Dante’s Inferno

One thing this generation of gaming has given us is no shortage of “character action” games. We’ve had everything from the staple Devil May Cry , from the very “try hard” Conan and to the recent masterpiece that is Bayonetta hit PS3s and 360s everywhere.

Not surprising EA wanted to get in the action so they got developers Visceral(Dead Space) to develope one of their own. Enter Dante’s Inferno. A hardcore marketing push and with various promotions going on worldwide EA made it clear they wanted Dantes Inferno to succeed and stand tall above some of the greats.

So does it? Lets find out.

Story

The story of Dante’s Inferno is loosely based on the epic poem titled “The Divine Comedy” which was written by Dante Alighieri in the 1300s. The general idea is that it follows crusader Dante through the 9 circles of hell in search for his love Beatrice. I can’t say for sure how well the game is tied to the poem as I have yet to read it (a digital copy of the poem comes free with the PS3 Divine edition of the game) however I can say it sets up for a great setting for a video game .

The game starts with Dante returning home from The Crusades to find his wife murdered, where he has to watch her get dragged into hell by non other than the prince of darkness himself…..Ozzy Osbor….errr I mean Lucifer. Damn MTV generation messing with my mind. Rage ensues and Dante finds himself tumbling through the floor of a church into the burning pits of hell.

In the beginning of the game Dante comes off as an arrogant selfish prick that is oblivious as to why he’s in hell or what hell is trying to tell him. Sure he’s there because he wants Beatrice back but that’s just what the game shows on the surface. It seems everyone and their grandmother knows the real reasons Dante is there by the midpoint of the game except for Dante himself. Just when you think he will spurt out some quotes that would make Kratos or Bayonetta jealous, he simply belts out the most repetitive non interesting, brain cramping “I don’t understand!” over and over again. GET A CLUE!

Other characters in the game aren’t much better. Beatrice plays the same old damsel (dead) in distress and Lucifer makes appearances throughout the game but even he won’t go down as one of the most memorable villains in gaming. In the end, this is a tad disappointing as I expected to truly hate Lucifer and feel bad for Dante, or even Beatrice for that matter but because I never really felt any attachment to any of them throughout the game.

So besides Dante having about as much personality as Paris Hilton in a burger ad,  it’s important to mention that the most personality in the game is driven by the environments themselves.

Presentation

I’ll be honest, story is not really important in games like this but it does help when you’re trying to stand out amongst a proven crowd of similar games that do it better. Luckily for Dante, the world in which he’s fighting seems to tell an overall better story.

The game will take you through the 9 circles of hell. All of which are based, and designed on different concepts.  The circle of Gluttony will have mouths, tongues and man-boobs everywhere while the circle of lust will have phallic symbols a plenty as well as a boss that fights you basically naked while she spews liquid and creepy babies with knives for hands out of her nipples. The whole aesthetic is actually really creepy and I don’t know if I’d want to meet the artist that worked on the game or move as far away possible as I can.

For the most part Dante’s Inferno does a great job of varying the visuals for each circle except for one thing. Even though the enemies and environments have different aspects to them, the limited color palette makes them all seem a bit familiar. I understand Hell is supposed to be a dark dreary place but after the 4^th circle or so I was tired of looking at the same 4 colors over and over again. It’s almost as if Visceral saw Gears of War and said “Yeah yeah we like the look of this, but with less color”.

That’s not to say the game looks bad by any means. It’s just the circles will start to blend in way too much with each other and you might find yourself asking if you’ve even left the circle you’ve been fighting in for the past 20 minutes. Actually overall the game looks quite good. It moves at a rock solid 60FPS something not many games of its type can claim to do. Enemy designs are creative and everything looks crisp and clear. In the end I think the game can definitely hold its own with the other games it’s trying to hang out with but I don’t think I’d put it at the top.

Audio in the game could possibly be the most uncomfortable audio I’ve heard in a game and I’m not saying that as a knock on Dante’s Inferno.

Throughout the entire game you’ll hear crying from babies sent to hell, screaming from people singed to the walls with their own flesh and even gurgling noises from people choking on god knows what. For the majority of the game I remember thinking to myself “can it be quiet for at least 10 minutes?” and not because I was annoyed, it was because I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to get to sleep at night. The game may not be meant to be scary but man did they ever do a good job at creating some of the creepiest audio I’ve heard in a while.

The score is also worth noting– it’s pretty high grade orchestral numbers that fit the game rather nicely. None of the tracks particularly stand out but what is there will make you take notice.

