Dante's Inferno

PUBLISHER: EA Games
DEVELOPER: Visceral Games
Played on: PS3
Initial impression: GO TO HELL! In a good way. Sort of.

Liked:
- Story
- Settings

Disliked:
- Collectible Items
- Length of Game

On The Fence:
- DLC


"Midway upon the journey of our life
I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straightforward pathway had been lost."
- Dante Alighieri


[Preface]
Again, I'm not a religious person. I was raised Catholic and consider myself Atheist. I am rather familiar with the tale told in the epic poem by Dante Alighieri and can point out a few things that [developer] got wrong, but this is a damned video game. And a pretty good one at that.

Dante himself is re-imagined as a Knight of the Crusade, promised a pardon for all his sins and a place in the eternal paradise by a rather corrupt Cardinal. Upon returning home he discovers the love of his life, Beatrice, brutally murdered. Satan himself comes to claim her soul, but Dante will not allow him to take her without a fight. You battle the Grim Reaper, take his scythe and descend into the 9 levels of Hell as described by the classic work of literature that lends its name to this game.

Limbo. Lust. Gluttony. Greed. Wrath. The City of Dis. All in vivid detail. Lust, aside from the music, features a lot of moaning as a soundtrack. There are also a lot of anatomically exaggerated reproductive... Aw, fuck it. Dicks. Dicks everywhere. Where there aren't dicks, there are tits and the occasional vagina. I'm not exaggerating in the least. Also the hurricane of the lustful is prominent, and there's a lot of sexy moaning going on.

The most dressed inhabitant of Lust

Gluttony features a lot of oozy nastiness. Greed is overflowing with gold, both in coin form and molten rivers. The enemies of these environments fit, too. Limbo features rather disturbing swarms of "unbaptized babies" with long blades where their forearms should be. Lust had bare-chested harpy-like demons. Gluttony brought fat, sloppy, disgusting wretches that puke. Greed had one of the most clever creatures: The Hoarder-Waster. Picture a two-legged creature with two conjoined torsos. They flung money while they spun their large clubs around.

I could go on and on but there is one setting that really keys it all in: The final circle of Hell. The depiction of Satan in his prison of ice is modeled directly after a woodcut of that scene and it does not fail to impress. I was taken aback by how disturbingly accurate it was.

Like this, except with better graphics.

Dislikes
There are some skill-boosting items that Dante will stumble across throughout his journey, but a glance to the inventory reveals there are a few dozen. Most of these I found, and I thought I was leaving no stone unturned. These are not imperative to the enjoyment of the game. They just annoy the perfectionist in me.

This game is short. Almost disturbingly short. How short? I went through it twice in one week - once on normal, once on easy. The trophy hunter in me wanted a couple that I missed the first time through so I blasted through on easy, choosing to also load all my previously unlocked skills - which made it insanely easy. There were only a couple places that hung me up for more than a few minutes, though one of those moments did make me call it a night just to get away from the game. Refreshed by a few hours sleep I went back to the game and plowed through the roadblock.

There is an event early on in the game that you, as a player, see happen but apparently that detail is unknown to Dante himself. As a player, and having seen this take place, I was somewhat confused when they "revealed" this information to Dante. It was a moment that would have been a good twist if they hadn't already told me that when I started the game... I think there is one element of it that actually makes it a surprise but overall it was ho-hum.

Fence/Overall
The DLC is interesting. Some of it is odd - extra in-game currency (aka "souls") to purchase upgrades to your skills, new outfits. Some of it is legitimately new stuff - The Dark Forest mini mission, laced with puzzles and so on. I have yet to play the St Lucia stuff. I'm sure it will also be cool. The Dark Forest thing is confusing at first but ends up being true puzzle-solving ridiculousness. I liked it.

Dante's Inferno is a decent game that heavily mirrors God of War in it's linear, smash all things style. The setting makes it different, and knowing the source material can only enhance your experience.

PARENTAL WARNING: This one is rated M, and unlike most M games, there is no way you can play this around kids. The LUST level alone is worth years of therapy.