Dante is busy cleaving his way through cloaked characters...right until the moment someone sneaks up behind him and stabs him in the back. Death appears before him, condemning him to Hell for his sins. Dante isn’t too pleased about this – the Bishop absolved their sins before setting out - as Bishops often do – and he should be seeing the light of Heaven right about now. Irritated, he takes the knife out of his back and fights off Death, killing him with his own scythe. That behind him, Dante returns home, only to discover his father with a cross through his eye and his love, Beatrice, with a sword through her chest. Her soul appears to him, and is promptly snatched away by Lucifer to Hell. Dante’s only choice is to follow her, naturally. Thus begins Dante’s journey through Hell to save his love and, in the process, redeem himself.
The game is based on Inferno, the first part of Dante Aligheri’s Divine Comedy, and to those who have read the poem; the references and concepts that drive the story will be noticeable and quite satisfying. On the way down, Dante will come across various others he knew in life who are being punished in death and, whilst these encounters appear to be entirely random and without any particular purpose, they are highly symbolic and an excellent representation of the meaning behind Inferno, even though they bear little resemblance to the words themselves. Dante’s Inferno is quite an interesting game in that it takes inspiration from the setting and concept behind Inferno, but interprets the allegory in the poem in its own way which, if you look at it closely, offers quite a profound and thoroughly unique experience. It isn’t one of those games which just steals an idea and then mutilates it, or copies it word for word.
The story is often told in cutscenes, usually zooming in on the cross-shaped fleshy tapestry Dante has across his chest, telling the story of a moment in his life where he committed sin, unaware or otherwise. This is usually in line with whichever circle of Hell Dante is currently in, and as the game progresses you get a clearer picture of the man Dante (the character, not the poet) was in life, and how he has come to this point. The story is as much as symbolic journey as it is a physical one.
Those not familiar with Inferno can bump this score down to 5.0, for it will probably appear to be just another game in which the hero struggles to rescue his love, only to find out that she is “in another castle” for most of the game, and the encounters Dante has with the damned who are significant to him will appear to be little more than random encounters and excuses for boss fights. It is clear that effort has been put into the story of the game, however you need some basic knowledge of the poem it draws its inspiration from, and you need to know what to look for. If you don’t, you’ll miss out on quite a bit.
Characters: 6.1/10
Again, if you don’t have any basic knowledge of Inferno, you can bump this score down to 5.0. You’ll need to look below the surface of what is shown to understand Dante, who is the only character who really features in the game. There are others who make minor appearances – as in the poem, Virgil acts as Dante’s guide, a stationary spirit who gives him information on what he is about to face, as well as the damned, some of which who are but minor characters for you to condemn or absolve at your wish (most of if not all of these are mentioned in Inferno as well) who you can read about by checking Dante’s journal. These are all historical figures, and all have a history, however they are not really prominent in the game, nor do they contribute to the story. The characters who do contribute to the story, many of them Dante’s family, are more there to symbolize further Dante’s character, rather than be characters in their own right.
Gameplay: 8.8/10
Dante’s Inferno is primarily an action game, meaning the majority of the time you’re going to be hacking, bashing, slicing and absolving your way through Hell’s legions of the common damned, unbaptized babies, scorpion-women (for lack of a better, cleaner term), bats and demons. And that is pretty much all you’re going to be coming across for the entirety of the game, in terms of enemies.
We’ll get the criticism out of the way first – if you’re looking for variety, then you really should look elsewhere. There are the occasional variations in enemies – for example, some demons have wings, others are slightly better armoured, and once in a while you’ll come across a magician – but, for the majority of the game you’re going to be fighting the same enemies repeatedly. This is a very repetitive game – kill enemies, run to the next area, kill enemies, maybe solve a puzzle or do a little jumping across objects, kill more enemies. It’s quite linear; you can backtrack to a degree, although it serves no purpose whatsoever, and the only direction to really go is forward. So, if linearity and repetitive gameplay put you off, you’d be better off buying a different game, because you’ll find plenty of both in Dante’s Inferno.