Game Play

I’m just going to go and say it. I really didn’t want to compare directly this game to any other game but when it comes to game play it’s clear what Visceral was inspired by. It was Sony Santa Monica’s God of War series.

If you’ve played any of the GoW games you’ll feel right at home. The base mechanic revolves around the player using Death’s Scythe (which you gain by opening up a huge can of whoopass on him early in the game) to slice and dice your foes. Combos consist of both weak and strong attacks and a nice addition of a holy cross that acts like a ranged attack which can combo into any melee stuff on the fly.

You can build up both your combos, holy cross of magical powers by using souls. Souls are gained by defeating enemies or by choosing to absolve or punish tortured souls you meet on your adventure. Choosing to punish someone usually begins a quick time event in which Dante brutally massacres them in visual splendor. Choosing to absolve them brings you to a pointless mini game in which you have to capture sins with your cross. It plays out like a rhythm game in which little balls float towards the center of the screen. When they touch the corresponding side of the cross you hit the button that represents that side. It’s pretty cool at first but the novelty wears thin pretty quickly when you realize there’s really no point to it besides gaining more souls for the holy side of your “skill tree”

The games souls are divided into evil and holy. Depending on whether you absolve or punish you will gain souls for one of the sides. Holy side seems to be more about buffs and defensive abilities whereas Evil focuses more on damage dealing and building up your combos and magical attacks. At first glance the technique Visceral used to acquire the souls seems interesting as you’ll meet up with real historic figures in hell as well as fictional ones. Ever want to shove a blade through Pontious Pilot’s face? Or maybe forgive him for his ruthlessness? Well now you can, problem is that this has zero bearing on the storyline itself. No matter what decisions you make the story stays linear and there can only be one outcome. So, taking a couple seconds to decide whether or not I wanted to kill the tortured soul or release them turned into a simple decision based on what powers I wanted to level up.

Between each circle of hell you’ll need a way to go further and further down the depths of Haytes…errr I mean Hell. These were some of the best parts of the game for me as I enjoyed scaling down blood (and body) soaked walls while swinging on ropes trying to figure out how to get over the obstacles in my way. These moments are a great break from the button mashy game play the combat consists of.

Puzzles in the game are a bit of a double edged sword. Some early puzzles really make you think not only logically but also visually. For instance there is an early puzzle in which you need to get from one doorway to another but are stuck in a portal like room. Pulling levers and walking through different warp gates in the right order is the way to solve it. This provided a challenge that was a warm welcome to me as you had to see the room visually in a 3D space before you make your move. Hmm ok that might not be an easy example to explain on paper but it was definitely the most memorable puzzle for me. While other puzzles having you scratching your head at points wondering what the objective is, or simply moving a block to get to a higher ledge……the norm but it’s used way too often.

Unfortunately for all the good stuff Visceral “borrowed” from GoW they also borrowed the bad stuff and in most cases made it worse. The game is filled with puzzles that require you to push or pull something all while fending off an unlimited swarm of enemies. These moments were by far the most frustrating in the game as it made these puzzles feel cheap more than anything. If you didn’t kill the enemies on screen within the same time as each other, chances are another batch would respawn before you’re able to achieve your goal. This on top of the fact that it seems Visceral rushed the puzzles towards the end– they are nowhere near as clever or well thought out as the early ones– left me thinking more of what could have been.

One more thing to mention is the boss battles. They are, to me, similar to the puzzles. Early on they’re huge and epic and at times near jaw dropping, but once you reach the halfway point they pretty much disappear. This isn’t so much a problem as the last boss makes up for it but after playing a game like Bayonetta it sure seems like a step back.

Overall

In the end, Dante’s Inferno is a good game. Visceral did a nice job considering this is their first foray into the genre. They clearly had a vision and they clearly knew a familiar way to reach it. The combat is fun, the (under)world is creative and interesting albeit a bit bland but consistent. The story is lacking and likely not very true to the original material but the game delivers where it matters most.

The overall package, however,  is a tough recommended buy. With Bayonetta just behind us and GoWIII just on the horizon I can see some people just waiting it out. However for those who love the games mentioned above and can’t get enough; it might be worth it as the game is definitely an above  average action game and it’s a great step for Visceral.

If anything Viscerals has a good foundation for a sequel. Hopefully with this they can concentrate more on moving the genre foward as opposed to settling for what it has already done.

The sequel really could be something special.