Guest Review – Dante’s Inferno

What? Two weeks in a row we have a Guest Review? Thats right faithful readers, we are lucky enough to bring you yet another review of a current video game! This week it’s Dante’s Inferno by Electronic Arts. The reviewer is once again Fred who brought us last week’s review of Brütal Legend. Lastly, if you have a game you’d like to review or have one ready for us go ahead and contact us and one of us will be your go-between on getting it posted on the site.

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When friends asked me what I did this past weekend, I tell them, “I butchered babies, punished sodomists, battled a devil with a 10 inch cock, and went a saw Alice in Wonderland.” Technically, I wasn’t lying.

To say Dante’s Inferno is a graphic game is an understatement. You’ve got babies with scythes on their arms, women that have tentacles erupt from their vaginas and attack you, enemies that literally shit on you, nudity, sex, blood, gore, and torturing. But I expect nothing less from Visceral Games, the same team that delivered us Dead Space, which was not only one of the scariest games of 2008, but also one of the goriest. These twisted folks are becoming the Tim Burton/John Carpenter of video games, and they do deliver beautiful looking products, even amongst what some would call “the filth” seen on screen.

But graphics are only a small part of a great game. The biggest problem critics have had with Dante’s Inferno was that it is a God of War clone. There is nothing untrue about that statement… and I have no problem with that. I think when it comes to critiquing a game, I’m looking at the experience of the whole game, and not just if it plays like another game. Sonic the Hedgehog played just like Mario Bros, it’s just it introduced more speed and rolling around through half pipes, but all in all the games were pretty much the same controls, and the same premise… nothing wrong with that as long as the experience is enjoyable.

No, Dante’s Inferno’s problems do not stem from the fact that it is a God of War clone. Its main problems lie within its level design, length, and using the name Dante’s Inferno.

Though it runs with the idea that it is based on Dante’s epic poem, this adaptation is about as close to the source material as the movie Wanted is an adaptation of the comic Wanted. Same name, some small references to the original source material, but over all, two very different and separate properties.

The truth is the true Dante’s Inferno would have never worked well as a God of War clone. The developers should have created something in the vein of Myst, if they wanted to adapt Dante’s Inferno more closely to the source material, but again, though I love the original poem, the liberties taken with the source material have in their own right, created a very unique and special experience in the video game realm. But they should have just called it “The Inferno” or “9 Realms,” or something else.

You play as Dante (not the poet, but a champion night of the crusades). After finishing your service to the church in the crusades, you meet Death, kick his ass, steal his scythe, and go home to your wife (Beatrice) and father, only to find them both slain. You then follow Beatrice’s ghost into a church that crumbles and becomes the entrance to hell… (That’s as much story as you need to know). The game does end with a hint at a sequel, but if they go forward with it, they better not call it Dante’s Inferno 2.

Though Dante’s Inferno is a clone of God of War much like Sonic is a clone of Mario; like Sonic, Dante’s Inferno does inject some of it’s own tricks into the mix.

For starters, your system for upgrading has two paths, Unholy, and Holy, and depending on which side you feed into more, gives you additional attacks, combos, magic, and other goodies to battle the hordes of hell. Unholy attacks generally deal with powering up your weapon, Death’s scythe, whereas your Holy attacks deal with your Cross weapon and magic.

How do you gain Unholy and Holy points? By either punishing the damn or absolving them. This is one of the features of the game that standout to me because it gives the player a choice, and that choice actually effects the players progression.

During your adventures through the 9 circles of hell you will come across many lost souls. The fun historical part of this is that each of these souls you find are characters from literature or actual historic figures. Some of them include, Electra, Judas, Attila, Pontius Pilot, and other historical figures either from history, the bible, or literature. When you come across them, you’ll be told their sins and the choice becomes yours to punish them, or absolve them. Punishing is as easy as the click of a button, only to then see the victim be brutally destroyed by Dante. Absolution on the other hand turns into a small mini game where multiple sins pass through a cross, and similar to the controls in guitar hero, as a certain button lights up you have to hit it to absolve the sin. The more sins absolved, the more points gained. It also serves as a nice way to break up the monotony that is the game. This is what becomes my big problem with the game being a clone of God of War.

In God of War, the levels had excellent design to them making the adventuring as fun as the battles. The game also threw in lots of puzzles that actually brought a challenge to the game.

Dante’s Inferno fails miserably in this part. The puzzles are very few and far between and when you reach one, they’re never too hard to figure out. Also level design is very repetitive. I would say, that the usual route the game takes is, jumping a few pits, scrolling down walls, swinging across ropes then grabbing on to more walls, then hitting an area that as you approach it, you are almost sure you are reaching a battle sequence. This is my big qualm. Such a beautiful game to look at, but only 5 / 9 circles is actually developed well level wise, and it’s my belief that it was this portion of the game that made it or broke it for many players and critics.

All in all, I enjoyed Dante’s Inferno. The story was well developed (though very different from the poem) and the cinematic and cartoon sequences were great to watch. The battles are ferocious and the weaponry and magic are fun to play with. Making the choices of absolution versus punishment were always fun, but the very straight forward level design got annoying at points, and may turn off certain players. Those familiar with God of War will pick up the controls right away (with a few slight changes).

The game runs about 6 and half hours, which is the ultimate nail in the coffin. The only redeeming thing I can find about the games length, is that once you finish it, you can play through again in Inferno mode with all your achievements thus far, and try to complete your leveling up, find all the relics, and complete all achievements. This is a fun mode and adds to the replay factor. Also, if you purchased the PS3 version, you get extra DLC for free, which although isn’t long either, is a free and fun addition to the game.

SUMMARY

GRAPHICS 4/5 – This is a grotesque, but pretty game. Some excellent character design and hell has never looked so ugly and pretty all at the same time. It definitely challenges any view of hell we’ve seen thus far in video games or cinema. It’s a shame the quality of design put into the look wasn’t put into level design.

GAMEPLAY 3/5 – Excellent battle system and upgrade system, but the level design and puzzles are rather boring for the most part.

SOUND 3.5/5 – Well done voice acting and a beautiful, but typical soundtrack that would go with any movie or game that has religious overtones to it. Think Devil’s Advocate meets the later scenes in Amadeus, and that’s the kind of soundtrack we’re dealing with. Not bad, but nothing revolutionary or self-identifying.

LASTING APPEAL 2/5 – 6 ½ hours. That’s almost an hour for every $10 spent. The Inferno mode definitely adds to the replay ability factor, but then again, that only makes the game then 13 hours after playing through twice. There’s DLC coming for it, but if it’s anything like the free DLC included with the PS3 version, we might be looking at a couple hours extra of gameplay.

And just to remind everyone on how my personal scale rates -
5: A new level of gaming that instills the feelings of playing video games for the first time, all over again.
1: E.T. On Atari would kick this games ass.

Here’s hoping for a more developed sequel, as I do believe the game has a lot of promise with more thought and time put into it. Also, now that the Inferno is over, they’re pretty much free to take this game where they want to. Again, just don’t call it Dante’s Inferno 2.

Fred is from The Black Hat Creative