It’s not very often that I actually read/listen to someone’s review of a game and then buy it. I prefer the age old trick of going into a shop/online/shop/asking people, looking at the games available and deciding for myself if I’d like the game or not. At heart, I’ve always been a platformer, going back to the original Mario games on the NES (yes I’m that cool, I still own a working NES) through to Ratchet and Clank: A Crack In time on the PlayStation 3 (and various others along the way). I never really got hooked into the whole “mass media hype” about games, though I do sometimes cave to pressure, with Soul Caliber 2 being the one time I actually remember doing it (PSM gave it 10/10 so I bought it). I tend to go into a shop, look at the games, read the back and buy them. Then maybe play them a while later, after I’ve finished whichever other game I’m playing. Dante’s Inferno though is almost an exception to this rule. After reading/watching the review by Zero Punctuation (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/1472-Dantes-Inferno) I decided to spend some of my precious student loan on a nearly new copy of the game.....ok so it was technically second-hand but I bought it shortly after its release,
Dante’s Inferno is originally a poem based upon the Italian poet Dante's view of hell (inferno being Italian for Hell). The circles relate to the seven deadly sins, with some extras thrown in for good measure. Dante’s Inferno the game is a basic (VERY basic) hack’n’slash game. The game is set in the 12th Century, with you controlling Dante, an Italian with a strangely American accent. You guide him through the 9 circles of hell in search for his beloved Beatrice who was killed and dragged into the underworld after he betrayed her....or something. While travelling through Hell, you are given explanations for the various circles by Virgil, a Roman poet who was condemned for....something or other, whilst all the while rescuing or condemning various others for their sins in return for a collection of souls, which allows you to upgrade your weapon(s) and gain further attacks....most of which you’ll never use. You start the game by defeating various townsfolk(!) with a halberd, and then you take on Death and, after defeating him, gain control of his scythe. This then becomes your main weapon, giving you a light and a strong attack, though you’ll probably only ever use the light attack as the strong attack is almost useless unless you have ample time, as enemies simply attack you whilst you’re winding up to strike. Good development and design there.
The gameplay itself is fairly simply, which I have to say does work rather well for the most part. You button-bash the light attack for close enemies and wipe them out, and use your Cross attack on flying or distant enemies and wipe them out. Having this cross does almost defeat the object of having any other attack as the Cross attack is free and does about the same damage as a scythe attack. Again, good design there(!). Whilst ignoring the cross to some extent, the scythe does have its own features. Pressing R2 allows you to use the scythe like a lasso and drag enemies close to you, allowing you to punish or absolve them, both giving a small amount of experience. Whilst discussing experience, it would be useful here to point out that there actually 2 experience trails, holy and unholy. As you’d expect, each has their own upgrades, giving better abilities, increased scale of the health bar, etc. Whereas with most games this would lead to a different ending or a different character bio or some super ability, in Dante’s Inferno there is none of this. Simply a different set of abilities and attacks. Works for me though, I enjoy seeing my enemies being smashed into the ground with a dizzying array of attacks.
As much as I do enjoy it, there are a couple of things that really do bug me about the gameplay. One of them is Quick-Time Events (QTE). As much as these are useful in breaking up the gameplay and do provide some nicely dramatic cut scenes, they come as a bit of a shock. You’ll be watching a cut-scene and all of a sudden you have to press a button or you die. The first couple of times they appeared I simply stared from my controller to the screen and back trying to work out what the hell had just happened and why I had to do everything all over again. After a while you get used to them and soon realise that when taking on certain enemies, there’s always the same combination in exactly the same order in exactly the same time frame. Which does get slightly old. And boring. The other thing that REALLY bugs me is when taking on one of the demons, a woman with a giant tentacle/snake-thing where her genitals should be, it is IMPOSSIBLE to block one of her attacks. She darts about around you then jumps in and slashes, at which point you cannot block or dodge. No matter how quickly you press the block or dodge button, you will not move until she’s knocked you down and is bouncing around you again. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for there being things you cannot control, ‘adding’ to the difficulty, but it does get incredibly annoying on the higher difficulty levels when her slashes take half your freaking health. Although, the MOST annoying thing about this game is the cinematic sequences. I've played through and completely the game on one difficulty in the past, and am re-starting (it's a good game, what can I say?), but for some reason, I am FORCED to watch through ALL of the cinematics. I don't care that Beatrice is annoyed at Dante, I'VE SEEN IT ALL BEFORE!!! Granted, when playing for the first time, the cinematics explain the story, why he's doing what he's doing, etc., but they do get tedious.
