I first played Dante's Inferno via downloading the demo off Xbox live, and I quickly dismissed it as a simple God of War clone, and never though about it again until I picked up the PS3 version at Gamestop over a decade later. When I finally got around to playing it, intending to put up a simple gameplay sample of the game, I realized there was an issue when two hours of time had already passed. I was completely drawn into this game.
While Dante's Inferno is very much a God of War clone, even down to the control setup, and the many Quick Time events, Visceral Games put enough spin on the formula to make Dante's inferno it's own unique experience that is just as engrossing to play as the God of War series.
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
After the fight, Dante travels home only to find out find out that his beloved wife Beatrice has been murdered, and taken by the devil thanks to a wager she made with the prince of the air. This sees Dante following her to the gates of hell, and beyond, heading deeper, and deeper into the bowels of hell. Abandon all hope, ye who enter these gates.
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.
Imagine the underworld levels in God of War, but stretched into an entire game, filled with dire spectacles of suffering in a place of no hope, and no escape. The atmosphere and visuals designs are unnerving, and yet create the desired effect that gives visual representations to the kind of images the classical poem alluded to, but could only exists in the imaginations of those who read it, or those who ponder what suffering for an eternity in hell would look like.
As stated, 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.
Most of the the footage here is from my second playthrough of the game as I was so drawn into it, I didn't think to record my first run though. 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.
It's impossible to talk about this game without bringing up God of War a lot, because the game is is a blatant God of War clone. It's set-pieces are smaller in scale than God of War, but still impressive in their size and scope, but overall, the entire feel of the game is blatantly God of War. This however, isn't a bad thing thing, because the formula it copies is still as enthralling as ever. If you are a God of War fan, Dante's inferno will be right up your alley. However, if you were never a fan of God of War, Dante's inferno won't be for you either.
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 game has it's own feel with some new elements added like purchasing new combos, using the variety of relics you find, and acquiring, using and upgrading the magic spells you gain throughout the game. The combat in the game is the star of the show, and is some of the most enthralling of it's kind for games of this type. As you play, you get the feeling that Dante is every bit as much of a badass as Kratos or, well, the other Dante. The combat feel is outstanding in this game, and thanks to purchasing more combos and abilities, gains more depth the more you play.
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.
The disturbing imagery goes beyond the level designs to the character designs themselves. The game has quite a bit of nudity in it. This game definitely out-boobs God of War, but the Cleopatra boss fight, which I will not be showing footage of takes it to a disturbing level, and not because of the nudity aspect. For those who haven't played this game, I am sure you can find footage of this boss fight to see what I am talking about. The rest of you know what I am alluding too. Some things cannot be unseen once seen. Combine the gore, the unsettling art designs, and nudity, and you have a game that very much earned it's mature rating.
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.
The boss fights range from slugfests you can cheese your way out of to very formulaic in nature. Some bosses follow strict patterns with small openings to do damage, while others are slug-fests where you have to look for visual clues to dodge or block certain attacks before they unleash them on you. I do like that these fights are both-and, and not either or. Some bosses even have a mixture of both strict patterns. The boss fights are well thought out, and well designed, and as with other games of this ilk, can be incredibly frustrating until you learn those patterns. If you die repeatedly, the game will let you lower the difficulty mid-game if in case you are struggling.
I played my first playthrough on the second difficulty up from easy, and I didn't finally concede to lowering the difficulty until the final boss fight. My second run through with a more powered up Dante was a lot easier, so I actually do suggest playing your first run on the easiest difficulty to level Dante up before trying one of the higher difficulty levels in the game. It's probably not impossible to play your first run on the hardest difficulty, but you won't see me attempting it.
Dante's inferno also does something that I have accepted as a thing in God of War, and games like it, something I think is fine for story games like Shenmue, and that work in classic games like Dragon's Lair and Parappa the Rappa, and that's the addition of quick time events. I have always hated quick time events being infused in games. Again, I have accepted them in God of War, and even Dante's inferno, because the rest of the experience is so good. I've never thought they added to the games, they're just kind of there. I've never seen them as something that improves the experience, I mostly see them as a negative, however, in games where the rest of the experience makes up for it, I can tolerate them.
That being said, especially in modern games that throw them into cutscenes, and in parts of the gameplay they don't belong, I detest them. I find them to be stagnant, lazy design that needs to hit the dustbin of gaming history and never be brought out again. I have stopped playing whole games because of quick time events. In some games they are tolerable, however, the vast majority of modern games that are still using this stagnant design idea to create cheap deaths, or make sure we are paying attention to their yawn-inducing overdone, poorly-written narrative cut-scenes developers waste extra millions of dollars infusing into their games, they aren't a needed gimmick. How about save your money on the story elements, and design some better games? Too much to ask, I know.
The Quick time events are just kind of there for me, not great, but not a big complaint. My only other complaint for this game are the carpel-tunnel inducing mechanics to do things like open doors. After hours of play, my forearm was aching from this game, however, I later realized that you don't always have to mash the buttons like this game was mega man.
There was also a later scene in the game that didn't jive well, a scene that was sort of a gauntlet where you had to kill a certain amount of enemies using specific attacks. To the game's credit, there is a save point after every trial, but on my first playthrough, I struggled a lot to pass this scene. I killed it on my second playthrough, but trying to kill a hundred enemies with one continuous combo almost halted my progress in the game. Overall, this is the only scene I didn't like in the game. The rest of the game flowed just fine.
Graphically, the game looks good. It's not on the same level as God of War 3, but the visual design shines, and the game looks good overall. The music is also fantastic, and fits the action well with it's epic nature, and even in the parts where there is no music, the ambient sounds fit the unsettling mood of the game perfectly. The sound effects in combat are beefy and hard-hitting, and the voice acting is exemplary. This game looks good, plays great, and sounds great. Visceral games delivered on all fronts here.
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.
The bottom line: If you're a God of War fan, you owe it to yourself to play and enjoy Dante's inferno. The entire experience from the visual design, engaging combat, storytelling, and adventure elements combine to form an excellent God of War clone. It may not surpass God of War overall, but Visceral games put enough polish on the game to make it close to being on par with the games it imitates. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with this game, and played through it multiple times, and I trust this game will also draw those willing to give it a shot in the same way. An engrossing, unsettling, and enjoyable game. A divine game.
Comments