Review: Dante’s Inferno

Xbox 360 gamers have long looked over their shoulders at their PS3 brethren, ultimately jealous of a single exclusive franchise starring a certain mythical deity smasher. Most people will refer to this franchise as the inspiration for Dante’s Inferno (available on both consoles), and while the mechanics and playstyle are 90% identical, what makes this different is the focus on Part 1 of Dante’s Divine Comedy, Inferno, that deals with Dante’s decent into Hell. It’s a twisted tale that might have die-hard Christians up in arms but will also make fans of true demonic horror giddy with glee. From premise to delivery, Dante serves up one hell of a ride.

The Story

The game is closely based on the 14th century original work, with a bit of artistic license taken to make it a bit more palatable to modern day twitch gamers. Instead of a lion blocking his way (if interpreted literally) and being forced to take a slight detour through H-E-ell-ell, we’re told the story of Dante, his part in the Catholic Crusades, his love of the recently deceased Beatrice, and his journey to recover her from Lucifer. To reach the devil himself, Dante has to travel through the 9 circles of Hell and reflect on some famous personages, the atrocities they’ve committed, and how we can all be guilty to some degree of each one of their follies that they are now suffering for for all eternity.

It all starts when you somehow beat Death himself and acquire the scythe he uses to collect the souls of the departed. From there, you meet the poet Virgil who acts as your guide through the depths of Hell on your journey to save your beloved Beatrice. We’re told the story of Dante’s life leading to up the abyss and of his warring days in the name of Christianity through 2D anime flashback cutscenes which are actually sewn into a horrific tapestry on Dante’s body. They detail some of the connections that Dante shares with some of the damned he meets along the way and his relationship to each circle of Hell. These aren’t the Seven Deadly Sins (which are reserved for those in Purgatory, the second book in The Divine Comedy trilogy), but there is some crossover. The Circles (in order) are: Limbo, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Wrath, Heresy, Violence, Fraud and Treason.

Death is only the beginning

You’ll meet various historical figures and either punish or absolve them for their sins. Myself, coming from a Roman Catholic background, I thought it was kind of fun to decide the fate of some decidedly nasty folks (Pontius Pilate, who sentenced Jesus to crucifixion , is your first ‘decision’) both biblical and historical. You’ll run up against everyone from Charon (who ferries the dead) to Cleopatra to the dead members of Dante’s family… and judge them all.

The story is well ‘fleshed’ out and for grown folk only. You can’t have a game with an unlockable trophy for ‘Kill 20 Unbaptised Children’ with a rating of anything less than mature. Believe me; if it’s a female character on the screen, it’s topless. And if it’s topless, sometimes it’s squirting undead monsters from its nipples. Religious groups, especially Christian, will take some offence to the interpretations of Dante’s works in this game, but for a horror/macabre/grotesque fan like myself, well… it’s like I’ve died and gone to Heaven.

The Gameplay

It’s an action/adventure game which means there’s light platforming as you hack and slash your way through hordes of minions. Light and heavy attacks with the scythe are paired with a ranged attack in the form of your Holy Cross. Sound familiar? Yes, it’s very derivative of that other game for sure. Adding some magic abilities to the mix can’t hurt and there are relics to find and upgrade peppered throughout the game. Magic is earned as you progress and relics boost your stats, chance to stun, etc.

What you’ll be doing as you reap souls through hell is determining if they should be punished or absolved. The amount of either determines how much you move up the ‘Unholy’ or ‘Holy’ ability tree, with different abilities unlocked in each. Whereas the Holy side deals more with your ranged cross attack, the Unholy side upgrades your scythe and opens new combos to smite the fallen. I managed to beat the game, and while I got pretty good at balancing out both the Holy and Unholy sides, I only topped out on both sides at 6 out of 7 levels unlocked with plenty of gaps to fill in as I looked down the tree. You’ll definitely be playing through twice to open every ability, or starting out on the ‘hard’ difficulty which isn’t recommended.

King Minos has a date with the wood chipper

There is quite a reliance on quicktime events, button mashing, and a goofy minigame when you want to absolve some of the higher echelon damned. Opening each health and magic fountain requires you to hammer a button for a couple of seconds. Heck, every time you open a door you need to mash a button. It gets tiring/annoying REALLY quickly. Absolving anyone? Hammer the B button. Ugh. Quicktime events play a big role in finishing off mid and end-level bosses and even in the punishment/absolution process. They are overused and quickly become pedestrian with the same animations playing over and over. And that Absolution minigame? Think Dance Dance Revolution with timed button presses. No minigame is triggered when you punish someone, but it seems that the developers are punishing the player for choosing the enlightened path to redemption.

