By Martyn Licchelli
[originally published on March 7th 2010]
I'm not sure how common this phrase is, but in my household, the term “getting on my tits” is often used when something is irritating. Dante's Inferno is a chance for you to get on someone elses tits, and hell why you're there, why not hack them up too? We'll get back to that later but first a bit about the story.
Dante's Inferno is loosely based on the book 'Inferno' which is the first book in an epic poem called 'The Divine Comedy' by Dante Alighieri. In the game, you control a character called Dante. A knight from the crusades, who upon returning home finds his lover Beatrice murdered. This is all shown in a beautiful cut-scene which easily rivals the best seen on any generation to date, it's also the first time the game shows you a breast. As Dante mourns the loss of his beloved, he is stabbed in the back and end up in limbo where Death comes to collect his soul. A brief battle ensues, which acts as a tutorial, and ends with you stealing Deaths Scythe, which becomes your weapon for the game. You soon find out that Beatrice, despite being heaven bound, has been sent to hell. Your story then revolves around your descent through the 9 circles of hell as you track her down to free her and let her soul go to heaven.
The game is very well realised, with each of the 9 circles taking on a slightly different look. Whilst you can still tell you're in hell, certain factors make each level individual. Bet it the phallic surroundings in Lust, the intestine looking worms in Gluttony, or the golden gleams in the rocks of Greed. The combat is enjoyable too, slowly allowing you to purchase new skills as you progress. Depending on how you play the game, and whether you choose to punish or absolve your enemies of sin, you will be able to unlock powers in two flavours. Holy and Unholy. For every enemy you kill, and from some fountains in the game, you will be able to gain souls, and it is these that act as currency to purchase your new skills. Sometimes you will also find a well known person from history, whom has a back story to help you decide their fate. Absolving or Punishing these will lead to a large boost to the corresponding holy or unholy ladder.
It's a good way of making the game feel different as time goes on, in fact a lot of your best attacks are unavailable until the end of the game. They're not required mind you, you can pretty much complete the game with jumping and slashing, but it's nice that the variety is there. The variety applies to the enemies as well. Again, they usually fit in with their circle. Whilst you get undead everywhere, and some of the larger enemies appear on every stage too as you pass some levels you'll unlock new bad guys, who will reappear on each subsequent level. People like the troll looking creature in Gluttony who pukes and shits on you, or the succubus like women in the lust circle who walk around with their breasts out, likely to distract you from the massive attacking tentacle that they yield should they open their vagina. I'm not even making that up, in the lust level you will also be attacked by a giant woman as you raise up in a lift. You can see her outside, her boobs hanging free trying their best to distract you but they too hold a nasty surprise. As you stop on one level, she reaches in to attack you, before showing that her nipples aren't nipples, but extra mouths with tongues. Not too scary, until unbaptised babies with scythes for arms crawl out of them to come and attack you. We've come a long way since Silent Hill was edited to remove the babies who carried knives.
Never have I seen so many breasts in a game, all ready to be hacked up. Maybe it's a social commentary on the use of plastic surgery, more than likely the creators of the game wanted to make it slightly sexual, the second option seems most likely seen as how there's a breast in almost every cut-scene, which are done in beautiful cartoon animation, and take place on the shroud that is sewn to Dante's chest. Furthermore, every cut-scene, be it in game or beautifully rendered CGI that features Beatrice features her topless. Too be honest, it's something that by half way through is a little bit annoying, but not enough to take away from the game. The only thing that does take away from the fun really, is that it does feel a little too repetitious. Toward the very end of the game, you have enter the 8th circle of hell, which itself has 10 inner circles. These are represented as 10 small fights, for each fight you have a goal, such as hit 15 people with air combos. Succeed, and you go to the next level. Do it within a time limit, and you get bonuses. This is something that perhaps would have been nice to have throughout the main game, tasks which are pretty much impossible to fail, but reward you for doing them in time limits. In fact with how well it works in that one level, I'm shocked that when the game was play tested, they never thought to add something similar throughout.
Visceral games do seem to want to change some things though, there will soon be released a piece of Downloadable Content called the Trials of St. Lucia. Which adds a multi player level to the game, where the player is able to control Dante, as well as St Lucia who is some form of Guardian Angel to Dante. Not only that, but it will also come with a level editor. Opening up the option for players to share their levels with other gamers. Something common on PC's, but not so much on consoles. It will be interesting not only to see how powerful the editing tools are, but how easy they are to use, as they could potentially increase the life of this game dramatically, which is nice as the main story can be hacked through in roughly 7-8 hours. I imagine though, that the levels that are first uploaded will be people seeing how many breasts they can possibly fit into one level.
As I wind down the review, I feel it only necessary to mention God Of War, as this game is clearly very similar to the style associated with Sony's blockbuster. There has been a lot said in reviews, with people comparing Dantes game to that of God of War, and whilst it only makes sense to always go to the game that leads it's field when it comes to comparisons, I feel it might be a little unfair to do so, as whilst Dante doesn't quite measure up to Krato's adventure to compare the two would leave Dante's Inferno looking like a cheap rip off that doesn't measure up, which says far more about the success of God of War than it does about Dante. Indeed, if God of War did not exist, this game would be ahead of most of the field. It's got action by the bucket load, the same goes for blood. It's well presented, beautifully realised, easy enough for button mashers and at the same time deep enough to appease those who want more from both their fighting and difficulty. Whilst the game has quite a few minor issues, it's only major issue is that it's simply not God of War.
Having said that, God of War is exclusive to the PS3. If you only have an Xbox, I highly recommend this game. If you have a PS3, I'd still rent this however, as something to pass the time and get you warmed up for when Kratos returns.
7/10
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