As a whole, I do highly recommend Dante’s Inferno. It may not be the most sophisticated of games, it’s no Darksiders or God of War (reviews coming soon), but it does have something of a charm to it. If you want a game that you can put on when bored, cause some mindless destruction, kill some demons of the underworld and see (quite disturbingly) a giant woman spawning killer babies out off her nipple, then this is probably something you might enjoy. By no means is it a game for everyone, but I enjoyed it. And seeing as this is my review, that’s kind of a good thing.
Peace out.
TheIdiotHasLanded
Dante’s Inferno is originally a poem based upon the Italian poet Dante's view of hell (inferno being Italian for Hell). The circles relate to the seven deadly sins, with some extras thrown in for good measure. Dante’s Inferno the game is a basic (VERY basic) hack’n’slash game. The game is set in the 12th Century, with you controlling Dante, an Italian with a strangely American accent. You guide him through the 9 circles of hell in search for his beloved Beatrice who was killed and dragged into the underworld after he betrayed her....or something. While travelling through Hell, you are given explanations for the various circles by Virgil, a Roman poet who was condemned for....something or other, whilst all the while rescuing or condemning various others for their sins in return for a collection of souls, which allows you to upgrade your weapon(s) and gain further attacks....most of which you’ll never use. You start the game by defeating various townsfolk(!) with a halberd, and then you take on Death and, after defeating him, gain control of his scythe. This then becomes your main weapon, giving you a light and a strong attack, though you’ll probably only ever use the light attack as the strong attack is almost useless unless you have ample time, as enemies simply attack you whilst you’re winding up to strike. Good development and design there.
The gameplay itself is fairly simply, which I have to say does work rather well for the most part. You button-bash the light attack for close enemies and wipe them out, and use your Cross attack on flying or distant enemies and wipe them out. Having this cross does almost defeat the object of having any other attack as the Cross attack is free and does about the same damage as a scythe attack. Again, good design there(!). Whilst ignoring the cross to some extent, the scythe does have its own features. Pressing R2 allows you to use the scythe like a lasso and drag enemies close to you, allowing you to punish or absolve them, both giving a small amount of experience. Whilst discussing experience, it would be useful here to point out that there actually 2 experience trails, holy and unholy. As you’d expect, each has their own upgrades, giving better abilities, increased scale of the health bar, etc. Whereas with most games this would lead to a different ending or a different character bio or some super ability, in Dante’s Inferno there is none of this. Simply a different set of abilities and attacks. Works for me though, I enjoy seeing my enemies being smashed into the ground with a dizzying array of attacks.
As much as I do enjoy it, there are a couple of things that really do bug me about the gameplay. One of them is Quick-Time Events (QTE). As much as these are useful in breaking up the gameplay and do provide some nicely dramatic cut scenes, they come as a bit of a shock. You’ll be watching a cut-scene and all of a sudden you have to press a button or you die. The first couple of times they appeared I simply stared from my controller to the screen and back trying to work out what the hell had just happened and why I had to do everything all over again. After a while you get used to them and soon realise that when taking on certain enemies, there’s always the same combination in exactly the same order in exactly the same time frame. Which does get slightly old. And boring. The other thing that REALLY bugs me is when taking on one of the demons, a woman with a giant tentacle/snake-thing where her genitals should be, it is IMPOSSIBLE to block one of her attacks. She darts about around you then jumps in and slashes, at which point you cannot block or dodge. No matter how quickly you press the block or dodge button, you will not move until she’s knocked you down and is bouncing around you again. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for there being things you cannot control, ‘adding’ to the difficulty, but it does get incredibly annoying on the higher difficulty levels when her slashes take half your freaking health. Although, the MOST annoying thing about this game is the cinematic sequences. I've played through and completely the game on one difficulty in the past, and am re-starting (it's a good game, what can I say?), but for some reason, I am FORCED to watch through ALL of the cinematics. I don't care that Beatrice is annoyed at Dante, I'VE SEEN IT ALL BEFORE!!! Granted, when playing for the first time, the cinematics explain the story, why he's doing what he's doing, etc., but they do get tedious.
As a whole, I do highly recommend Dante’s Inferno. It may not be the most sophisticated of games, it’s no Darksiders or God of War (reviews coming soon), but it does have something of a charm to it. If you want a game that you can put on when bored, cause some mindless destruction, kill some demons of the underworld and see (quite disturbingly) a giant woman spawning killer babies out off her nipple, then this is probably something you might enjoy. By no means is it a game for everyone, but I enjoyed it. And seeing as this is my review, that’s kind of a good thing.
Peace out.
TheIdiotHasLanded
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