Secondly: length. I finished this in a week, in about seven or eight hours. This game is horrendously short, even by today’s standards. You could literally make an afternoon of it if you just ran through and didn’t take the occasional moment to stop and consider your surroundings for secrets and whatnot.
So, those are the bad points. Everything else about Dante’s Inferno, I am pleased to say, delivers admirably, and this game is more than a match for God of War in the sheer number of enemies on screen at once, as well as the carnage you can deliver to said enemies.
Dante is armed with two weapons: Death’s Scythe, which expands to fill the role of a hookshot when required, and contracts to form a nice, compact sword when you’ve got to get in closer with enemies; and Beatrice’s Cross, which fires destructive holy energy at opponents. Obviously, the scythe is better for melee, and the cross is better for ranged attacks. Since those are your main weapons (you also have magic), they’ve got a lot of upgrades. Most enemies, after a little damage (or no damage at all, in the case of the weaker ones) can be grabbed with the scythe, giving you the opportunity to either punish or absolve them. Punishing them involves administering bloody death with the scythe (don’t ask me how you can kill enemies who are technically already dead; I was trying to figure that out all the way through the game!), whilst absolving them involves shining holy light upon them, making them explode. Doing either one of these will net you Unholy or Holy experience respectively, which in turn will level up either the scythe or the cross. You can level them up seven times apiece (you’ll get enough experience to fully upgrade one through the course of the game) and, naturally, each time they level up they grow stronger, and also unlock new combo attacks for Dante to purchase. There is no right or wrong way to play the game, so it depends ultimately on your preference; however you will be required to use both weapons in tandem to take down certain enemies. For example, enemies sheathed in fire will require “cooling” with the cross before you can scythe them down, and enemies under a magician’s protection will be immune to cross attacks entirely, meaning you’ll have to get in close.
I mentioned magic in the above paragraph. Of course, the game would be extremely boring if you only had the scythe and cross for the entire game. As you progress, Dante will acquire magic, usually from defeating enemies, which gives you a few more options in battle, most of them ranged or mass-scale attacks to keep large crowds at bay. Using these drains your magic bar.
You also have access to relics, which are acquired from gargoyle-like statues that are scattered throughout the circles of hell. Equipping these bestows bonuses, i.e. immunity to projectile attacks, or an increased chance in blocking attacks. Each relic can be levelled up three times, and many require a certain level of Holy or Unholy experience to be equipped, meaning you’ll have to alternate your play style accordingly if you want to reap the benefits.
The game takes place, as you probably know, in Hell. Whilst in each circle you’ll be primarily doing the same thing – battering your way through scores of the damned – different circles have different elements of gameplay. For example, in Greed you’ll be doing a great deal of leaping from platform to platform, and in Fraud you’re put through the Malebolge, ten trials of endurance that require you to meet an objective (i.e. kill all enemies using magic only) to pass. Most of the circles are concluded with a boss fight, which is a significant figure either in history (Cleopatra in Lust, for example) or Dante’s life. Some of these require a certain method to be killed, whilst with others it’s a simple matter of dodging their attacks and connecting with yours.
There are a lot of context-sensitive action sequences in this game, similar to God of War. With certain enemies (usually the bigger, more powerful ones) you are launched into an action sequence, which requires you to press buttons as they flash on screen. The results of success are usually spectacularly gory, whilst the consequences of failure are most dire. These occur every time you punish or absolve an enemy that you need to damage before you can grab it, as well as with a lot of bosses.
The game has limited puzzles, most involving pushing blocks into their required places, or activating levers and then dashing to another area before time runs out. There are extensive swinging sections, mostly when you descend from one level of hell to the next. Ropes hang from the walls, and quite often you’ll need to slide down, then rappel along the wall, gaining enough momentum to destroy an obstacle blocking your path, or leap from one area to the next.