There are a few chances to ride and control some of the larger beasts of Hell, but they are too few and too short. Puzzles consist of the ‘push the block to the spot in the floor’ variety and shouldn’t even be in the game, as they only serve to slow down the action and aren’t puzzling in the slightest. Just throw more unholy demons at us. That’s why I bought the ticket.

Control the mammoth Phlegyas to smash through the walls of the City Of Dis

The Graphics & Audio

Like most games coming out EA these days, graphics are top notch. Special mention has got to go out to the developers, Visceral Games for coming up with some fantastic environmental and character designs that a game like this deserves. If you’re going to reinterpret a revered poem from the middle ages about the denizens of Hell, you’d better have some darn good artists in your back pocket. Maxing out the gore and gross out factors (some enemies excrete on you) along with wickedly cruel background scenery (rivers of corpses, impaled souls on pikes everywhere, etc) will ensure that any fan of Hellraiser or Clive Barker’s stories will be in for a good time.

Audio is suitably epic with wailing souls always moaning away in the background, choirs of fallen angels shrieking to the heavens and weapons delivering enough of a punch that God himself might hear. Voicework is also spot on, with the dialogue delivered with enough gravitas to be taken seriously and not laughed at, which could have been a real problem if mishandled.

Character designs indicate which circle of Hell you currently inhabit. Yummy!

The Package

It’ll take you anywhere from 8 to 10 single-player hours to make your way down to the 9th Circle Of Hell and beat the ashes out of that arch-demon who’s been feeling up your half naked girlfriend this whole time. It’s not a huge undertaking, but it’s a satisfying trip. After the ride is over, you’ve got a New Game + option opened up, a new difficulty level to tackle and some developer videos and concept art to peruse. Also included is the Gates Of Hell Arena, which tasks you to take down wave after wave of increasingly tough demons while managing a time limit and upping your soul count. It’s a nice diversion that still adds to your overall soul count when you go back to the game to try and get those last, high-level abilities.

Also teased from the main menu is the Trials Of St. Lucia, a combat editor where can design your own levels to play through in co-op mode with a buddy and exchange over the EA’s servers. You’ll design the waves of enemies using whichever of Hell’s spawn you desire (and some exclusive to the Trials Of St. Lucia) to try and defeat online players. It allows for a community ranking system to separate the good from the bad and promises to be available for download April 29th.

Oh yeah, there’s two more books in the series, so expect more bloodletting in Purgatory and Paradise.

The 2D anime sequences are top notch... Look for an animated feature to arrive shortly

The Downsides

While I wholeheartedly enjoyed the entire experience, some things just kept nagging me. Like too many cheap deaths. More than once, but less than 3000, I was simply rammed off a cliff or into a blood river and died. The game doesn’t do a good job telling you where you can or can’t simply fall to your doom.

Also, the platforming aspect isn’t thoroughly polished. Dante’s double jump doesn’t always work as well as you might think for a poet(!), and his edge-grabbing abilities leave a lot to be desired. While this isn’t a deal-breaker, you will die over and over in some spots until you can figure out the proper distance to jump from.

Yeah, and those quicktime events are waaay overused. At least try to innovate here guys! There, that’s the last time I’ll say it.

You can unload with the Holy Cross as much as you like

The Bottom Line

Like I said before, I’m a huge sucker for blood, gore and a demonic storyline. That’s not to say I’m a fan of torture porn like Hostel or whatever… I appreciate thought and reason behind my twisted macabre. Not many videogames will inspire any of us to go out and pick up a book, but this is the one that’ll be getting me back into a good reading habit. Plus I just want to see how it all comes out.

Dante’s Inferno is filled with enough references to make historians and lit students beam while being a good action game. No one’s saying that it isn’t a complete ripoff of that other game over on Sony’s console (as far as the controls and mechanics go), but when you can mimic that kind of immersive gameplay and vicious body count coupled with a suitably grand and time-spanning story as well as Dante’s Inferno has, it’s hard to ignore.

Visceral Games, makers of the Dead Space franchise, have done a great job on this one… even if it gets discounted at your local game retailer when God Of War 3 comes out. Looking forward to the next installment.

The Good

Fans of Hell fiction (is it fiction? whoa…) will eat it up
Great character design and fantastic environments make you squirm in your freshly shat pants
Does a good job of stealing from the God Of War series

The Bad

Repetitive quicktime events (last time I swear) and button mashing for no reason gets stale right from the start
Platform elements need polish
Might really turn off the ‘Churchy’s’ out there… but that’s not who this is directed at