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

Battlefield 4 Trophy Guide PS4

Battlefield 4 Trophy Guide. Difficulty: *** The campaign is not very long and requires average FPS skills, though the online trophies are a little more demanding.

Game Name Difficulty Trophies Developer Country Bronze Silver Gold Online DLC
Battlefield 4 *** 43 EA Digital Illusions Sweden 26 13 3 5 25

Battlefield 4 PS4

Battlefield 4 is a military first-person shooter, and a sequel to the 2011 Battlefield 3. Multiplayer is included, in which players can play as either three factions: the U.S., China, or Russia, with up to 64 player matches. Five downloadable packs are available, each with five sets of trophies.

In the year 2020, six years following the events of Battlefield 3, tension has continued to rise between the U.S. and Russia, while Admiral Chang is pursuing a plan to take control of the Chinese government and ally themselves with Russia. Recker, the player-character and squad leader, is sent on a covert mission to China to stop Chang from taking control.

Battlefield 4 received highly positive reviews, with an average score of 84%, praised for its multiplayer experience, and fun, exciting campaign with great graphics.

While not as difficult as previous Battlefield titles, the 3-star difficulty rating is for the time required, as well as a certain level of FPS skills required, particularly in the multiplayer portion of the game. The campaign consists of mainly story-related, collectibles, and mission-specific trophies. There are 5 online trophies, one which requires you to reach rank 25.

Overall, the campaign is short and is possible to complete in around 12 hours, depending on the route you take. The multiplayer heavily depends on your skills, and could take between 30-50 hours.

The first step is going through the campaign and collecting all the offline trophies, of which there are 37. Essentially, there are three things you'll need to do: clear the game on Hard difficulty, find all the collectibles, and unlock the 6 mission-specific trophies. So yes, it's possible to earn all the campaign trophies in one go, though it depends on your confidence in your skills. You may wish to play the game on Easy, find the collectibles and do the mission-specific challenges, then a second playthrough on Hard. Or, just do everything on Hard. It's up to you. Keep in mind, however, the campaign is not particularly long, so a second playthrough won't take a huge chunk out of your time.

There are 5 multiplayer trophies to gather next. You will need to reach rank 25 for the Call Me Sir trophy, which is where a lot of time will be spent. The Bomb Squad trophy is probably the most difficult, though luckily can also be boosted. Check out the trophy guides and boosting forums in our Links page for help.

IGN has a Walkthrough here:
http://www.ign.com/wikis/battlefield-4/Walkthrough

And a useful Walkthrough here, by the white gecko:
http://www.cheatmasters.com/blog/2013/11/03/battlefield-4-walkthrough-guide/

Here's a very useful Trophy Guide by lerodeemy, jmac92123, and darkdante14, which includes the DLC:
http://www.playstationtrophies.org/game/battlefield-4-ps4/guide/

And an awesome Trophy Guide by pancake model:
http://ps3trophies.com/forums/showwiki.php?title=PS3-Trophy-Guides:Battlefield-4-Trophy-Guide

A great Trophy Guide by Barticle:
http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps3/677382-battlefield-4/faqs/68380

Richard Duflo has a useful Trophy Guide here:
http://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2013/11/01/battlefield-4-trophy-guide/

Ferry Groenendijk has a Collectibles Guide here:
http://www.videogamesblogger.com/2013/10/31/battlefield-4-collectibles.htm

And a Collectibles Guide on IGN:
http://www.ign.com/wikis/battlefield-4/Collectibles

Here's a Boosting Forum on PlaystationTrophies:
http://www.playstationtrophies.org/forum/battlefield-4-a/219436-ps4-trophy-boosting-thread-read-first-post.html

Finally, here's a basic Trophy List:
http://psnprofiles.com/trophies/2238-Battlefield-4