Also scattered throughout the game are certain miserable, dejected souls for you to punish or absolve. They net you bonus experience for your weapons, as well as an entry in Dante’s journal. If you punish them, they simply get the scythe through their skull; however absolving them begins a small mini-game almost reminiscent of the likes of Guitar Hero, in which you need to press buttons as orange icons line up with them, which will get you some bonus souls once time is up. Missing the target will lose you marks, and there will be dummy icons, as well as an increase in speed, as you progress. The game only lasts 30 seconds, but it’s a nice little addition and another incentive to absolve your targets, rather than punish them.
Once in a while you’ll get the chance to take control of a giant monster, similar to an ogre. After you have successfully stunned the ogre and dislodged its rider, you can roam upon its back yourself, smashing, stomping and incinerating everything below you. It’s a nice break from the endless action, and in Greed there is a small puzzle involving this.
The currency for Dante’s Inferno is, unsurprisingly, souls. You’ll get souls from orange fountains, as well as for killing enemies. So, you’ll be racking them up in their thousands very quickly. This isn’t such a bad thing, because upgrading your weapons costs a lot of souls. Whilst you need to up your Holy or Unholy levels to unlock combos for your weapons, you also need to buy those combos, as well as additional health, magic, magic potency and relic slots. Everything in this game costs souls.
As far as collectibles go, this game has several – as well as relics, there are thirty pieces of silver scattered in the circles, in orange fountains (these usually grant you souls – green fountains restore health, purples ones magic.), and finding these will grant you some extra souls, as well as an achievement if you find them all. There are also the damned to find and punish or absolve. Whilst the game is fairly linear in design, some of these are very well hidden, and unless you stop to look you won’t find everything on your first try.
Controls: 9.9/10
I have no real complaints here. The controls are almost identical to God of War’s – easy for anyone to pick up, quickly mastered, and with plenty of scope for easy and showy massacring. Perhaps activating magic could have been assigned slightly differently to make it more accessible (whilst holding down R1 and then pressing the corresponding button doesn’t sound like a lot of work, it can disrupt things a bit, especially if you’re surrounded...which you often are), and sometimes I found it a little difficult to execute combos involving the R2 button – for some reason, the game didn’t pick it up sometimes when I held it down – but, otherwise the controls are solid. The inconveniences are minor only, and won’t impact your overall enjoyment of the game.
Graphics: 8.4/10
Thankfully, Dante’s Inferno draws on some stunning visuals to show you the medieval vision of Hell. Each Circle is impeccable designed, with a level of detail that is, on occasion, frightening to behold. The damned writhe in boiling blood and gold, surfacing as little more than skeletons with the bubbles. Fire (and, in the case of Gluttony, acid) rains from the sky. The developers have taken descriptions from Aligheri’s poem and moulded them into something almost lifelike in its execution. It draws upon the traditional view of Hell and gives voice to those things that you don’t want to imagine, going above and beyond giving us an entire game of purely fire and dark caves.
Enemy designs are perhaps the most innovative and grotesque yet, even if they aren’t particularly frightening to behold. Mutated babies with sickles attached to their arms. Women with scorpion tentacles bursting out of suggestive places. Sloth demons encased in layers of fat. And, of course, there are the traditional interpretations of demons: black-skinned humanoids with goat features and horns. Bosses are equally impressive – Cerberus has a rather unusual and unique design, for example. Everything has that epic feel to it that you would expect.
As well as realistic, detailed cutscenes, the game gives us cutscenes in a cel-shaded style: these occur when Dante has a flashback to his life in the crusades. This is a love-it-or-hate-it art style, but it provides a little variety and is worth mentioning.
This game loses out, however, on character models. The moments of nudity in this game look absolutely awful, as do the character faces in general. Dante looks almost blocky at points, and the game zooms in on his face quite frequently. This isn’t present in the cutscenes – which are silky-smooth and absolutely stunning – but, alas, there are not very many cutscenes in the game, and quite often sequences are done with in-game graphics. It detracts from the experience somewhat.
