Dante’s Inferno Review
Played on Xbox One (base)
Developed by Electronic Arts, Visceral Games & Behaviour Interactive
Released 4th February 2010
Within the video game industry, you often see studios try to replicate the best-selling and hottest games of their time, in an attempt to capitalise on the demand those particular genres and ideas have. While this mostly applies to multiplayer games, it can be seen with single-player experiences as well. Such an example is Dante's Inferno. God of War was already labelled as a cult classic and with the trilogy finale on its way, it seems that EA saw an opportunity and seized it with a decent amount of creativity, especially compared to their most recent efforts.
Story
The story is a melancholic and melodramatic experience, following a knight, Dante, returning from his sinful crusade to his innocent wife only to discover she has died and been taken by Lucifer due to Dante's unfaithfulness in breaking a promise. The story is almost like a Shakespearean love story of despair as you make your way through the nine circles of hell, passing by the suffering of the souls of the damned and Dante's own hell. The emphasis and weight the characters deliver during their speech are of a sombre play. Through this 10-hour journey, you're sure to see minor twists in the cutscenes, hand-drawn animation flashbacks, and CG-delivered moments of this video game adaptation of a classic piece of literature of the same name. You're also sure to see male and female nudity, over-the-top gore and certain dullness of red and brown throughout hell.
Gameplay
The gameplay delivers an experience that can be seen as a monumental inspiration from God of War but set in Christian mythology. Your main weapon of use is Death's Scythe as you can either spam light attacks, heavy attacks or mix and match. You also have a ranged option of using the Holy Cross that shoots a volley of energy at opponents. The feel of these weapons wasn't rewarding nor immersion breaking but upgrading them was fun and interesting, though not innovative. As you progress you can perform finishers on enemies; either punishing them(obliterate the opponent in gory fashion) and receive unholy EXP, increasing damage on your scythe and unlocking more offensive abilities like new combo moves and parries or absolving them(freeze the opponent to death and set their soul free), increasing your cross' damage and gaining access to upgrades like new magic and extra health.
The magic in this game can be unlocked via the skill trees or by defeating bosses that reward you with new abilities. The magic was extremely fun to use and offered some mix-up to regular combat as that sometimes got stale quite quickly, but there was nothing to fix the fact that all these magic attacks were redundant, except for two. Another part of the gameplay includes the relics; items you can equip to give you a minor edge against opponents. These ranged from having enemies not able to dodge your light attacks anymore, to increasing the unholy EXP you gained from punishing.
The parry system in this game is definitely satisfying, as it rewards you with a pleasing flawless block into a slow-mo attack of your choice. The biggest complaint I have with this game is the camera angle. At times it felt frustrating to attack or dodge due to the camera's fixed position, viewing in on the battle. Plus, with the exclusion of a lock-on system, my character would start attacking someone I don't want to and refuse to switch their point of focus unless I repositioned myself in the arena, which led to plenty of deaths. There is also a traversal system to the game (though linear), it was somewhat enjoyable in swinging past flames or climbing to a safe point, to avoid getting crushed. Overall, despite having some elements to revive the gameplay's staleness, even for a moment, it couldn't revive the whole game's repetitive flow.
Bossfights
The boss fights were one of the more enjoyable features of the game. Each boss felt great to fight, from parrying Death's attack to jumping out of Lucifer's smashing, the joy I had for fighting each ginormous boss (whether it was in their importance or actual physicality), was far from terrible. Some bosses, however, followed a monotonous pattern of attacks, that really displeased me, especially when I had high hopes for them due to their aesthetic view, of pure horror, suffering, wickedness and hell. Their attacks would either resemble the magic you'd receive from the boss or would be an easy-to-dodge attack. This became more apparent as you progress through the game: higher difficulty, lower uniquity.
Characters
The characters all speak of the dramatic tongue. Even though it is all portrayed like it was performed in a theatre, the words spoken are interesting and captivating for the sake of the story. Dante is slowly revealed to not be the knight in shining armour, and instead, a flawed and crippled man. Lucifer, well is the devil, but John Vickery portrays the character of deceit and sin incredibly well. Beatrice may be a typical damsel in distress but you discover she is more than that throughout the game. Even though it's not top-tier levels of character writing, the writers should be proud of this.
Atmosphere
I found the atmosphere to be quite mixed. Despite it having enchanting music and great audio for when you split enemies in two or decapitate a titan, the design of all levels looks bland and unappealing to the player. Understandably, it's hell and it's meant to be a red and brown splash across the screen but for a video game's sake, this should've been different. The most diversity I got from 10 hours of playtime is a blackened suicide forest, a golden brown and red tint of the walls, and a beautiful contrast between the frostbite ice and flowing lava which, unfortunately, is only present for the final boss.
Story- 8/10
Gameplay- 7/10
Bossfights- 6.5/10
Characters- 8/10
Atmosphere- 5.5/10
Good
Whether you consider it to be a cheap copy of God of War, or an attempt to switch up the conceptual foregrounds of the hack'n'slash genre, Dante's Inferno is an enjoyable title that, if it has caught your attention, I would recommend trying out.
