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Lukas' Dante's Inferno Review
Dante's Inferno
Took me long enough, eh? But yeah, I caved in and bought Dante's Inferno, and honestly, it's pretty *bleep*ing mediocre. Like, I can't believe how average this game felt. Thankfully, it's not always that consistent average, but more of a balance of shit and good, like for every good situation, there was a bad situation to follow it up. In saying all of that, it always seemed like it was just a waste of time, because the good parts could be experienced in other games, like Darksiders or Bayonetta, or God Of War 3 for that matter. So if you want the clearest bit of truth, here – it's so average, it's not worth playing through.
Dante is a soldier who fights to reconquer the Holy Land of Jerusalem in the times of the holy crusades in 1191, but when he's stabbed in the back by an assassin, he faces death... and beats his ass, and takes his scythe as a trophy. However, when he returns home, he finds his wife, Beatrice, dead. Lucifer suddenly appears to take her down to hell because she lost a bet with him that Dante would remain faithful to her. He chases him through the nine circles of hell, but as he progresses through them, he sees with his own eyes that he isn't quite as holy as he thought he was. Honestly, this is a damn good concept, because it just makes you think “gee, maybe Christians aren't quite so pure”, because even the “purest” of heart has its urges to do bad, and you'll damn well satisfy them. You can deny it all you want, but you'll do it! It could've used a bit more detail, because some parts are glossed over and you don't learn too much from them, and they could've been juicy too, but what's there manages to work well enough.
At its heart, Dante's Inferno is a hack and slash game. With Dante's newly acquired scythe, you slice and dice your way through hordes of demons and monsters. Like in any hack and slash, you'll have swift attacks and not so swift attacks, and you'll have to combine them to perform some combos. You also have a ranged attack, but instead of using guns or arrows, you fire large crosses. As you'd expect, they're weak, but at least it lets you keep your distance, waiting for the perfect opportunity to attack.
The way you acquire new attacks and combos is through earning EXP. If you pummel an enemy hard enough, you can grab them, and then choose whether you wish to absolve them of their sins, or punish them for their sins, and the same for finding the damned as you go through hell. Absolving them will net you some Holy points, which works towards magic attacks and the occasional combo, while punishing them nets you Unholy points, which nets you a bunch of combos. It's not much on variety, but it helps as you progress through the game.
But I don't know... I mean, it seems like it could be cool, but the combat ends up being both a crutch, and just plain average. It's average because it never really offers a great challenge; it just slogs along with enemies that just have too much health, thus giving them more of an opportunity to land cheap hits. Bosses aren't much better in this department – the first few bosses are fairly challenging, but then the rest just feel like bigger enemies. The last boss was just *bleep*ing stupid because of its first phase, in which you have to spam ranged attacks while avoiding its high-damaging earthquake attacks. Combat always feels more like a chore than fun, and when your competition consists of Bayonetta, Darksiders and God Of War 3, you can't afford to *bleep* up like that.
Like I said, combat is not only average, but it's also a crutch to make the game seem like it's worth playing, when it's not. I'll admit, the first three circles of hell were pretty cool. Climbing into Charon's ship, braving the lustrous tornado and taking Cerberus down (by the way, Cerberus was a worm? Always thought he was a dog – THANKS DISNEY!) was at least enjoyable, but then comes the fourth circle, which had you killing a wave of baddies before the molten gold touched your feet and killed you. Then the next few had nothing exciting and were kind of brief. The second to last circle was *bleep*ing lame – what else could be done than ten waves of bad guys with ten different conditions? *bleep*, this was laziness at its finest! The final circle was just “walk along thin ice”, and then the final boss. Blah. Final boss sucked, and the thing beforehand was damn tedious! Bah!
Oh, but my bitching doesn't stop there, kids. Like any hack and slash game, there has to be some platforming. Every now and again, you'll have to jump across gaps, up ledges, and swing on some ropes. Like God Of War though, none of this is overly challenging, and if it tries, it's never satisfying – it's just like “meh, time for more I guess” because none of it actually feels like there was any effort put into them, but more because “well, kids like some variety”. I mean, God Of War's platforming was mediocre at best, but it had its moments – Dante's Inferno's platforming, on the other hand, has no moments of being any good (aside from climbing up and across Charon in the first circle), and is as derivative as its gets. Oh, and before I forget, Dante's Inferno has no camera control, so if you don't like the angles you're given, it's like “tough shit if you don't like it”, because hey, it makes things more challenging, doesn't it? Goddammit, this isn't 1995, it's 2010!
And just when you thought platforming was boring, well, here are some “puzzles”. I put that in quotations because all you're really doing is pushing blocks around. By golly, this shit is so fun, hey? Challenging, too! Man, this is so worth $90+, just pushing blocks to the correct positions so that I can do some more platforming! I mean come on, this was tedious in Ocarina Of Time back in 1998, and it's just plain bloody lame in 2010! Shit, it was lame in 2005 when God Of War did it, now we're just beating off the dead horse! No other puzzles to consider either, so... enjoy your lame, tedious block pushing!
