Dante’s Inferno Review: To Hell And Back

Written by 2.o | March 2, 2010

Dante's Inferno

Hell is a place that many different mediums have explored; movies, television, and comic books frequently venture to Catholicism’s home of eternal damnation. However, it’s a rich setting that hasn’t really been fully explored in video games, until now. Based on the classic poem by Dante Alighieri, “Dante’s Inferno” (the game) from EA, gives gamers the opportunity to step into the role of Dante as he journeys to the deepest sanctum of Lucifer to save his beloved. To steal a line from the marketing material, gamers can finally go to Hell.

The first thing that most players are going to notice after only a few minutes of “Dante’s Inferno” is that this game is very similar to “God of War,” and, to be fair, it is. However, as you progress through the game you’ll soon realize that, yes there are similarities in the gameplay, but there are enough elements of the game that set it apart from Sony’s go-to franchise that, whether you’re a fan of “God of War” or not, it’s still surprisingly fun and a deep experience. It’s not worth counting it out just because some of the gameplay is derivative.

Dante's Inferno

Okay, with that out of the way, “Dante’s Inferno” still isn’t perfect. At its heart it’s your standard hack-n-slash, which inherently has problems built in, and this game doesn’t do much to improve on them. The camera is fixed on Dante wherever he is, and most of the time that’s great, but every now and then you’ll be caught off guard with a sneak attack from off camera that throws you off entirely. It’s really an issue that can only be solved by repositioning the camera, or unlocking it – both of which would lead to other problems. Additionally, like most other hack-n-slashers, this game can be mastered in only a matter of minutes by simply learning which button to spam, for all 10 – 15 hours of the game; just keep hitting X or Y and you’ll be good.

And then there’s the plot. I went to a Jesuit college where “Dante’s Inferno” was virtually required reading for the entire school. Personally, I was assigned (but didn’t necessarily read) the book in a class where the best part was the name; “Evil, Vice, and Sin.” While my eyes may have not examined every word of the epic poem, I still sat through classes on it, and I’m aware of just how many liberties EA took with the game, and, while I understand that some parts needed to be tweaked to actually make it into a game, the poem had such a rich story and setting that it didn’t need to be tweaked that much. Additionally, Dante didn’t necessarily need to be turned into the ultimate bad-ass just to make him appealing to gamers, granted most players might not have been thrilled to play a game as a poet, but giving him a giant scythe and a magic cross made me feel like they took just a little too much poetic license with this poem.

Dante's Inferno

Beyond its shortcomings, “Dante’s Inferno” most definitely got a few things right. The controls are tight all around, creating an overall good experience when controlling Dante, whether he’s climbing on a wall or fighting a giant demon. The addition of Beatrice’s Cross made for a refreshing break of spamming since it offers a welcome ranged attack. However, towards the end of the game, the Cross tends to become quite powerful, and can allow Dante to dominate from across the screen, taking over for the scythe as the primary weapon.

The way that the Cross becomes too powerful is actually another highlight; the game’s leveling system. As Dante progresses through the game, he will have the option to absolve or punish souls, forcing him to take the high road, or the low road in his trip through Hell. While there are no real benefits to choosing one over the other, they each unlock different upgrades for Dante – punishing opens up unholy upgrades, and absolving opens up holy upgrades. The game uses souls, which are harvested from the enemies that he kills, as currency to purchase each power up throughout the game. Overall, it’s a very basic system, but it forces to player to make consciences choices about how they want to play the game, and what they want to unlock.

Dante's Inferno

Dante’s trip through the nine circles of the Inferno have him facing off against some of the most grotesque and disturbing imagery ever portrayed in a video game courtesy of developer Visceral Games, and for that I applaud them. The dev team also did a great job recreating Dante’s Hell, creating a disturbing place, with twisted characters at every corner, even though they did reimagine quite a bit of it. Both the character and set design are inspired, and it really made the game an upsetting and even alarming place to play. From the babies with blades for hands to the gluttons with mouths for hands (notice at least one theme?) the enemies deserve a special mention in this game. On the same note, the designers also handled the game’s large scale very well, going from on the ground battles to huge panning shots of the City of Dis smoothly. And that’s just the backgrounds. The boss battles with enemies hundreds of times Dante’s size added quite well to the overall experience.

Dante's Inferno

Overall, “Dante’s Inferno” is a fun game, and a solid “God of War” substitute for any Xbox 360 gamer that doesn’t also own a PS3. While the overall quality of the “adaptation” is a bit suspect, since it only loosely relates to the source material, it can still be overlooked. As the game continues on into the deeper circles of Hell, it the gameplay does get a bit repetitive, as you fight very similar enemies over and over again, but it’s still worth the trip, and who knows, you might actually learn something along the way.

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“Dante’s Inferno” was developed by Visceral Games and published by EA for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on February 9, 2010. This review is based on the Xbox 360 version of the game.