Ok let’s get this out of the way because this topic will be beaten into the ground. Yes this game is a God of War clone, and no it does not emulate the poem by any stretch, but by golly Visceral Games knows how to clone good game engines very well. Nuff said….

Now that we have that out of the way let’s actually take a look at a wonderful game that was sorta late to the design pond. The game’s focus is really more or less set on the backdrop of the Divine Comedy “Dante’s Inferno” which tells of a poet’s thoughts of his descent into Hell to save a loved one. The designers clearly thought that the idea of making the journey into Hell could easily give the player an unusual and artistic take into the game’s universe.

I can quite say that they did a great job of creating the Hellish world. Our forsaken hero is sent into the 9 layers of Hell to reach his ultimate goal of rescuing his beloved Beatrice (insert gratuitous boob footage here…) from the clutches of Lucifer. The level design is lack for another word, unique. You do get the sense that you are in an environment that is full of agony and torture. You’ll see the mindless souls reaching out of walls as you ascend, barren wastelands and twisted trees with the hanging dead. I definitely felt the background designs added to the eerie setting. It’s nice to know that background designers from Metroid Prime and God of war lent their unique and creative minds to create such vast landscapes.

The character designs are completely off the scale from anything sane and that’s a good thing. I won’t gripe about the textures as they will only bother the real nitpicky gamers out there. But you will hoof-legged demons to creepy female demons that can impale you with their genitalia. And don’t get me started on the Gluttony creatures that will defecate and  have vomit attacks.  The bosses go into greater weirdness from the 3-mouthed Cerberus to the giant King Minos, all will have you gasping in awe at times and leaves the player wondering “how and the hell am I going to pull this one off”? All of the creatures you encounter are unique to the particular part of Hell that you descend to. You have a great sense that each locale is different and a very nice design choice I might add.

The story is compelling in Dante’s Inferno and if some of you are bible-toting holy rollers, you’ll find a lot of characters you encounter are from various periods of history as well as the bible. This may be a little unsettling to some only because you get to interact with them and either absolve or condemn them to Hell. It was an interesting mechanic that seem to make me dig up the history books and see why they might have been banished to Hell such as the  afamed love affair between Paris and Helen of Troy. This will definitely cause some players to look into their history-buffed brains to catch a lot of the references.

Lastly I’ll briefly rant on the combat. I feel that if anyone has either played or not play the God of War series, you’ll feel right at home. The control is simple to pick up and have the player feel empowered once they’ve upgrade Dante’s abilities. It’s your standard hack ‘n’ slash affair but there are enough attacks  to suit your play style. Players can level up the “Holy” or “Unholy” side of the tree each with its own set of abilities. There are  also hidden relics found throughout the game that can enhance the properties of each side. There’s nothing more sweet than vanquishing foul demons with the Holy Cross, only to pop them up in the air and continue the aerial assault, then follow up with attacks that let you continually bounce them back up. It’s great combo fun. But alas the system is not without its flaws. You will find that some linear attacks may miss an enemy or two which starts the hit counter over. A frustrating situation when you are near a 200-hit combo and it resets because your move doesn’t connect. Overall combat is solid but can get a bit repetitive especially since you can use a bread n butter combo to clear most hordes.

In summary I definitely think for most gamers who’ve played the GOW series you may just want to rent this one. If you haven’t then this game will definitely be fairly entertaining. There are loads of things to unlock and with the announced DLC which includes multiplayer and player created stages, Dante’s Inferno will hold you down for a good while. Just don’t swinging a bone-clad Scythe at random people just because your evil buddy stole your girlfriend. It’s really hard to score this one any higher because of its originality, but rest assured Dante’s Inferno is a great time. Even if it’s not like the poem!

GOD KING GRADE: (C)   ★★★★★