There is also the minor complaint that things are too dark – of course, Hell is underground, so this is what you’d expect – however, since you can adjust the brightness, contrast and gamma settings, this shouldn’t be too much of an issue.
Sound: 7.3/10
Ominous and dramatic Latin vocals are in full swing here for practically the entire game. The music is quietly sinister when you are moving from place to place, then immediately picks up in pace and volume when you enter battle, resulting in a climax of shrieking vocals with the loudest possible orchestra imaginable. There are some absolutely incredible climaxes at certain points in the game – when overlooking Dis, for example – and it is absolutely perfect for this game. Alas, there isn’t much in the way of variety, but the question is: does there need to be? Things get louder and more sinister the further you go, which is totally appropriate for this game.
Voice acting is fairly good quality – perhaps the biggest surprise is Lucifer, who sounds rather normal, instead of having that standard distortion in his voice that game companies like to attribute to demons and all things evil these days. There is none of that at all, thankfully.
The place this game loses out on is the sound effects. They are absolutely hellish and, whilst that should be a good thing, ultimately it serves as an irritation, particularly when the music goes quiet. The screams of the damned are ever-present and, whilst this adds to the atmosphere and would make the game feel incomplete if it weren’t present, the volume and consistency will give you a headache after half an hour or so, and you’ll just want the damned to shut up for five minutes so you can concentrate on the game.
Unique/Extra Features: 7.0/10
Whilst this game has essentially the same game mechanics as God of War and countless others, the premise is completely unique – this is definitely a one-of-a-kind game, and does the Divine Comedy adequate justice. There is also the promise of additional content in the Trials of St. Lucia, meaning its probable that that score will climb as time goes on. It doesn’t have much in the way of downloadable content, alas – soul packs of up to 5000 souls, and 5000 souls won’t buy you a great amount in the game, especially in the later stages.
Replay value: 6.7/10
About average, really. There are achievements for finding everything, as well as maxxing out both the Holy and Unholy paths – that will take you at least two playthroughs – and there are four difficulty levels, as well as the unlockable Gates of Hell once you finish the game. With Resurrection Mode allowing you to carry over almost everything to another game, and with the game being so short, it’s an ideal candidate for one of those games you’ll pick up and make an afternoon of when you don’t really feel like doing anything taxing.
Overall Rating: 9.0/10
It suffers from a few noticeable flaws – the most irritating being its length – but Dante’s Inferno is an absolutely solid and enjoyable action game; with a great deal of enjoyment to be had if you take the time to look for it. Its vision of Hell is impressive, drawing upon the standard perception and enhancing it to all-new heights, and the combat is suitably fast-paced and bloody. All in all, it does Aligheri’s Inferno justice and, whilst if you are familiar with the Divine Comedy you will get a lot more out of this, even if you aren’t it’s an enjoyable experience.
So, the big question: how does this compare to God of War? Honestly, if you strip them down, they’re EXACTLY the same – God of War has no edges whatsoever in gameplay, it’s simply the more popular series. This is natural, since Kratos has had four games worth of character development, and the GoW series has set the standard for action games of this generation. Dante’s Inferno more than matches this standard, and if you look deep enough you can get quite a lot out of it. It’s regrettable that this game will probably be overlooked by almost everyone in favour of God of War 3, but to those who aren’t really all that bothered by it, and to those who want something to whet their appetite in anticipation for the GoW3, I recommend picking this up and giving it a go. Even if you haven’t heard of or read Dante Aligheri’s poem, there is a lot of enjoyment to be had here. Roll on the inevitable “Dante’s Purgatorio” sequel, then.
