You know what’s not adapted into games enough? 14th Century Florentine poetry. I mean we get movies adapted fairly often, and even games based on books aren’t completely unheard of. But poetry? We hardly ever see that. 14th Century Florentine poetry is even less well represented, with one notable exception – Dante’s Inferno.
To be fair, the game may not be the most accurate representation of its source material. In fact, actual professors weighed in to rage against the way the game had altered key elements, centring their complaints around the game’s representation of Beatrice as a damsel in distress.
Despite the divergence from the source material, Alex was fairly fond of the title, rating it at 8/10 in our review. Starting things off with the obvious comparison, he commented that “Dante’s Inferno has successfully taken a swipe at Kratos and Bayonetta with a deft swing of Death’s scythe.” Both the God of War series and Bayonetta set a very high water mark for the hack and slash genre, so even attempting to hit their standard is impressive.
However, that’s not to say the game is without its problems. Alex complained that “the combat is repetitive ad nauseum, the morality choices hardly game affecting and, despite being a linear experience there’s some odd signposting on occasion and exploration is limited,” all of which are a serious drag on a game. In particular, repetitive combat in a hack and slash game can really ruin your enjoyment.
Fortunately, there was plenty of other things that raised the game up. Alex plucked out “the sense of scale in the delightfully detailed visuals as you make your way through the various stages,” as a highlight, as well as the way the game’s progression mechanics draw “you in with the promise of better power-ups and more impressive abilities”.
Returning to the earlier comparison to other titles in the genre, here’s what Alex had to say when wrapping up his thoughts:
So, whilst God Of War might have a little more muscle, and Bayonetta much more style, Dante’s unholy mission and constant, unweilding toil give the game just enough distinctive qualities to warrant a purchase for fans of the genre. There’s nothing terribly clever about the game, but it’s a wickedly tasteless ride through the mind of a developer keen to escape the confines of the slow, claustrophobia of Dead Space. Not essential, but bloody good fun.
Sounds pretty positive overall, and it’s always nice to have games that are simply “bloody good fun.” However, it’s not my opinion that counts here, it’s yours. If you’ve played Visceral’s 2010 entry into the hack and slash genre then now is your time to shine.
If you feel like sharing your opinions on the game with the wider world, all you need to do is drop a comment below. Once you’ve done that, we do ask that you include a rating from the Buy It, Bargain Bin It, Rent It, Avoid It scale, simply picking which of the four categories best sums up your attitude towards the Hell based adventure. We’ll round up everyone’s thoughts in Monday’s Verdict article, meaning you’ve got until Sunday evening to get your thoughts down.
Nylon_Angel
good story, good looking cut scenes and I enjoyed the game play, even though it got a bit repetitive by the end.
Bargain bin it
Forrest_01
It’s morbid, dirty & twisted. Everything i look for in a game.
Although the combat was described as repetitive, i actually found it no less repetitive than its GoW predecessor & found the story much much more intriguing, which carried me through.
Buy it (its cheap enough these days).
cam_manutd
Dante’s Inferno is a gamers game. It has flaws, inaccuracies with its source material and is undeniably similar to God of War as one of the lead designers on the game headed up Dante. However, Dante’s Inferno is fresh, viscerally entertaining and creative. Its visuals while not as shiny as its model game GOW has very creative visuals. Dante can manoeuvre walls with the damned screaming out to an end to their punishment.
Sure it has its flaws and similarities but Dante’s Inferno is a visceral hack and slash. With a decently paced story and some satisfying combat, some have already cited this as being easier to play than GoW for its shouty ballsiness. Its not original but it is as sure as hell (pun intended) fun, decently paced and more importantly-cheap. Buy it. If you have PS+ then download the trial and give that a go-or the demo which is also pretty fun also.
blackredyellow
Echoing what others have written, the game has a wonderful atmosphere as you hack and slash your way down into the depths of the inferno.
Whilst the option to choose to ‘Absolve’ or ‘Punish’ certain enemies didn’t directly affect the storyline, it was interesting to play the role of God – to decide right from wrong.
The final stages were perhaps a little lazy, going from one ‘challenge room’ to the next, with a little too convenient save points inbetween. It just felt as though everything had been flowing nicely with some good cutscenes leading you along, and then… oh it’s finished.
All in all, the game is great and I enjoyed it, twice. At the price you can get it now – BUY IT.
Phizzy
I thought this game was alright up until I got to a point where it autosaved when I was one hit away from death. The following section had no health pick-ups (or whatever the system was), and my choices were either attempt to become the greatest gamer of all time or restart and try again from the beginning. I chose option C: Put the game back in the skip I found it in.
Avoid it.
Scythegpd
We’re not copying God of War. We’re using a blank template. Promise. Look, we’ve put the challenge of the gods … cough … we mean Dante’s challenge … in the game as a requirement not as an optional extra. Because everyone loves the challenge of the go … damn … Dante’s challenge so you should HAVE to beat it to beat the game.
Oh and look, God of War has red and green and blue orbs, WE have different colour orbs … actually, do we … pretty sure we do … I forget!
Basically they did everything short of calling it Dante’s God Inferno of War, I’ve never seen such a blatant rip-off/clone of another game in my +30 years.
Although the caveat to that is this: Do you enjoy God of War? If so you’ll enjoy Dante’s Inferno as it’s pretty much the same game. I like to think of Dante’s Inferno as the poor-mans God of War, the Robin (pre-Arkham City) to GoW’s Batman. Not as cool, not as refined, doesn’t have the polish or the gadgets or the kick-ass skills. But still associated to one of the best superheroes around.
If the God of War’s and Dante’s Inferno went to a costume party Dante’s Inferno would go dressed as Aquaman.
Rent it (or even better, do what they did to God of War, blatantly copy it while protesting your innocence)
blackredyellow
Haha! Had a good laugh at that :)
Unterred
BUY IT!! Epic gripping story, fantastic atmosphere and really well worked boss fights. I loved this game even though the later levels weren’t as impressive as the beginning levels and were a bit too samey taken as a block after level
The action is repetitive as Alex said in the original review but the story drives you along to the end with excellent cut scenes and really nice collectibles in the form of canned historical figures from the past. The whole dedication to the original poem and to biblical stories kept me interested and it’s one of only 3 games I have got a platinum for on PS3 because it was very rare in that I didn’t really mind giving it a second play through on the hardest difficulty and actually quite enjoyed it.
It obviously is inspired by God of War but the story for this is much better for me. BUY IT!
Unterred
*Samey after level 5
MadBoJangles
Was it a blatant rip off of Kratos’ adventures? Yup.
Was it any good? Yup, not great, but not bad at all.
Was it as good as God of War? Not in my opinion.
Would I play it again? Doubt it.
Does it have gratuitous nakedness and violence? – Yup.
Bargain bin it :)
nightdc
Buy It- I loved it so much I played it through about 6 times to collect everything.
My only question is where is the sequel this game needs the story finishing and it was way better than god of war 3.