Alright, that's enough badmouthing, because even though the game consists of mediocre combat, derivative platforming and tedious block pushing puzzles, the production quality is high. The graphics are excellent at best, and just plain good at their worst. At their worst, the graphics are still able to make the game feel like it was made in this generation. The colors are a little drab, but they (and the textures) manage to give every landscape that hellish feeling, like you're truly in hell. At its peak (which is during cutscenes), god *bleep*ing damn, I almost thought that they were live action!
Audio is also good. The soundtrack is one of those “ambient but that's it” kinds where it manages to deliver quite an ambiance, but it never does much else. There are times where it tries to be epic, but I don't know, after listening to God Of War's, not much feels epic, and even when you pretend that God Of War's soundtrack doesn't exist, Dante's Inferno's soundtrack never really reaches “epic”. It's just an orchestra that's at least trying. Besides, the audio excels in the voice acting. Most of the characters are voiced well enough, but it's Dante and Lucifer that stand out. It might sound like Dante has throat cancer when he yells, but goddamn, there's a lot of emotion put forth by his actor, so when he speaks, you'll be sure to listen. As for Lucifer, it always feels like he's one step ahead of Dante, and that he's always got a few tricks up his sleeve. It's not quite Beyond Good And Evil, Heavenly Sword or Enslaved (some of the best voice acting gaming has to offer), but damn, it comes close!
Gameplay: 2.5
There were some situations when the combat was pretty exciting, and then some encounters and bosses that were more tedious than tough. The first few cricles of hell were pretty slick, although the last two circles *bleep*ing sucked. Overall though, it felt really safe and average.
Controls: 4
The lack of camera control kind of hurts the game, but the rest are solid enough to at least function and get the hang of.
Story: 4
The idea of exposing the evil in a devout Christian warrior was a pretty good idea for the story. Oh, and so was taking The Divine Comedy and changing a few things to make it a bit more gamer friendly. Was told a bit vaguely, but it could've been worse.
Graphics: 4
The in game graphics look alright, but it's the cutscenes that will impress you due to how realistic they look.
Sound: 3.5
The soundtrack is quite ambient and will draw you in, though it's not as epic as expected. The voice acting from Dante and Lucifer are pretty damn good, and the rest aren't half bad either.
Lastability: 1.5
Umm.. you could play again to get the trophies and whatever collectibles you forgot? Helps that there's a New Game+ feature. Oh, and there are the Trials Of St Lucia.. you know, if you like endless combat...
Funfactor: 2
It's kind of fun slicing enemies to bits, but doing the puzzles and platforming? Hell no!
Bottom line:
Dante's Inferno seems like such a good game, but the reality is that it isn't. It's not terrible, either. It's just... safe, and that's not really a good thing when you're released right after two strong hack and slash games. Overall, if a few more risks were taken to make it awesome, it would've been a more admirable effort. As it is, I'd rather Visceral Games stick with Dead Space.
2.5/5.0
Dante is a soldier who fights to reconquer the Holy Land of Jerusalem in the times of the holy crusades in 1191, but when he's stabbed in the back by an assassin, he faces death... and beats his ass, and takes his scythe as a trophy. However, when he returns home, he finds his wife, Beatrice, dead. Lucifer suddenly appears to take her down to hell because she lost a bet with him that Dante would remain faithful to her. He chases him through the nine circles of hell, but as he progresses through them, he sees with his own eyes that he isn't quite as holy as he thought he was. Honestly, this is a damn good concept, because it just makes you think “gee, maybe Christians aren't quite so pure”, because even the “purest” of heart has its urges to do bad, and you'll damn well satisfy them. You can deny it all you want, but you'll do it! It could've used a bit more detail, because some parts are glossed over and you don't learn too much from them, and they could've been juicy too, but what's there manages to work well enough.
At its heart, Dante's Inferno is a hack and slash game. With Dante's newly acquired scythe, you slice and dice your way through hordes of demons and monsters. Like in any hack and slash, you'll have swift attacks and not so swift attacks, and you'll have to combine them to perform some combos. You also have a ranged attack, but instead of using guns or arrows, you fire large crosses. As you'd expect, they're weak, but at least it lets you keep your distance, waiting for the perfect opportunity to attack.
The way you acquire new attacks and combos is through earning EXP. If you pummel an enemy hard enough, you can grab them, and then choose whether you wish to absolve them of their sins, or punish them for their sins, and the same for finding the damned as you go through hell. Absolving them will net you some Holy points, which works towards magic attacks and the occasional combo, while punishing them nets you Unholy points, which nets you a bunch of combos. It's not much on variety, but it helps as you progress through the game.
But I don't know... I mean, it seems like it could be cool, but the combat ends up being both a crutch, and just plain average. It's average because it never really offers a great challenge; it just slogs along with enemies that just have too much health, thus giving them more of an opportunity to land cheap hits. Bosses aren't much better in this department – the first few bosses are fairly challenging, but then the rest just feel like bigger enemies. The last boss was just *bleep*ing stupid because of its first phase, in which you have to spam ranged attacks while avoiding its high-damaging earthquake attacks. Combat always feels more like a chore than fun, and when your competition consists of Bayonetta, Darksiders and God Of War 3, you can't afford to *bleep* up like that.