I’d been awaiting Dante’s Inferno on baited breath since October, and I was absolutely delighted when my copy arrived a day early. I find myself criticizing games a great deal due to their unoriginal premise – if you’ve seen one conflict between heaven and hell, amnesiac protagonist and/or political war, you really have seen them all. A game based on the first – and arguably most infamous – part of The Divine Comedy, a classic piece of literature, sounded highly appealing. However, it is with some dismay that I come to review it now, not only because of the unjust criticism it has been receiving online as a God of War clone, but because I finished it extremely quickly and feel somewhat cheated. It performed better than expected, but also let down in several key areas. Still, read on for my take on it:
Storyline: 7.6/10
Dante’s Inferno begins in the Third Crusade – Dante is busy cleaving his way through cloaked characters...right until the moment someone sneaks up behind him and stabs him in the back. Death appears before him, condemning him to Hell for his sins. Dante isn’t too pleased about this – the Bishop absolved their sins before setting out - as Bishops often do – and he should be seeing the light of Heaven right about now. Irritated, he takes the knife out of his back and fights off Death, killing him with his own scythe. That behind him, Dante returns home, only to discover his father with a cross through his eye and his love, Beatrice, with a sword through her chest. Her soul appears to him, and is promptly snatched away by Lucifer to Hell. Dante’s only choice is to follow her, naturally. Thus begins Dante’s journey through Hell to save his love and, in the process, redeem himself.
The game is based on Inferno, the first part of Dante Aligheri’s Divine Comedy, and to those who have read the poem; the references and concepts that drive the story will be noticeable and quite satisfying. On the way down, Dante will come across various others he knew in life who are being punished in death and, whilst these encounters appear to be entirely random and without any particular purpose, they are highly symbolic and an excellent representation of the meaning behind Inferno, even though they bear little resemblance to the words themselves. Dante’s Inferno is quite an interesting game in that it takes inspiration from the setting and concept behind Inferno, but interprets the allegory in the poem in its own way which, if you look at it closely, offers quite a profound and thoroughly unique experience. It isn’t one of those games which just steals an idea and then mutilates it, or copies it word for word.
The story is often told in cutscenes, usually zooming in on the cross-shaped fleshy tapestry Dante has across his chest, telling the story of a moment in his life where he committed sin, unaware or otherwise. This is usually in line with whichever circle of Hell Dante is currently in, and as the game progresses you get a clearer picture of the man Dante (the character, not the poet) was in life, and how he has come to this point. The story is as much as symbolic journey as it is a physical one.
Those not familiar with Inferno can bump this score down to 5.0, for it will probably appear to be just another game in which the hero struggles to rescue his love, only to find out that she is “in another castle” for most of the game, and the encounters Dante has with the damned who are significant to him will appear to be little more than random encounters and excuses for boss fights. It is clear that effort has been put into the story of the game, however you need some basic knowledge of the poem it draws its inspiration from, and you need to know what to look for. If you don’t, you’ll miss out on quite a bit.
Characters: 6.1/10
Again, if you don’t have any basic knowledge of Inferno, you can bump this score down to 5.0. You’ll need to look below the surface of what is shown to understand Dante, who is the only character who really features in the game. There are others who make minor appearances – as in the poem, Virgil acts as Dante’s guide, a stationary spirit who gives him information on what he is about to face, as well as the damned, some of which who are but minor characters for you to condemn or absolve at your wish (most of if not all of these are mentioned in Inferno as well) who you can read about by checking Dante’s journal. These are all historical figures, and all have a history, however they are not really prominent in the game, nor do they contribute to the story. The characters who do contribute to the story, many of them Dante’s family, are more there to symbolize further Dante’s character, rather than be characters in their own right.
Gameplay: 8.8/10
Dante’s Inferno is primarily an action game, meaning the majority of the time you’re going to be hacking, bashing, slicing and absolving your way through Hell’s legions of the common damned, unbaptized babies, scorpion-women (for lack of a better, cleaner term), bats and demons. And that is pretty much all you’re going to be coming across for the entirety of the game, in terms of enemies.
