Dante’s Inferno – The MMOMFG Review

Posted by Dustin On February - 12 - 2010

Dante’s Inferno

With the gates of Hell opened, Dante must enter a struggle far more deadly and sinful than even the Crusades that landed him in his eternal damnation. Dante’s Inferno is the new IP of EA and Visceral Games, a wonderful mixed breed of action/adventure and hack-and-slash set in the retched underbelly of the nine circles of Hell. As Dante, a cross between hero and anti-hero, players must guide the lost soul on a journey to save his beloved Beatrice, a condemned soul who sacrificed her own spirit for Dante’s safety during war. Unfaithful during his journeys, Dante damns Beatrice into an eternal pact with the one true demon himself, Lucifer. Players are immediately thrust into action where equal parts God of War and Darksiders shine through in a truly gorgeous setting.

The title is roughly based upon the classic poem, Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. Players guide Dante, not Virgil through the bowels of damnation and further on towards redeeming both Beatrice and their own souls. Does Dante’s Inferno deliver up to the expectations of a AAA-title, redeeming itself from the accusations of a God of War clone, saving its own soul and scoring high with MMOMFG? Read on young soul as I, Virgil, will guide you to your decision of purchasing, renting, or damning the title back to its spot on the game store shelf.

What’s Good

Nine Circles of Beauty: The first thing you’ll notice in Dante’s graphics from the moment you turn the title on, is the stunning beauty put into each item in the game. Throughout playing the game, I was forced to sit back and admire the gorgeous detail put into each and every level. The amount of style delivered by Wayne Barlow, artistic genius, was enough to make a second playthrough called for. From vomiting heathens to demonic, unbaptized babies with sword arms, no details was left untouched and I can safely say that Dante’s Inferno is one of the most visually stunning titles of the past few years. Whether you think Hell looks insanely impressive or amazingly frightening, we can all agree it is damn near perfection of art. When I was on the Lust level and I came across the penis-shaped statues, I couldn’t help but laugh at the detail and thought put into these circles of Hell.

Familiar yet rewarding controls: Gamers continue to throw out comparisons to one of the most successful action/adventure series of the past 20 years, God of War, however, Dante’s Inferno emulates the key controls schemes, adding in its own finishing touches. Fatalities are nothing new, but the quick button action sequences leave you feeling like you’re in control and even gamers who typically fat-finger the keys, should find solace in the fact that gameplay controls are forgiving and intuitive. Combat in the air, on the ground, or even while repelling or shimmying across a demon’s spine, are equally challenging and rewarding. The ability to ride on the backs of giant beast monsters, pummeling the ground and stomping the S out of the baddies is just one other plus.

This epic sure is EPIC: Visceral Games and EA have taken a classic poem, one scrutinized for years and put their own twist on it, making it yet again a scrutinized piece of intellectual property. Dante Alighieri should not be rolling over in his grave simply by what some may claim as blasphemy. Wasn’t that what was said of the original poem anyway? To get to my point, this game offers a number of nice features like relics, items found throughout the game that provide specific buffs to the Dante’s skills, defenses, and offensive abilities. In addition to relics, the ability to collect souls (currency) by destroying the damned (going Unholy) or redeeming the tormented (playing Holy). Each specific tree, Holy or Unholy, leads players to abilities, attacks, and spells that provide different benefits in the style of gameplay. Going Unholy, which is the decision I made, meant I was able to destroy the souls of the damned, forever leaving them in Hell, their eternal resting place. Playing Unholy granted the ability to learn more abilities to increase my scythe’s strength and allot me added power to specific magic abilities found later in the game.

Choosing to play as the light side, Holy, allows Dante buffs to his cross abilities and healing benefits, increasing the strength of his ranged combat talents. Through my first completion of the title, I mainly focused on playing as evil, so I did not get a chance to reach the full power of the Holy tree yet. However, during the start of my second playthrough, I have noted that going light has made it easy to keep enemies at bay with his ranged abilities, and having raised the difficulty in game, this is a welcome bonus. No matter how you play, either side allots the gamer the abilities to go either direction at any given point, or both trees simultaneously, which can make for an unstoppable force.

I am Dante, damn you, damn you all to Hell: Throughout playing the title, you’ll come across souls that are trapped, where you are able to redeem them or damn them. The amazing thing about this, is that each spirit is one that is famous in history, either found in the Divine Comedy, or through biblical reference. The settings, the bosses, the epic struggle of good versus evil, you should know of these names and importance in literary reference and be impressed with the game’s collection of each. When coming across these spirits, background is provided on each, whether it be Hector, Cleopatra and Mark Antony, Cereberus, Francesca da Polenta, Atilla or even Lucifer, himself. The boss fights are with recognizable characters typically referenced in Hell and whether you’re flailing against King Minos, severing Cereberus’ heads, or staring down Death itself, you feel the intensity. The sheer collection of literary or historical references found in Dante’s Inferno prove Visceral Games and EA didn’t half-ass this title. Loosely following the poem, Dante’s journeys through the Circles of Hell, Limbo, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Anger, Heresy, Violence, Fraud and Treachery, lead him further into the pits of despair, where only the strongest of players will find refuge for Dante’s soul. Are you up to the task? Hell yes.

