Tom’s Opinion On Dante’s Inferno

“ABANDON ALL HOPE, YE WHO ENTER HERE…”

Such are the words of Charon, the boatman of Hell, to the poor, damned souls that enter his ferry to cross the Acheron and pay for their sins in the dark depths of hell.

Although I think that the title is a catchy line (and you’ve got to admit, it is befitting of a sign on the gates of hell…) I have to start off by saying it doesn’t apply to the game as a whole. You need not abandon all hope when playing recently released ‘Dante’s Inferno’, for it has enough to offer many a sensation-craving gamer. I know I couldn’t resist my curiosity and had to try it out, and I was not disappointed: Dante’s Inferno is by no means a bad game.

If one was to compare Dante’s Inferno to contemporary games (I won’t judge about whether or not one should) it is easy to see many similarities to that other hack-and-slash adventure game, that established one… You know, God of War. The similarities between both games are clear as day. What would be unfair, however, would be to write off Dante’s Inferno simply because it is, what some people call, ‘a GoW-Clone’.

Even though it does heavily take after the adventures of Kratos in his ancient Greece, Dante’s Inferno offers a different setting, a different theme; and in my opinion, visual design and atmosphere is one of the game’s strongest points. If you add to that the fact that GoW’s gameplay was excellent and DI’s is nearly identical, the game is more than qualified on paper, I’d say.

I was literally taken aback by the impressive scenery you encounter during the game. Not that the graphics are above any other standard; the visual design is simply nothing less than amazing. At certain points, the attention to detail is more than welcome and some scenes, such as King Minos, judging the damned souls to their respective fate, while you watch the trials from afar simply caused my jaw to drop.

Aside from this, the system is solid. There are enough moves and combo’s to be unlocked, be it melee attacks, ranged attacks or magic: it’s all there, and it’s all good. The experience system is also implemented well by giving the player a choice whether to gain Unholy experience by punishing the damned and become an merciless slayer, or gain holy experience by absolving the damned and redeeming yourself.

However, it’s not all good (is it ever?). Dante’s Inferno falls short in a few areas, and even though some of these are common within the genre, that doesn’t make them any less bad. For one, the game’s duration is extremely short and a first playthrough won’t take anyone much more than ten hours. Even if you were to play through the game twice, and even though you will most likely want to, the second playthrough will be even shorter. You pay full price for a game that provides less than a day’s worth of fun.

Another shortcoming is the lack of actual diversity. Many tricks and fights are repeatedly encountered during the game and can quickly become a bit of a routine. The game pretends to introduce new types of enemies throughout its story but more often than not they’re hardly anything more than a palette swap with maybe a new attack or feature. I’m sure most people won’t be bothered by this, but especially after playing through Dante’s Inferno twice, I certainly am.

Another missed opportunity has to do with how the game handles the ‘absolution or punishment’ question. The idea itself is okay, and works well, but there is one ‘detail’ that I really don’t understand. Throughout the game, the player has the option to judge some of the damned and decide their fate (many of which are historical or mythical people whose names will likely be recognized by some people): punishment, or absolution. One builds up Dante’s Unholy level (punishment), the other grants Holy experience. Both styles are worthwhile, however, to advance within each style and gain new skills, one needs ‘souls’ (these function as a currency of sorts). Absolving the damned grant access to a slightly mundane mini-game that nets a nice amount of bonus souls if completed correctly, whilst punishing them grants the player NO extra souls… Unfortunately, this makes punishing the damned near useless unless you only want Unholy experience, and it would have been nice if people who like to be a tad more evil would have gotten something out of punishing people like Attila or Pontius Pilate, among others. As it stands now, absolving these souls can grant the player upwards to 1200 bonus souls with which to buy new skills and gain 600 Holy experience, while punishing the damned grants the player only the 600 Unholy experience, with no souls with which to actually unlock any unholy skills…

However, each of these flaws can easily be overlooked by avid hack-and-slash fans who will more than likely enjoy the game for what it’s worth. A search for Dante’s Inferno reviews on the net quickly shows there is a reasonable division between people who like it and people who don’t; and honestly, I fully understand the majority of verdicts who consider the game to be mediocre. It cannot, and likely never will, stand up against the popularity of God of War, but little do I think it matters. True fans of the genre have nothing to complain about, after all, they get to play through double the hack-and-slash goodness.

Dante’s inferno Death Edition goes dead space

Apperently EA figured Dead Space was not popular enough so they had to include a skin of Isaac Clarke in Dante’s inferno (PS3). The “Death Edition” bundle also comes with a copy of the poem, some making-of documentaries, the soundtrack, a digital copy of The Divine Comedy and a ten minute preview of Dante’s Inferno: An Animated Epicand.

Good thing for us europeans because it will be exclusive to europe for a change. However we could assume everything becomes available to the US market as soon as the game is released in the US.