Dante’s Inferno Review

7.5 / 10 Banzai!s

The Game:

Since the Atari 2600, there have been games based on movies, TV shows, comic books, and even novels. Very few have been inspired by poetry. Dante’s Inferno fits that niche of rarity.

It’s been 700 years since Dante Alighieri wrote his Devine Comedy (or Divina Commedia, if you prefer the original Italian). A massive poem which tells the story of Dante – the narrator – who gets lost in a forest and comes across the poet Virgil, sent by Dante’s wife Beatrice to bring him back to salvation. Along the way, Dante decides to witness Hell and Purgatory before entering Heaven, and so Virgil obliges, becoming his tour guide. So, it was only natural for Visceral Games – the makers of Dead Space – to say, “Yo, this poem would make an awesome game!”

The video game of Dante’s Inferno, like the title suggests, is based on the first canticas of The Devine Comedy, though with many liberties taken. Rather an a lost soul, Dante is a general in the knights of the Third Crusade, sent to conquer Jerusalem from Saladin, while believing that “all his sins have been forgiven” at the words of a priest. He’s stabbed in the back, and faced with Death. Rather than following the Reaper to the other side, Dante kills him and steals his scythe, then heads home to his wife – only to find her being dragged to hell by Lucifer. Dante jumps in after him, and makes his way through circle after circle, determined to rescue Beatrice from the clutches of hell.

Interestingly enough, as a marketing strategy, EA staged a phony protest in which people were paid to march about Los Angeles with signs, demanding the game be banned and accusing EA of being the anti-Christ. It was later revealed by an EA spokesperson that the protest had been a hoax. Hey, if it worked for Dan Brown…

 

What I Liked:

As an avid reader and fan of literature, I could easily side with many University professors who have criticized the game for commercializing and bastardizing Dante’s poem. On the contrary, I thought the idea was interesting. Not only was the game – in a weird way – true to the source, but the added tidbits of the Crusade fit well with the game’s overall story arch.Dante's Inferno Review

Dante’s Inferno uses a combination of CG cutscenes to continue the story, and animated visuals to tell the backstory. For the most part, the plot is rather simple. But as we journey deeper into the circles of hell, we learn more about the character Dante – and that’s where the strength lies in the game’s storytelling.

The visuals are impressive, and everything feels so alive. Walls keep moaning sinners at bay. To open doors, you must stab your weapon into the belly of a beast. Flames belch upwards and sideways. And pools of lava/blood/gold spit and bubble. There’s so much to look at, I often found myself wishing for control over the camera.

There’s relatively good balance between the action, platforming, and puzzles, which prevent the game from getting boring. Each boss battle is different from the next, and in many ways are puzzles in themselves. I found myself fueled to continue playing, not only to learn more about Dante, but just to see what the next level had in store for me.

 

What I Didn’t Like:

While I found some of the earlier levels to be masterpieces, it felt as though the developers were getting tired as the game went on, and got lazy towards the end. For example, upon entering the realm of Gluttony, there were big gluttonous creatures with mouths for hands trying to devour you, and everywhere were fat, grotesque statues with wide open mouths and tongues. Just from the visuals, I knew this was the Circle of Gluttony. But when you reach Violence, it’s basically not much different from the first level – some fire shooting about, random enemies, and a river of blood. And in Fraud, all you’re doing is fighting waves of enemies in a cave. Maybe the developers had a harder time trying to come up with creative ways to flesh the later circles into levels, or maybe they ran out of time under EA’s set deadline, I dunno. But it was disappointing, considering how well the earlier levels were designed.Dante's Inferno Review

And speaking of laziness / lack of time, the same enemies kept cropping up throughout the game. Each level seemed to introduce one new enemy, but otherwise you still fought unbaptized babies, demons, and damned crusade captains up until the end. Most of the time, the enemies didn’t fit the ring of hell – they were just recycled. Maybe this is nitpicking, but I felt the overuse of the same enemies subtracted from the feel of each level. And, since I mentioned that the later levels didn’t seem to reflect the ring of hell it represented, the recycled enemies only diminished it further – until you wouldn’t know what circle you were in without Virgil telling you.

Finally – and I don’t know if this can justify a complaint – but Dante’s Inferno is EXTREMELY similar to the God of War series, so much so that I’m surprised lawsuits hadn’t been tried. Everything from the combo fights, to upgrades, to the way you open doors and grab power-ups by mashing buttons, to the overall gameplay is exactly like God of War. EA has a habit of taking games that are popular and producing their own versions. In this case, they basically took God of War and altered the Greek mythology to Christian. Yes, it was a creative idea to base a game on a poem, but damn! Couldn’t they have come up with a new style of gameplay?

