Games Nest

DANTE'S INFERNO

For XBOX360, PS3, PSP From Visceral

"At the midpoint on the journey of life,

 I found myself in a dark forest, 

for the clear path was lost" 

You may have heard of Dante’s Inferno. It is an Italian work of literature. Along with ‘Purgatorio” and “Paradiso’, “Inferno’ consists the Divine Comedy written by Dante Alighieri. But what has this to do with the videogames? It seems that Visceral decided to port the first part of the divine comedy to our consoles.

           

            Dante returns from the crusades haunted by visions of terrible things happening to his fiancée Beatrice. Following a dangerous path and a mysterious stranger through a dark forest, Dante finally returns to his home, only to find his entire family -including Beatrice- slaughtered. Beatrice’s spirit leads him to the nearby church where he watches in awe as Lucifer drags her spirit to hell. As a loyal lover Dante dives after her through the chasm that has been opened. Along with lifeless spirit a spirit with bones and flesh and blood crosses the other side. Landing to the first circle of hell –Limbo- Dante finds the spirit of Virgil the great roman poet. Taking pity over Dante, Virgil decides to help him and they both set of to reclaim Beatrice from Lucifer. A journey to the nine circle of hell begins with Dante defeating king Minos, the great judge of the dead, and ascending to the circle of Lust to defeat Queen Cleopatra. In the third circle –Gluttony- he faces Cerberus, the great worm, while in the fourth –Greed-, Dante’s own father awaits him. In the fifth circle -Anger- he tames the beast “Phlegyas” to help him break into the city of “Dis” where the four lower circle await. The sixth circle –Heresy- and the seventh –Violence- are located inside the wall of Dis. Especially in the circle of Violence, Dante realizes that his mother had hang herself and not died of fever, as his father had told him, therefore condemned to the level of violence against oneself. Also, his fellow crusaders wait for him in the level of violence against god since their war was unholy and deceived they believed otherwise. Beatrice’s brother Francesco also awaits for Dante in this level. The eight circle of fraud comes next and finally, deep down at the frozen foundations of the earth, in the ninth circle of Treachery, chained by the chains of Judeca, Lucifer the master of the inferno waits. During their ascension, pure - hearted Beatrice waged her purity with Lucifer, about Dante’s loyalty and kindness. Lucifer claimed that Dante, during the crusade, had turned into a savage animal. She of course refused to believe that. So what is the truth? What happened to Dante during his absence? The tattoo he has sewn to his chest tells only the truth. The nine circles of hell are occupied by thousand of creatures (minions, heretics, unbaptized babies, temptresses and more.) Obviously Dante also comes face to face with some of the damned few of them familiar to him. The game is partly loyal to the poem. The condemned you encounter are taken from the poem and the environments match the descriptions of the book. Also Virgil’s comments are the same with the ones in the book. On the other hand, Dante doesn’t slay demons and the bosses he encounters -except few- are not present in the book. Finally Dante has nothing to do with the crusades, so everything involving around Dante’s past are taken from the developers.

           

            To comfort the forces of hell, Dante has at his disposal two weapons. The first is a scythe taken from death himself when Dante defeats him, when they cross paths during the crusades. Dante also has the cross Beatrice gave him, before his departure, for good luck. A holy relic like the cross gains supernatural power at Lucifer’s domain. A good variety of combos for both weapons will make the minions tremble before you. Dante may also manipulate the power from the souls of the damned to master magic attacks. Also, you can tame gigantic creatures to fight along you. Apart from the killings now, the gameplay consists of numerous but extremely simple puzzle, many QTEs as well as some bonus minigames. There is also a dilemma for Dante, to either absolve or punish the damned he encounters. Depending on you choice, Dante will take a holy path (the cross is more powerful and holy magic attacks are unlocked) or the unholy one (the scythe is more powerful and unholy attacks are unlocked). Nevertheless, nothing else is altered depending on this choice. Finally, Dante can collect items which will upgrade his abilities. The controls run smoothly and there won’t be any problem responding in demanding situations.

            The graphics are beautiful which along with the soundtrack represent nicely the circle of hell. The characters and creatures are very detailed and the environments are well designed. The voice acting is simple but functions perfectly giving us some touching dialogues. The sound design is ok, with some nice tunes, but most important with a wide variety of sound effects. You will hear everything from the fire which burns till the screams of the damned.

            Now, as you may have heard already the gameplay and the controls are completely taken for the “God of War’ series. Also, the enemies you encounter at the latest circle are reincarnations of the old, with only some characteristics like their attack speed, changing. Finally the game is short which means that your journey through hell will be completed in around 5 to 6 hours.

            Nothing more to be said about the game here. Even if it’s like God of War it’s very good and you should play it without hesitations, if you don’t mind its drawbacks. Oh, something else, I liked the game so much that I was intrigued to read the original Dante’s Inferno.  


DLC(s); The Dark Forest, Trials of st. Lucia

An artistic trailer;

A gameplay video;

A trailer for the animated epic based on the videogame;