Making a game about the “The Divine Comedy” would never of been an easy task, yet Visceral Games have done just that, well at least the first part of “The Divine Comedy” with “Dante’s Inferno” even though we can say the game doesn’t quite stick to the Poem this doesn’t mean it’s not good, Far from it as Visceral Games take on “Dante’s Inferno” is somewhat of an action adventure/hack n Slash game.
You play as Dante, a Knight in the king’s crusade which starts off with you being attacked by the prisoner’s that you have kept locked up, and you are given a brief tutorial of the combat and controls; X= light Attack, Y= heavy attack, Right stick= Dodge, Left trigger= Block B= Beatrice’s Holy Cross [which you don’t get until later] after you get to grips with the controls you are confronted by Death and told you and your loved one’ will suffer for your sin’s.
Well as most people who have actually read the “The Divine Comedy” would know Dante was not a Knight he was a 13th century Italian poet. But then if they had stuck to the Poem then we think we would have some rather confused Gamers’ on our hands as it’s not easy to understand let alone put into a game. Any way this is the direction Visceral Games went and as we said it’s not a bad direction by any means, as we said Death appears and Dante refuses to allow his beloved Beatrice to be punished, and this starts off Dante’s quest for Revenge, Redemption and maybe even Forgiveness as he traverse’s the 9 Circle’s of Hell.
And over the course of the game you keep, meeting up with The Roman poet Virgil who will read parts of the poem and guide you through the Inferno.
“they had their faces twisted toward their haunches
and found it necessary to walk backward,
because they could not see ahead of them.
…and since he wanted so to see ahead,
he looks behind and walks a backward path
The combat in “Dante’s Inferno” is not quite up there with the likes of God Of War or Ninja Gaiden but it’s still satisfying none the less, we never got tired of punishing people ok we did absolve some sinner’s you can upgrade Deaths Scythe or Beatrice’s holy cross these paths are classed as Unholy/Holy. You do this by using the soul’s you have set free, dammed or killed. We went for the unholy path on our first play through, and then finished off the Holy path on our second.
The combat can get quite fast and even on the Normal setting we found the game to be quite a challenge at some points especially at the trial’s later on in the game, there are QTE’s in the game usually during the Boss fights or when you’ve damaged an enemy enough to pull these move’s off Now this is one area where “Dante’s Inferno” lets it slip as some of the enemies don’t have this option they don’t even allow you to do different move’s to them i.e. you can’t grab them then; punch/throw etc as once you damaged them enough you can only either punish/Absolve them which was a shame really.
You can do juggle combo’s which you’ve come to expect from these’s type’s of game’s you even get to ride some of hells beast’s which open’s some good opportunities during combat But again some parts of it felt a bit let down, as you can tell “Dante’s Inferno” could of done with some more move’s or even some Different weapon’s as you go through the whole game with Death’s Scythe/Beatrice’s Holy Cross.
But then as we said this is Visceral Games Vision on the Inferno and on some parts it looks’s amazing and others not so much. after Visceral Games did Dead Space you’d expect quite the high standards from them, well it is here in some area’s but it still does lack polish, especially the platforming sections got to say though there vision of some things is Bizarre as we could never look at another woman’s……. the same again or baby’s too!
Each area of the Inferno is different to the next and is done quite well yet we couldn’t help but feel as though it could have been more to it but then maybe Visceral Games had to be careful and not to go too far, Dante’s Inferno will last around 10hrs+ on the default difficulty but beyond that there is not much to make you go back unless you want to max out both unholy/holy, There is going to be some DLC in the form of Forest pack which really should have been in the game, and a co-op challenge/editor pack. But will people keep the game for these or will the move on to God of War 3 or maybe something else.
Overall Dante’s Inferno is a good game and that’s it yes it’s fun but memorable? No it’s a guilty pleasure, it’s a game you play and enjoy but you won’t think too much of your journey through the Inferno [the 9 circles of hell] once it is over, but we will say it’s is going to be good to see what Visceral Games does for Purgatory/Purgatorio.
PRO’s:
- Combat System
- Story
- Nice References to Alighieri’s “Divine Comedy”
- Boss Battle’s
CON’s:
- Weak Platforming Sections
- Only One Weapon?
- Could Of Been Much More