We’ll get the criticism out of the way first – if you’re looking for variety, then you really should look elsewhere. There are the occasional variations in enemies – for example, some demons have wings, others are slightly better armoured, and once in a while you’ll come across a magician – but, for the majority of the game you’re going to be fighting the same enemies repeatedly. This is a very repetitive game – kill enemies, run to the next area, kill enemies, maybe solve a puzzle or do a little jumping across objects, kill more enemies. It’s quite linear; you can backtrack to a degree, although it serves no purpose whatsoever, and the only direction to really go is forward. So, if linearity and repetitive gameplay put you off, you’d be better off buying a different game, because you’ll find plenty of both in Dante’s Inferno.
Secondly: length. I finished this in a week, in about seven or eight hours. This game is horrendously short, even by today’s standards. You could literally make an afternoon of it if you just ran through and didn’t take the occasional moment to stop and consider your surroundings for secrets and whatnot.
So, those are the bad points. Everything else about Dante’s Inferno, I am pleased to say, delivers admirably, and this game is more than a match for God of War in the sheer number of enemies on screen at once, as well as the carnage you can deliver to said enemies.
Dante is armed with two weapons: Death’s Scythe, which expands to fill the role of a hookshot when required, and contracts to form a nice, compact sword when you’ve got to get in closer with enemies; and Beatrice’s Cross, which fires destructive holy energy at opponents. Obviously, the scythe is better for melee, and the cross is better for ranged attacks. Since those are your main weapons (you also have magic), they’ve got a lot of upgrades. Most enemies, after a little damage (or no damage at all, in the case of the weaker ones) can be grabbed with the scythe, giving you the opportunity to either punish or absolve them. Punishing them involves administering bloody death with the scythe (don’t ask me how you can kill enemies who are technically already dead; I was trying to figure that out all the way through the game!), whilst absolving them involves shining holy light upon them, making them explode. Doing either one of these will net you Unholy or Holy experience respectively, which in turn will level up either the scythe or the cross. You can level them up seven times apiece (you’ll get enough experience to fully upgrade one through the course of the game) and, naturally, each time they level up they grow stronger, and also unlock new combo attacks for Dante to purchase. There is no right or wrong way to play the game, so it depends ultimately on your preference; however you will be required to use both weapons in tandem to take down certain enemies. For example, enemies sheathed in fire will require “cooling” with the cross before you can scythe them down, and enemies under a magician’s protection will be immune to cross attacks entirely, meaning you’ll have to get in close.
I mentioned magic in the above paragraph. Of course, the game would be extremely boring if you only had the scythe and cross for the entire game. As you progress, Dante will acquire magic, usually from defeating enemies, which gives you a few more options in battle, most of them ranged or mass-scale attacks to keep large crowds at bay. Using these drains your magic bar.
You also have access to relics, which are acquired from gargoyle-like statues that are scattered throughout the circles of hell. Equipping these bestows bonuses, i.e. immunity to projectile attacks, or an increased chance in blocking attacks. Each relic can be levelled up three times, and many require a certain level of Holy or Unholy experience to be equipped, meaning you’ll have to alternate your play style accordingly if you want to reap the benefits.
The game takes place, as you probably know, in Hell. Whilst in each circle you’ll be primarily doing the same thing – battering your way through scores of the damned – different circles have different elements of gameplay. For example, in Greed you’ll be doing a great deal of leaping from platform to platform, and in Fraud you’re put through the Malebolge, ten trials of endurance that require you to meet an objective (i.e. kill all enemies using magic only) to pass. Most of the circles are concluded with a boss fight, which is a significant figure either in history (Cleopatra in Lust, for example) or Dante’s life. Some of these require a certain method to be killed, whilst with others it’s a simple matter of dodging their attacks and connecting with yours.
There are a lot of context-sensitive action sequences in this game, similar to God of War. With certain enemies (usually the bigger, more powerful ones) you are launched into an action sequence, which requires you to press buttons as they flash on screen. The results of success are usually spectacularly gory, whilst the consequences of failure are most dire. These occur every time you punish or absolve an enemy that you need to damage before you can grab it, as well as with a lot of bosses.
