Publisher: EA

Developer: Visceral

Release Date: 2/5/2010

Rating: Mature

MSRP: $59.99

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The first thing you will notice when you play Dante’s Inferno is that it’s a bold game. The game is one of the darkest, nastiest, most mature games ever created and it makes Christianity look like a damned fool. The game is about a man named Dante who is a crusader and betrays his love, Beatrice. Upon his return to Florence, he sees her dead and watches as Lucifer takes her into hell and Dante follows.

The story is pretty good and keeps you interested, but it’s predictable. The game goes extremely deep in Christian and Greek mythology and pulls out names only hardcore followers would know, but enough of the story let’s get to the gameplay.

The game has a pretty damn solid combat system. You use your scythe as your main weapon and you have a cross-projectile attack. You can do aerial combat, launch enemies into the air, and use your magic. You can unlock moves by following the holy or unholy paths (which doesn’t actually affect the story) and each tree has a different set of moves. You can have four different magic items equipped and all are useful and powerful. You can also find relics throughout the game that benefits Dante in certain ways. For example, one relic allows Dante to have more powerful throw attacks, one lets him instantly break fountains, one lets him take less damage, etc. These are found by talking to Virgil or in secret areas. Anyways, the combat system is fluid, fast, powerful, and very deadly. If you feel you are getting whomped you can use your Redemption meter which is kind of like Rage of the Titans in God of War.

When it comes to exploration Inferno both satisfies and disappoints. The game has you descending into the 9 circles of hell and each is harder, deadly, and more brutal. Some levels are pretty epic like The City of Dis, Limbo, and some disappoint like Lust (just an ascending tower), Gluttony (just fight Cerberus and a few baddies, and your down to the next level). The levels are varied in length and I wish they would have been fleshed out more. Puzzle-solving is pretty rare and when you do get some puzzles they are pretty easy to solve.

One thing I have to get straight is that the game is pretty epic. Not a God of War epic but enough to keep it very cinematic. There are QTEs in the game such as when you take down a minotaur to ride it, take down bosses, etc. You can punish or absolve most enemies to get feed your tree paths, there are famous historical figures that you find throughout the game that you can punish or absolve upon reading what they ended up in hell for.

The game’s visual style is very impressive. It’s what you think hell would look like…dark, disgusting, and evil. The Gluttony level is a good example since you are walking through the intestines, bile, puke, and so forth. The Lust level has female enemies’ wombs coming out of them to attack you. A giant Cleopatra with tongues coming out of her nipples and evil babies…yes it’s bizarre, but it works and it’s amazing to look at.

The game is also extremely difficult even in an easy setting. Wave after wave of enemies come at you from all directions, bosses are extremely hard to beat, and the game can be very frustrating often. However, the game’s major flaws are mainly the length, difficulty, and the fact that the levels weren’t developed to their fullest potential.

DIVINE EDITION: Exclusively to the PS3 is the Divine Edition which includes a different cover, a fully digital version of Dante’s Inferno, and a free code for the Trials of St. Lucia (which still is not out yet). All of this for the same $60 price tag. The only disappointment was there was no special book that came with the game that included the Inferno. Reading the poem in a small window that is over 30 chapters long is not fun at all.