When I first downloaded the Dante’s Inferno demo from Xbox Live, it didn’t ‘grab’ me in any way whatsoever. I found it sloppy and interspersed with gratuitous nudity with little context. At that point in time, it seemed over-hyped and same-y. I didn’t really give it the chance it deserved and switched off without completing it.
A few nights later, Cameron came to visit and I set about criticising what I had played and offered Cam a go. Fortunately, he has more patience than I do when it comes to making judgements based on the demos of games and played the 30-minute-or-so demo in its entirety. Watching further, I was able to start building a more open-minded opinion of it, which made me want to really get my teeth into the full game… Which I have!
Certainly, the small segment based on solid land is extremely similar to a lot of games that are of this genre. It would be fair to say that the opening sequence – the first ten minutes – does not do justice to how interesting this game is. The switch from battling ‘heathens’ in Acre to the Grim Reaper himself takes you by surprise but prepares you in some way for how mental things are going to get. Returning home from the Crusades, Dante finds his father and his betrothed, Beatrice, brutally murdered and watches as Beatrice’s spirit is taken by a demon. This is the true turning point for the game as you begin battling the undead and descend into Hell. The game allows you to become accustomed to the sorts of foes you’ll be fighting before you break down the Gates of Hell and charge in to reclaim your Beatrice! Things get progressively more extreme as you descend deeper through the seven circles, growing more grotesque as you go.
The imagery of this game is one of the most astounding things about it. It is quite beautiful and impressive despite the disgusting and foul nature of it all. As you would imagine, it’s full of staggeringly tall towers, frightening architecture and bizarre formations made from rock and sometimes what resembles muscle and flesh. It is unpleasant but always amazing to look at, when you are able to take a breather from the intense battling.
As Cameron approached in a previous article, the fighting aspect is nothing original. Dante’s Inferno can have its name added to the sizeable list of games under the banner of ‘God of War clones’. Thankfully, there are enough differing elements for it to still be entertaining. As with the majority of games these days, Dante’s Inferno incorporates quick-time events into its combat. Sometimes these can be a minor irritation but, in my opinion, they work extremely well. This is possibly because they form part of a moral choice that you are required to make: whether you use your new-found powers to punish your enemies and sentence them to eternal damnation; or to absolve their sins using your divine power (from Beatrice’s cross) to release them from their suffering. This decision will result in you receiving either ‘holy’ or ‘unholy’ experience points which will build towards you levelling up in these particular areas and unlocking talents, spells and attacks that can be purchased using ‘souls’ that you collect from the enemies you kill and from ‘fountains’ located in the areas you wander through. These fountains can also contain mana (for your spell-casting) and additional health (useful in emergencies!). As a basic starter spell you have an ice blast and, as you progress, you gain more different spells which you can assign to your buttons.
Littered around the levels (if you can call them that – the game flows so well, without loading screens, that you’ll not notice that you’ve changed areas until you see a different name upon saving) are prominent figures from literature and history. They are sinners and you choose their fate. Again, the choices are to punish or to absolve. Should you choose absolve, you play a ‘sin-capturing’ mini-game to save their souls and collect a bonus; should you choose to punish, you get to watch a particularly brutal scene as their soul is ripped apart!
The story flows quite well, too. We are occasionally treated to animated (anime-style) flashback sequences of Dante’s time in the Holy Land which help us to understand the reason why Dante’s life has taken the turns that it has and resulted on his quest into Hell. There are also extremely well animated FMV sequences where we see events that have unfolded in relation to Beatrice. Not to focus upon the graphics too much, but the sequences are beautifully rendered and look remarkably life-like.
As I mentioned earlier, I found the nudity and sexual nature unnecessary when playing the demo. I’m not usually one to back down when I’m being prudish, but as the game progressed, I found myself being substantially less bothered by it. This is probably because, when you consider it in reference to the Seven Deadly Sins and the Seven Circles of Hell, it actually seems really appropriate, especially in terms of ‘Lust’… which is one particular area of the game where it really seems to get quite extreme. Some of the enemies manage to push the boundaries of acceptability and could be quite controversial, but that is something to let you discover for yourself.
In all these respects, Dante’s Inferno is a difficult game to sum up. It does take a large amount of its combat elements from other games and in that sense it’s not really anything to write home about. However, there are enough interesting and unique game-play elements to the rest of it to make in a very enjoyable experience. It’s quite deserving of its 18-rating with the BBFC, definitely going WAAAAAY over the top sometimes with its gore and sex but still it doesn’t really detract from the game. In fact, it seems to fit perfectly. I’m willing to absolutely retract my original judgement and wholeheartedly wallop this game with a recommendation. I’ve really enjoyed it. I think a good comparison to make is that this is the video game equivalent of Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend. For anybody who knows that movie, you’ll know that making this comparison could never be a bad thing.
