- Publisher: EA
- Developer: Visceral Games
- ESRB Rating: “M” for Mature
- Genre: Action
- Pros: Definitely earns its “M” rating; story & setting; nice sound
- Cons: Uneven quality; way too many cheap deaths; mediocre gameplay overall
Dante’s Inferno is based on the 14th century poem written by Dante Alighieri. It follows the main character, Dante, who has descended into the depths of Hell to try and save his wife Beatrice’s soul. While Dante was off fighting in the Crusades, Beatrice made a bet with the devil that Dante would not cheat on her with another woman. In return, the devil would make sure that Dante survived the wars and could return home. If Dante were unfaithful, however, then Beatrice’s soul would be forfeited forever.
As you can easily guess, Dante wasn’t faithful and returns home just in time to see Lucifer take his wife’s soul. Dante then follows them into Hell and fights through the Nine Circles of Hell – Limbo, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, etc. to try and save her.
The story and setting in the game are definite strong points. Dante’s Hell is equal parts fascinating and horrifying and the creatures you fight along the way are well designed. What is most interesting is the way in which the story is told. There are normal realtime and CG cutscenes, but also some simple animation-style cutscenes that fill in the gaps of what Dante did during the Crusades. The story isn’t unpredictable or surprising, but it is interesting and satisfying and well told here.
Gameplay
EA
Well, it is interesting sort of. The actual combat is just mediocre. It isn’t bad or anything, it just isn’t particularly good, either. It is straightforward, simple, mindless button mashing that gets old pretty quickly. A lot of the problem comes in the repetitive way the enemies are presented. The game generally follows a pattern of small rooms where you fight waves of enemies until a door opens so you can move on. This is boring. Enemies also have a knack for knocking you down and continuing to deal out damage while you lay on the ground. Not fun.
The platforming and puzzles don’t offer much relief. The puzzles are generally really, really easy and kind of lame. And the platforming sections generally consist of climbing on walls and swinging around on chains and are just really simple and, again, easy.
The game also is quite fond of Quick-Time-Events and a lot of cheap deaths in general. Now, the QTEs aren’t too bad here (and God Of War abuses them too so you can’t really complain that much), but the problem comes from the ridiculous amount of cheap deaths that result from the game putting you in situations where you have no idea what you are supposed to be doing until you’ve died a couple of times and figure things out. Nothing in the game is particularly difficult, but it isn’t fun to enter a room and not know what to do and then die for seemingly no reason. The game does that constantly.
It isn’t even a matter of the game doing anything poorly. The gameplay is fundamentally sound. It just isn’t fun to play. It is boring. The combat is repetitive and bland and the game overall is poorly paced. The platforming is too simple. The puzzles are lame. And the cheap deaths that await you at every turn (at least the game re-loads after you die really quickly) get old pretty quickly. It just isn’t compelling enough from a gameplay standpoint to keep you interested even if you do like the story. The levels also vary widely in quality, and even if you are motivated enough to see it through to the end, the last couple hours of the game are pretty terrible. At least at 6-8 hours total the game is pretty short.
EA
Graphically, Dante’s Inferno is kind of a mixed bag. The characters look good and the enemy designs are imaginative and detailed, but the environments are pretty ugly. It is Hell, after all, but the textures are pretty bland and uninteresting. The cutscenes look good, and we do really like the animated sequences.
Sound
The sound is pretty good for the most part. The voice acting is solid and the music is a perfect blend of dark and moody and “epic”. What really stands out are the sound effects for the enemies you fight as well as the general horrors of Hell. The white noise of Hell is made up of screams and calls for help and horrible things and it really drives the point home of just where you are.
Bottom Line
In the end, Dante’s Inferno is merely mediocre. It doesn’t do anything particularly poorly, but it doesn’t do anything spectacularly well, either. It shamelessly borrows from other titles in the genre, but doesn’t execute anything (puzzles, combat, platforming, etc.) on anywhere near the same level as the games it copies. It is just thoroughly mediocre. Fans of the genre might enjoy a rental (it is pretty short and easy), but I can’t recommend it for a purchase. Save your money for that other game coming up. On that other platform.
Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy
