Dante’s Inferno Review – “Unleash your inner Inferno”
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Dante's Inferno - Review
Ever wondered what Hell would be like? Imagine the screams and cries of the tortured souls being the only sounds you could hear, their battered bodies writhing in agony and roasting on the lake of fire being the only thing you can see.
Sounds awful doesn’t it? But now imagine you have a huge scythe, the power of religion and a beautiful woman to save. . . .suddenly it seems like a place i might like to go! So, ‘Abandon all hope, ye who enter here’ and let’s see if this is a heavenly triumph or a hellish mess.
Just one of the many bosses you’ll have to overcome in the 9 circles of hell
Story – 9
The story of the game does take an awful lot from the original poem. Written by Dante Alighieri in the early 1300’s Inferno is the first of 3 parts of the poem. The characters and even most of the enemies are direct imports, although the guy’s at EA have clearly let their imaginations run riot as well and to great effect. A lot of the story and character interaction takes place in the form of flash backs to Dante’s youth and time spent fighting in the crusades, and they are shown in a nice style with the camera zooming into the cross which Dante has sown onto his chest, the cross is made up of still frames of the his life woven to look like a tapestry. The still frame on the cross expands into a lovely little cartoon explaining which part of Dante’s life is being depicted by the circle of Hell he is in or how that circle had an impact on his mortal life.
The story itself is rather good, Dante returns from the crusades to find his lover Beatrice being claimed by no other then Lucifer himself, as she promised herself to the Lord of the Flies if Dante betrayed her. While most folks would see that as a sign the relationship being over (what with her being dead, in Hell and currently dating Satan), Dante is undeterred and picks a fight with Death for allowing. After wiping the floor with Death, Dante steals his scythe (not making many friends here) and descends into Hell to reclaim his woman. The Roman poet Virgil is on hand to guide you, presumably because he feels sorry for you, and by interacting with him he will tell you what part of Hell you are in and give you information on some of the sinners and bosses in the area.
The power of Christ compels you!
Dante has not had a particularly easy life, and the further into the game you get the more you learn of him and his rather evil and sinful family and friends. Beatrice is your salvation you will realise, and to make amends for his not so great life Dante must free her from Hell and get her to paradise in Heaven and, if he can, join her there by repenting his past crimes. The story progresses at a good pace with some great characters, such as Dante’s best friends from the Crusades who dies for Dante’s crimes only to hassle him about it in Hell. Every circle of Hell is different and the story reflects this, making you feel sorry for some characters and Dante and at other times despising them for their worthless lives. All in all i like the story a lot but towards the end if feels a little rushed and once in a while I felt that it didn’t go into enough detail to engross me in the story as much as I would have liked.
Gameplay – 8
This game is very, very violent. In a good way. The gameplay revolves heavily around huge combo’s, with occasional puzzles and Prince Of Persia-esque platforming sections thrown in to spice things up once in a while. The combat is fast paced and good looking, with the scythe able to extend for some moves and become more like a whip and at other times retract so it looks more like a sword for short range stabbing attacks. You also have Beatrice’s cross to use as a weapon, it fires out white light (as seen in the picture above) and is best employed against flying enemies and to stun and knock back other beasties. You can do aerial attacks and combos as well, which can be used to devastating effect to clear out enemies in the air and those unfortunate to be beneath you. The combos are good but are nothing overly new, you will have seen similar in other titles but admittedly they are done nicely here, with you needing to switch tactics some different enemies and bosses depending on their strengths and weaknesses.
