Reviews - All

Story

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri is one of the most famous and influential works of medieval poetry in the world. Its ideas about the nature of heaven and hell have been hugely influential on popular culture to even this day. It was also tremendously groundbreaking at the time—it was one of the first works of literature to use a traditionally lowbrow medium to discuss such lofty ideas. Of course, this is the greatly, greatly abbreviated version of the nature of the original work. For those interested in further study there’s books and websites aplenty available on the subject.

Much like Darksiders (which as you’ll recall, we reviewed last month), the story of Dante's Inferno has a very tenuous connection to the actual source material. It is slightly more faithful though; EA have been careful to be (relatively) respectful to those of the Christian faith. Let’s recap though: Dante is a soldier from the crusades, rather than a poet. He’s off to hell to rescue his missus, Beatrice, whom he has inadvertently damned thanks to his cheeky actions during the Crusades. Once he gets there, all sorts of carnage ensues as he cuts his way through the damned and demons to reach the 9th circle of Hell were archnemesis Lucifer resides.

It’s substantially richer with literary and religious references, but at the end of the day it’s a variation on that time-old plot of the Mario games. You’ll effectively get “The Princess is in the next castle” cutscenes at different points too.

None of this should be taken as major criticism. The plot facilitates laying into dozens of Hell’s creatures effectively and you actually care about Dante as a character sometimes. The cutscenes never drag on into tedium either. Right there it’s elevated itself above 95% of other 3rd person hack and slash games. Hell, 95% games of other games full stop. The score below reflects the story taken on its own merits. If you’re looking for textual accuracy though, adjust the score to about “2”.

Visuals

I wasn’t really sure how this game would look. The source material is ripe with vivid imagery, but it would be all too possible for some visual designer looking for a quick lol to slap some “dark” and “gritty” BS together, throw in some inverted crosses and call it done. With all the substance of Marilyn Manson. And with my wariness of EA in action, that’s sort of what I was expecting.

Fortunately for the gaming community out there, this was not the option taken. It is not breathtakingly original, but it certainly is striking. Mood appropriate as well; The Lust circle of Hell is particularly unsettling, with phallic and vaginal imagery leering out of every crevice.

The cutscenes are a mix of pre-rendered CG (which look fantastic) and cel animation. The cel animation is quite crudely animated, but fits in surprisingly well. No Mirror’s Edge style awkwardness here. The game itself is quite nice looking too. Everything has a bit of that “I’m in HD!” sweat-sheen, but it blends in quite well with the otherworldliness of the level. Framerate is impressively steady and I didn’t notice any clipping issues either.

All the character models are impressively detailed, which is always a bonus. While they borrow heavily from medieval sources (and even a bit of Silent Hill!), it’s all very well put together and it fits thematically.

Sound

I was expecting sound to be a real lowpoint in this game. But to my surprise, it wasn’t! The producers have opted for primarily British voice actors, which add a much needed sense of class to proceedings, and aside from the odd cheesy, cringeworthy bit, they do pretty well. Sound effects are nice too, if nothing out of the ordinary.

The musical score is a bit bland though. Nothing really stood out as particularly amazing, though it was pleasant enough that I didn’t notice anything wrong with it.

Gameplay

EA have copped a lot of bashing over the last few years and let’s be fair: most of it was warranted. You don’t get a reputation for releasing half-finished, buggy, “we’ll patch that” shitty games for no reason. It seemed that in their quest for becoming a behemoth amongst the gaming companies they had sacrificed quality for quantity, excepting perhaps their sports games. Each new instalment of Need for Speed brought more groans from their once-fans. The Battlefield games were still good, but only after you’d downloaded roughly 43,749 patches...for a game you’d already paid through the nose for.

And then in 2008, something changed. Sure, the NFS game of that year was a dog turd, but Dead Space and Mirror’s Edge came out. Suddenly, EA looked like they’d release something non-sports worth playing again. But could they continue this good trend? we all wailed. The past had suggested otherwise.

Fortunately Dante’s Inferno is pretty cool in the gameplay department. It is utterly linear and apes God of War and Devil May Cry in the most blatant way, but it does so without ever being a pale copy. The source material the game draws from is different enough that you’ll be able to distract yourself from the unoriginality of the gameplay.

Combat is what you’d expect—heavy attack, light attack, ranged attack. Combine them all for combos, and throw in some magic too. The buttons are keyed a little differently to usual, but you’ve seen all of this before elsewhere. Not always so satisfyingly done, admittedly. You feel every hit and you can always relate the buttons you press to what’s happening onscreen—a big plus.

Puzzles are present too, but they don’t ever overwhelm the action in the same way they frequently did in Darksiders. In fact they’re a little bit too easy at times. That’s perhaps the main issue with Dante’s Inferno on the whole. It’s not terribly demanding unless you’ve got the difficulty ramped all the way up. Sure you’ll die a few times as you learn the attack pattern of a boss, but it won’t make you scream in frustration and stop being fun the way other, similar games can.. *cough*Bayonetta*cough*...

Replay Value

For achievement and trophy whores, Dante’s Inferno is well worth picking up. While there’s a few that are difficult to get, most of them shouldn’t cause you too much trouble. However, the most obvious replay factor comes with the two differing moralities and the higher difficulty levels; as discussed in the gameplay section, that’s where your main challenges are going to come from. Obviously there’s no multiplayer, so don’t expect it to stay in your console the way Modern Warfare 2 or Street Fighter 4 would.

Overall

The first three months of 2010 are set to be kind for fans of hack and slash games. Last month there was Darksiders and Bayonetta, this month we’ve got Dante’s Inferno and in March comes the big daddy, God of War 3. Dante’s Inferno acquits itself well against Darksiders, but it will be interesting to see how God of War 3 compares. My prediction is that GOW will blow it away, but Dante’s Inferno is still a fun little distraction for fans of the genre. It’s not quite playing with the big boys yet, but my instinct tells me we’ll see more of Dante if this one sells well. The potential is there, it just needs a bit more depth. But it’s very, very enjoyable in a way more games need to be.

It’s also great to see that EA is investing in new IPs as opposed to merely rehashing ones that haven’t been any good in years. Need For Speed, I’m looking squarely at you. While new IPs are more risky from a financial standpoint, they’re the only way to prevent stagnation within gaming and business.