The game has limited puzzles, most involving pushing blocks into their required places, or activating levers and then dashing to another area before time runs out. There are extensive swinging sections, mostly when you descend from one level of hell to the next. Ropes hang from the walls, and quite often you’ll need to slide down, then rappel along the wall, gaining enough momentum to destroy an obstacle blocking your path, or leap from one area to the next.
Also scattered throughout the game are certain miserable, dejected souls for you to punish or absolve. They net you bonus experience for your weapons, as well as an entry in Dante’s journal. If you punish them, they simply get the scythe through their skull; however absolving them begins a small mini-game almost reminiscent of the likes of Guitar Hero, in which you need to press buttons as orange icons line up with them, which will get you some bonus souls once time is up. Missing the target will lose you marks, and there will be dummy icons, as well as an increase in speed, as you progress. The game only lasts 30 seconds, but it’s a nice little addition and another incentive to absolve your targets, rather than punish them.
Once in a while you’ll get the chance to take control of a giant monster, similar to an ogre. After you have successfully stunned the ogre and dislodged its rider, you can roam upon its back yourself, smashing, stomping and incinerating everything below you. It’s a nice break from the endless action, and in Greed there is a small puzzle involving this.
The currency for Dante’s Inferno is, unsurprisingly, souls. You’ll get souls from orange fountains, as well as for killing enemies. So, you’ll be racking them up in their thousands very quickly. This isn’t such a bad thing, because upgrading your weapons costs a lot of souls. Whilst you need to up your Holy or Unholy levels to unlock combos for your weapons, you also need to buy those combos, as well as additional health, magic, magic potency and relic slots. Everything in this game costs souls.
As far as collectibles go, this game has several – as well as relics, there are thirty pieces of silver scattered in the circles, in orange fountains (these usually grant you souls – green fountains restore health, purples ones magic.), and finding these will grant you some extra souls, as well as an achievement if you find them all. There are also the damned to find and punish or absolve. Whilst the game is fairly linear in design, some of these are very well hidden, and unless you stop to look you won’t find everything on your first try.
Controls: 9.9/10
I have no real complaints here. The controls are almost identical to God of War’s – easy for anyone to pick up, quickly mastered, and with plenty of scope for easy and showy massacring. Perhaps activating magic could have been assigned slightly differently to make it more accessible (whilst holding down R1 and then pressing the corresponding button doesn’t sound like a lot of work, it can disrupt things a bit, especially if you’re surrounded...which you often are), and sometimes I found it a little difficult to execute combos involving the R2 button – for some reason, the game didn’t pick it up sometimes when I held it down – but, otherwise the controls are solid. The inconveniences are minor only, and won’t impact your overall enjoyment of the game.
Graphics: 8.4/10
Thankfully, Dante’s Inferno draws on some stunning visuals to show you the medieval vision of Hell. Each Circle is impeccable designed, with a level of detail that is, on occasion, frightening to behold. The damned writhe in boiling blood and gold, surfacing as little more than skeletons with the bubbles. Fire (and, in the case of Gluttony, acid) rains from the sky. The developers have taken descriptions from Aligheri’s poem and moulded them into something almost lifelike in its execution. It draws upon the traditional view of Hell and gives voice to those things that you don’t want to imagine, going above and beyond giving us an entire game of purely fire and dark caves.
Enemy designs are perhaps the most innovative and grotesque yet, even if they aren’t particularly frightening to behold. Mutated babies with sickles attached to their arms. Women with scorpion tentacles bursting out of suggestive places. Sloth demons encased in layers of fat. And, of course, there are the traditional interpretations of demons: black-skinned humanoids with goat features and horns. Bosses are equally impressive – Cerberus has a rather unusual and unique design, for example. Everything has that epic feel to it that you would expect.
As well as realistic, detailed cutscenes, the game gives us cutscenes in a cel-shaded style: these occur when Dante has a flashback to his life in the crusades. This is a love-it-or-hate-it art style, but it provides a little variety and is worth mentioning.