Like I said, combat is not only average, but it's also a crutch to make the game seem like it's worth playing, when it's not. I'll admit, the first three circles of hell were pretty cool. Climbing into Charon's ship, braving the lustrous tornado and taking Cerberus down (by the way, Cerberus was a worm? Always thought he was a dog – THANKS DISNEY!) was at least enjoyable, but then comes the fourth circle, which had you killing a wave of baddies before the molten gold touched your feet and killed you. Then the next few had nothing exciting and were kind of brief. The second to last circle was *bleep*ing lame – what else could be done than ten waves of bad guys with ten different conditions? *bleep*, this was laziness at its finest! The final circle was just “walk along thin ice”, and then the final boss. Blah. Final boss sucked, and the thing beforehand was damn tedious! Bah!
Oh, but my bitching doesn't stop there, kids. Like any hack and slash game, there has to be some platforming. Every now and again, you'll have to jump across gaps, up ledges, and swing on some ropes. Like God Of War though, none of this is overly challenging, and if it tries, it's never satisfying – it's just like “meh, time for more I guess” because none of it actually feels like there was any effort put into them, but more because “well, kids like some variety”. I mean, God Of War's platforming was mediocre at best, but it had its moments – Dante's Inferno's platforming, on the other hand, has no moments of being any good (aside from climbing up and across Charon in the first circle), and is as derivative as its gets. Oh, and before I forget, Dante's Inferno has no camera control, so if you don't like the angles you're given, it's like “tough shit if you don't like it”, because hey, it makes things more challenging, doesn't it? Goddammit, this isn't 1995, it's 2010!
And just when you thought platforming was boring, well, here are some “puzzles”. I put that in quotations because all you're really doing is pushing blocks around. By golly, this shit is so fun, hey? Challenging, too! Man, this is so worth $90+, just pushing blocks to the correct positions so that I can do some more platforming! I mean come on, this was tedious in Ocarina Of Time back in 1998, and it's just plain bloody lame in 2010! Shit, it was lame in 2005 when God Of War did it, now we're just beating off the dead horse! No other puzzles to consider either, so... enjoy your lame, tedious block pushing!
Alright, that's enough badmouthing, because even though the game consists of mediocre combat, derivative platforming and tedious block pushing puzzles, the production quality is high. The graphics are excellent at best, and just plain good at their worst. At their worst, the graphics are still able to make the game feel like it was made in this generation. The colors are a little drab, but they (and the textures) manage to give every landscape that hellish feeling, like you're truly in hell. At its peak (which is during cutscenes), god *bleep*ing damn, I almost thought that they were live action!
Audio is also good. The soundtrack is one of those “ambient but that's it” kinds where it manages to deliver quite an ambiance, but it never does much else. There are times where it tries to be epic, but I don't know, after listening to God Of War's, not much feels epic, and even when you pretend that God Of War's soundtrack doesn't exist, Dante's Inferno's soundtrack never really reaches “epic”. It's just an orchestra that's at least trying. Besides, the audio excels in the voice acting. Most of the characters are voiced well enough, but it's Dante and Lucifer that stand out. It might sound like Dante has throat cancer when he yells, but goddamn, there's a lot of emotion put forth by his actor, so when he speaks, you'll be sure to listen. As for Lucifer, it always feels like he's one step ahead of Dante, and that he's always got a few tricks up his sleeve. It's not quite Beyond Good And Evil, Heavenly Sword or Enslaved (some of the best voice acting gaming has to offer), but damn, it comes close!
Gameplay: 2.5
There were some situations when the combat was pretty exciting, and then some encounters and bosses that were more tedious than tough. The first few cricles of hell were pretty slick, although the last two circles *bleep*ing sucked. Overall though, it felt really safe and average.
Controls: 4
The lack of camera control kind of hurts the game, but the rest are solid enough to at least function and get the hang of.
Story: 4
The idea of exposing the evil in a devout Christian warrior was a pretty good idea for the story. Oh, and so was taking The Divine Comedy and changing a few things to make it a bit more gamer friendly. Was told a bit vaguely, but it could've been worse.
Graphics: 4
The in game graphics look alright, but it's the cutscenes that will impress you due to how realistic they look.
Sound: 3.5
The soundtrack is quite ambient and will draw you in, though it's not as epic as expected. The voice acting from Dante and Lucifer are pretty damn good, and the rest aren't half bad either.
Lastability: 1.5
Umm.. you could play again to get the trophies and whatever collectibles you forgot? Helps that there's a New Game+ feature. Oh, and there are the Trials Of St Lucia.. you know, if you like endless combat...
Funfactor: 2
It's kind of fun slicing enemies to bits, but doing the puzzles and platforming? Hell no!
Bottom line:
Dante's Inferno seems like such a good game, but the reality is that it isn't. It's not terrible, either. It's just... safe, and that's not really a good thing when you're released right after two strong hack and slash games. Overall, if a few more risks were taken to make it awesome, it would've been a more admirable effort. As it is, I'd rather Visceral Games stick with Dead Space.
2.5/5.0
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