 

Overall:

Dante’s Inferno is a fun and entertaining title with some great visuals and interesting story. It’s a shame things mellowed down towards the end, because the first half of the game just blows you away. Yes, the gameplay is a rip-off of God of War, though that may be a good thing for fans who enjoyed playing as Kratos – though it doesn’t award points for Inferno’s originality.

One thing I will say, though. Dante’s Inferno has the credit (to by knowledge) of being the first video game adapted from a 14th Century Italian poem.

Next, I’d like to see T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land and Other Poems: The Video Game.

 

written by Damon Finos

Dantes Inferno Trophy Guide

Dantes Inferno Trophy Guide. Difficulty: ** ย A third-person action title similar in gameplay to the God of War series, inspired by Dante’s poem The Devine Comedy. The game can be played on Easy mode, with the majority of the trophies collected during the first playthrough.

Game Name Difficulty Trophies Developer Country Bronze Silver Gold Online DLC
Dante’s Inferno ** 43 Visceral Games U.S. 26 13 3 0 10

Dante’s Inferno

Perhaps the first video game to be inspired by a poem, Dante's Inferno takes many of its ideas and partial plot from Dante Alighieri's first canticle of his Devine Comedy, even including quotes throughout the game. (Whoever said games can't teach literature and culture?)

With a gameplay often compared to those in the God of War series, Dante's Inferno is a third-person action adventure, with some platforming and puzzle-solving. Following the end of the Third Crusade, Dante - a crusader general - is assassinated and faced by Death. Rather than accepting his fate, Dante destroys Death - taking his scythe as a weapon - and returns home in Florence to find his wife Beatrice not only killed, but being dragged to hell by Lucifer. Dante jumps into the rings of hell, with Virgil as his guide, determined to find his wife and rescue her from torment.

Despite protests to ban the game back in June of 2009 on accusations of Dante's Inferno being sacrilegious, the game received fairly positive reviews, with an average score of 73%. It was praised for its graphics, art style and fun level design, though has been criticized as being a copy of the God of War games, though lacking in its battle finesse. A comic book and animated film have been inspired by the game.

For more information, check out our Dante's Inferno Review.

A similar platinum to the God of War games, though much easier. The majority of the trophies can be obtained during your first playthrough - provided you find all the collectibles - and a partial second playthrough to fill both your Holy and Unholy powers to the max. Afterwards, it's just a challenge in the arena, and you're done.

Expect between 15-20 hours for the Platinum.

There are no trophies for completing the game on any difficulties, so if you're in a rush, you can set your game on its easiest mode - Classic. There are collectibles to be found: 3 Beatrice Stones, 30 pieces of silver, Holy Relics, Unholy Relics, and 27 Shades to either be punished or absolved. It's recommended you follow one of the Walkthroughs under our Links tab, or Video Walkthroughs to find all these collectibles during your first playthrough. If you miss one, you'll have to restart from the beginning. Also, a few of the shades MUST be absolved for their corresponding trophy, so it's recommended you begin with focusing on maxing out the Holy path first - only absolving - so that you don't make any errors.

You'll probably max out your Holy path a little over three-quarters through the game. Once you've reached Level 7, start working on the Unholy path. After you complete the game, you can start a new game with all your statistics. Remember, you WON'T have your collectibles - so make sure you get them all in a single playthrough.

Once all those trophies are taken care of, the only one left should be Gates Of Hell, which is defeating waves of enemies in an arena. This is similar to the Challenge of the Gods in the God of War series - only ten times easier!

IGN has a complete Walkthrough:
http://guides.ign.com/guides/14296029/page_2.html

This is a text-based Walkthrough, created by Daniel Acaba, hosted on IGN:
http://faqs.ign.com/articles/107/1072105p1.html

Here's a great Trophy Guide by magmar126 and olsen77:
http://www.ps3trophies.org/game/dantes-inferno/guide/

Another great Trophy Guide, created by DaveyHasselhoff:
http://www.ps3trophies.com/forums/showwiki.php?title=PS3-Trophy-Guides:Dantes-Inferno-Trophy-Guide

This is a list of all Collectibles, in order as they appear during the game, by rrushn:
http://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/showthread.php?t=206338

And if you're stuck on bosses or puzzles, NextGenWalkthroughs created a great set of videos as he plays on Infernal difficulty. Here is the first video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkH7cS1z54k&feature=plcp

Roosterteeth has a great set of Collectible Walkthroughs. Here's the link to the first level:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhdW-4pSS-I

And, if you're going for the DLC, here's a Boosting Forum on PS3Trophies:
http://www.ps3trophies.org/forum/dantes-inferno/47552-dlc-trophy-boosting.html

Finally, here's a basic Trophy List:
http://www.allps3trophies.com/retail-games/dantes-inferno-trophies.html