This game loses out, however, on character models. The moments of nudity in this game look absolutely awful, as do the character faces in general. Dante looks almost blocky at points, and the game zooms in on his face quite frequently. This isn’t present in the cutscenes – which are silky-smooth and absolutely stunning – but, alas, there are not very many cutscenes in the game, and quite often sequences are done with in-game graphics. It detracts from the experience somewhat.
There is also the minor complaint that things are too dark – of course, Hell is underground, so this is what you’d expect – however, since you can adjust the brightness, contrast and gamma settings, this shouldn’t be too much of an issue.
Sound: 7.3/10
Ominous and dramatic Latin vocals are in full swing here for practically the entire game. The music is quietly sinister when you are moving from place to place, then immediately picks up in pace and volume when you enter battle, resulting in a climax of shrieking vocals with the loudest possible orchestra imaginable. There are some absolutely incredible climaxes at certain points in the game – when overlooking Dis, for example – and it is absolutely perfect for this game. Alas, there isn’t much in the way of variety, but the question is: does there need to be? Things get louder and more sinister the further you go, which is totally appropriate for this game.
Voice acting is fairly good quality – perhaps the biggest surprise is Lucifer, who sounds rather normal, instead of having that standard distortion in his voice that game companies like to attribute to demons and all things evil these days. There is none of that at all, thankfully.
The place this game loses out on is the sound effects. They are absolutely hellish and, whilst that should be a good thing, ultimately it serves as an irritation, particularly when the music goes quiet. The screams of the damned are ever-present and, whilst this adds to the atmosphere and would make the game feel incomplete if it weren’t present, the volume and consistency will give you a headache after half an hour or so, and you’ll just want the damned to shut up for five minutes so you can concentrate on the game.
Unique/Extra Features: 7.0/10
Whilst this game has essentially the same game mechanics as God of War and countless others, the premise is completely unique – this is definitely a one-of-a-kind game, and does the Divine Comedy adequate justice. There is also the promise of additional content in the Trials of St. Lucia, meaning its probable that that score will climb as time goes on. It doesn’t have much in the way of downloadable content, alas – soul packs of up to 5000 souls, and 5000 souls won’t buy you a great amount in the game, especially in the later stages.
Replay value: 6.7/10
About average, really. There are achievements for finding everything, as well as maxxing out both the Holy and Unholy paths – that will take you at least two playthroughs – and there are four difficulty levels, as well as the unlockable Gates of Hell once you finish the game. With Resurrection Mode allowing you to carry over almost everything to another game, and with the game being so short, it’s an ideal candidate for one of those games you’ll pick up and make an afternoon of when you don’t really feel like doing anything taxing.
Overall Rating: 9.0/10
It suffers from a few noticeable flaws – the most irritating being its length – but Dante’s Inferno is an absolutely solid and enjoyable action game; with a great deal of enjoyment to be had if you take the time to look for it. Its vision of Hell is impressive, drawing upon the standard perception and enhancing it to all-new heights, and the combat is suitably fast-paced and bloody. All in all, it does Aligheri’s Inferno justice and, whilst if you are familiar with the Divine Comedy you will get a lot more out of this, even if you aren’t it’s an enjoyable experience.
So, the big question: how does this compare to God of War? Honestly, if you strip them down, they’re EXACTLY the same – God of War has no edges whatsoever in gameplay, it’s simply the more popular series. This is natural, since Kratos has had four games worth of character development, and the GoW series has set the standard for action games of this generation. Dante’s Inferno more than matches this standard, and if you look deep enough you can get quite a lot out of it. It’s regrettable that this game will probably be overlooked by almost everyone in favour of God of War 3, but to those who aren’t really all that bothered by it, and to those who want something to whet their appetite in anticipation for the GoW3, I recommend picking this up and giving it a go. Even if you haven’t heard of or read Dante Aligheri’s poem, there is a lot of enjoyment to be had here. Roll on the inevitable “Dante’s Purgatorio” sequel, then.