By: Dan Ramirez
Dante’s Inferno has received a lot of hype recently, both good and bad. The demo was recently released for both Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. If you haven’t heard the story about this game, it’s loosely based on “The Inferno,” the first part of the poem “The Divine Comedy” written in the 1300’s by Dante Alighieri. The main character, Dante, is guided through the underworld by the poet Virgil. That is where the similarities to the poem end. The game’s story centers on Dante fighting through the hell to save his true love Beatrice. With his companion Virgil, they travel through the 9 rings of hell to fight the devil for their freedom. Dante’s main weapon is Death’s scythe which he obtains by refusing to die in the crusades and after beating Death, he steals the weapon from the Grim Reaper.
You may have heard that this game is a complete rip off of the God or War series, from what I’ve seen …this is 100% TRUE! The developers like to say that this isn’t the case but anyone who’s played God of War will notice the similarities within the first 2 minutes of playing. The moves and controls are a complete copy of God of War as are the health and magic bars and for Dante. Even the demons you fight in the demo look like they were plucked right out of the Hades level from the first God of War. While this may not make Dante’s Inferno an original idea, this doesn’t make this a bad game. In fact the demo was a lot of fun and seems to have all the makings of a great game. Most games now a day’s take some ideas from the games before it. If you are going to steal from a franchise, the God of War series is a great place to start.
One aspect of the game that does set it apart from others is the morality system. While some other games try to use choice as a way to upgrade a character in one direction or another, Dante’s Inferno injects this directly into the combat system. While fighting enemies you have the choice to either condemn them to hell or save their souls by sending them to heaven. The choices will increase your player’s moves and magic in the direction of good or evil, depending on what choices are made by Dante. While this is interesting, the amount of times you do it in combat will begin to take its toll. The first few times you see it you will be impressed, but even in the short demo it tends to get tedious.
Overall the demo was very entertaining. The combat, while familiar, works well and the graphics and story are all top notch. The game comes out in February and a full review will be ready here on Horror-Video-Games.com…stay tuned.