I want more, more, more: Am I committing the sin of greed, gluttony and sloth by wanting more Dante’s content? Damn you for judging me. That being said, the Ultimate Edition of Dante’s Inferno for the PS3 provided a number of added bonuses like the soundtrack, complete digital works of Alighieri, additional bonus features like videos and a Wayne Barlow digital art book. Both the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the title will be getting additional DLC (downloadable content) with two current pieces of DLC planned for the upcoming months. Dark Forest, a prologue level for the title is expected for release shortly, and Trials of St. Lucia, featuring cooperative gameplay, a new character, and a game-editor with the ability to create levels, challenges and share them with your friends, will be released on April 29. Beyond just this DLC, EA added an insert into both the PS3 and Xbox 360 packages showing upcoming DLC highlighting purchasable soul packs, a poet costume, animated feature film costume, new in-game abilities and the prequel level and Trials of St. Lucia pack. Having just beaten the game and only pausing to write now before jumping back into the fray, can you tell that I want/need more Dante’s Inferno? If you can’t tell, the answer is yes. Give me more Dante’s Inferno!

What’s Bad

It does feel a bit too familiar: I can rave on and on about the controls and feel of the game, but the only real situation here is that it has all been done before. God of War paved the way for titles like Dante’s Inferno and Darksiders to be where they are today. This is no fault of THQs or Visceral Games, but at times, Dante’s felt like a direct port of GoW. Having just beaten God of War recently, I was reminded of just how much it feels similar. Every hack-and-slash title at times will share a common feel, but Dante’s Inferno nearly plays just like an old friend. Just because it is a new IP with a new story, a majority of the game feels borrowed.

The only branching out I’ll be doing is when I quit playing: The story is laid out for from the beginning. Save the girl, save your soul, win. No complaints here. However, from the second you enter the play, you are locked in a path heading straight to your final maker. There is no variation in paths you can take, no hidden passages, keys to skip sequences or even the ability to generally skip in-game cut-scenes. Your ass belongs to Lucifer and he is going to make you take the road often traveled, at least that is if you play the game twice. I’m excited to try the game again playing Holy, with the ability to utilize my previously gained abilities in Resurrection mode, but I do know going in I’ll be following the exact same paths, facing the same monsters and utilizing all the same techniques. No real variation in the game, which can lead to some frustration and perhaps putting the title away until the add-on DLC comes out. This is highlighted by the Arena mode of Hell found after you beat the title. Wave after wave of enemies will come and your task is to survive the onslaught, but also build up additional time by not losing health, or redeeming or damning souls. I played through about 45 waves, roughly an hour or so of gameplay, and finally realized that this was boring and I wasn’t really enjoying it. I let my character get killed, simply because there is no real reward for getting further, other than collecting more souls to buy abilities. I can gain those from playing through the game again, which is better than holding off dumb waves of the same enemies over and over. Mix it up a bit Visceral!

This camera work is pissing me off: As much as I loved the title, the camera angles frustrated and bugged out enough to frustrate me into putting the game down for a few hours. You are limited in when and where the camera will shift, so at times, you’ll die specifically from the camera not moving quickly enough with your character. That is crazy! Enough effort was put into the graphics, that they couldn’t just added the ability to adjust the camera around your character, or at least span the camera in situations where you don’t feel locked to your determined locations and paths. You are also looking for hidden routes to find additional condemned souls and they don’t really make it easy for you to find all of them unless you wildly guess and jump, at times to your death, in random locations. Fix the cameras, get a near perfect score from me.

I feel like I’ve pushed these buttons before: As I mentioned in my Darksiders review, I tend to play to my strengths in games. If I want to beat something quicker, I’ll find my favorite combo and exploit it to the point where I’ll be so overpowered, the enemies won’t touch me. Fun if you’re wanting to blow through a game, but not fun when you’re mashing L2 and Square over and over, or LT and X nonstop. The fights became repetitive where additional waves come pouring out of the ground or from the sky and it isn’t until you’ve spent three minutes or so fending them off that the next path opens up towards another Circle of Hell. Mix up the combat, add in additional combos or combos that combine scythe and cross attacks and you’ve got a whole new dynamic.

Worth Remembering:
Dante’s Inferno is a journey into what is enjoyable about hack-and-slash titles. You guide a hero, or anti-hero at times, through the bowels of despair where only you can determine your own fate. Coming across amazingly gorgeous CGI/Anime style cinematics that tell the story of Dante’s twisted path towards damnation, you feel engrossed in the story from scene 1. The game delivers on the core fundamentals of action titles, building off of a classic tale of good and evil, and by the end you feel a part of the history when facing off against Lucifer.

Worth Forgetting:
The game feels repetitive at times and levels have their own pitfalls that might frustrate, disappoint and downright piss you off, but it should all be taken with a grain of salt. Looking past the claims of copy-cat and uninspired story-telling, which don’t ring true after completion of the title, you’re left with a solid title. The only real gripe one can have is if you own only an Xbox 360 and have to pay the same price as PS3 owners, but don’t receive any of the perks that the Divine Edition is loaded with. Why marketing decisions like this get made are beyond me, but 360 owners should have equal access, as well. Luckily I have both systems…

Dante’s Inferno is easily one of my top titles for the year and I can safely say I will be enjoying it for months to come. The storytelling, artwork, graphics, cinematics, voice acting and gameplay all awarded the player, me, with a game that I’ve been telling friends and family about for days. The journey through the title is a rewarding one and upon completion, you feel like you should do it all over again. My hat is off to EA and Visceral Games for taking and recreating an idea as famous as the Divine Comedy and making it something original and special. Having been originally told to Go To Hell, I guess I’ll be heading back now for a second dip in the lava. Our suggestion? Go buy it for PS3 or Xbox 360, you won’t be damned if you do.

*This title was purchased for review on the PlayStation 3 console. All images are property of EA and Visceral Games