Hacking, slashing and mutilating your way through the 9 circles of Hell is entertaining and tough, with multiple enemies attacking at once and a variety of them having special abilities and attacks to contend with. There are some basic and common enemies who are little but fodder, but when combined with some of the specialist creatures can become a real pain. The demons grow and develop as the game progresses, some changing weapons and sprouting wings to give them an edge. The bosses vary also, with some being large requiring you to hurt them by picking off the bits you can reach such as hands, before entering into a mini game where you must press correct buttons as they flash up on screen to finish them. Other bosses are more similarly sized to you, and they have to be fought one on one or more often than not they will call up minions to distract you and will hit you with incredibly powerful and damaging attacks. The minions and basic enemies fit there settings nicely, with Lust throwing up warped naked women to seduce you and the forest of suicides having trees that make you kill yourself if you can’t resist them. There are also some cool giant rat like demons which you can defeat and ride to crush other evil dude’s, and use for some platforming sections. There aren’t quite enough different baddies for my liking and by the last few circles you’ll see nothing new except the bosses. This is a bit tragic as the enemies there are are really well thought through, they look great and fight well but there just isn’t enough variation.
Minos, the king of Limbo is one of the tough bosses
You can choose in this game what kind of man Dante will be while he is in Hell, and this will have a direct effect on the RPG element of the game. You will occasionally interact with characters who must be sought out and found, and you can either condemn them or absolve them. You can also do this when prompted during combat with normal enemies. Depending on whether you help these tortured souls or ensure they suffer for all eternity, you are given holy or unholy points to spend and level up with. Unholy points allow you to upgrade your scythe to unlock new combos for it, improve its effectiveness and make the spells you can earn stronger. Holy points upgrade your cross, again it’s effectiveness, size and combos can all be improved. The spells themselves aren’t all that great and I found myself forgetting about them and just using combo’s with no ill effects.
Now to discuss the biggest let down in this game; the static camera. During combat the camera is usually very well positioned and so only rarely causes you to grumble. But on the platforming and puzzle sections it can be nothing short of criminal leaving you hanging sometimes with no idea where to go and on a few other occasions having to make leaps of faith as the camera doesn’t allow you to see the next platform to jump on! The platfoming sections would be fun if it wasn’t for this but because the auto saves are not always close together so one slip that isn’t the players fault can cause you to go back quite large distances and mean you have to do a lot of fighting to get back to where you were, only to plummet off the same edge because you’re forced to make one of these blind leaps! The puzzles require a little thought but are often just a case of dragging blocks into correct positions to jump higher and the like.
Graphics and sound – 8
Limbo. . looks a bit more interesting than I would have thought
This game has a really nice look to it. It has a distinctive and varying background, with the enemies going through minor changes and wardrobe adjustments to give each circle of Hell a unique feel. The combat rolls and flows and suffers from no slow down irrelevant of how many enemies are on screen or how crazy and complex the combo’s you are using are. The nine circles each have a lovely style to them, with lust being a huge phallic pillar which you must reach the top of to progress and then there’s the super level set in the forest of suicides, with bodies hanging from every tree and others sinking wailing into foul looking bogs. The rivers of hell are detailed and imaginative with flames leaping from them and lapping the shore’s you are forced to edge across. The bosses such as Minos, pictured above, look great and incredibly warped and move with a fluid, believable motion which inspires terror in the player.
The sound effects and music of the game are really nice to, creating atmospheric and disturbing moments. The almost constant sound you hear through the game is the wailing of the damned, as they beg you for mercy and absolution or curse you and wish horrific cruelties on you. This serves to unsettle you and really gives Hell that feeling of hate and pain, exactly as it should be! The music as well rises and falls with the combat spurring you on and warning of the dangers and pains that await you. During the cut scenes the music will reflect what part of the world or underworld you are in, with the scenes of the crusades for instance being set to eastern music fitting of the time and helping to create a great ambiance. The only slight down side is one that a few of these hack and slash games suffer from, the weapons and sound effects of the enemies grow a little boring and repetitive.
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Details
Category: Arcade/ Action Adventure
Age: BBFC rated 18 Years and above
Publisher: EA Games
Heavenly
- Great story that keeps you hooked and wanting to progress.
- Nice combo’s that feel powerful and look amazing.
- Atmospheric and mood changing music.
Hellish
- Awful camera during platforming sections.
- Slightly repetitive gameplay due to not quite enough enemies.
- Game not quite like long enough and unlock able game Gates of Hell a bit dull.
Written & Reviewed by Paul Riley
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