Game:

Dante's Inferno (2010)

Duration: 9:42

146 views

5

Dante's Inferno loosely follows the 14th century epic poem of the same name, and stars Dante, a crusader, who after an assassination attempt finds himself in a fight with the grim reaper, prevailing against equipping him with the scythe weapon he will uses throughout the game

The story premise pretty much reworks the original literature classic, and weaves it into a new narrative, taking themes and level ideas from the classic, but using them to tell something new. Story elements are told through cut scenes, and animated cartoon cells that remind me of the animation in the old HBO Spawn cartoon.

This game draws most of it's inspiration from God of War, even down to the attack commands on the controller. Even mechanics like holding triangle to knock enemies into the air and follow them for air combo opportunities, and using the right stick to dodge away from enemies are identical. Different from God of War, Dante does have a long-range cross attack which is useful against flying and distant enemies. When leveled up, the cross attack becomes one of the most useful, and devastating attacks in the game. There is also a redemption mode where Dante powers up to do a flurry of attacks at a faster speed and more damage similar to the devil trigger mode in Devil May Cry, the other dante.

As players progress, killing enemies gains them souls they can spend in an in-game menu to gain new moves, more life, new abilities, and more. Special relics can also be found and equipped to boost various stats and abilities in the game as well. Players can fill either the holy or unholy sides, and gain holy or unholy levels in the game by finding tortured souls they can either choose to punish them for, or absolve them of their sins. The choice is up to the player to judge.

On my first playthrough, I wasn't able to purchase all the skills on the skill tree, but beating the game opens up the option to play it again, starting out from the beginning of the game with all the skills you unlocked in your previous playthrough.

The ability to start the game with your previous skills unlocked, and work toward fully unlocking all the skills gives a reason to play through it multiple times. A very wise design choice on the part of the developer, making it feel almost pseudo-rpg esk.

The part that Visceral games nailed in the formula was the feel of combat. If you loved God of War's combat, Dante's inferno is just as equally fun in that regard. Add in the long range attacks and the redemption mode and there is a mixture God of War, and Devil may cry.

The other elements of the game like the set pieces, atmosphere, exploration/puzzle elements, enemy variety, boss fights, and storytelling are also topnotch efforts. The imagery in the game is terrifying in it's depiction of hell with some truly unsettling visual designs to the levels and enemies in the game. The disturbing backdrop of hell being the setting is done justice with the art direction, and the sound design adds to the unpleasantness of the surroundings as Dante scales walls full imprisoned souls, forever crying out for forgiveness and mercy, cries which will never be heard or answered in hell. The atmosphere is impeccable. This is truly a hopeless place. You don't want to go there.

Strangely enough, when I finally played God of War, some of my favorite parts of the game were the adventure, and exploration elements. These added a lot more depth to the game than I first assumed would be there , and the puzzle and exploration scenes in Dante's inferno are also well done and well designed, add in a varied assortment of regular enemies (some of which take their own strategies to kill) on top of visceral combat, to the exploration, and adventure elements, and you have the formula for an engrossing adventure that will pull you in from start to finish. The combat is fast, frantic, and fun, and the rest of the game around it is just as well designed.

Dante's Inferno was, smartly, released a month before God of War 3 hit on the PS3, and for PS3 owners this game would have been another great way to satiate their appetite until the big one hit. However, for Xbox 360 owners who chose that system as their upgrade path from the PS2 who were God of War fans, this game would have been a godsend, filling that God of War void for them. While the 360 has some similar games in it's library, I would say the PS3 library is by far more competitive now, having every God of War game up to that point remastered and released for the system, God of War 3, Ascension, and even games like Heavenly Sword competing for your attention if you are collecting for the system today. Not to mention similar ish games like Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden, and Bayonetta. However, even amongst that god-tier level of competition Dante's inferno is worth playing in my humble opinion.

#dantesinferno #ps3games #godofwar

Other Statistics