Review: Dante’s Inferno: Whipping Up A Storm
Dante’s Inferno offers something unique to gamers in so much as the inspiration – it’s not often that we find a game that’s based on a fourteenth century poem. There are plenty of historical references through for all those who have an interest in that sort of thing, and for the rest of us the blood and gore of the medieval times are always fun.
Story Line
With the story line, Dante’s excels. Dante returns from the Crusades having cheating death to find his beloved Beatrice has been taken to Hell as a ransom, and in order to get her back he has to travel through the 9 levels of Hell. This makes for varied enemies, scenery and pitfalls that keep you on your toes and the game remains interesting throughout. The imagination that has gone into creating some of the villains of the game is huge, ranging from Cerberus, the huge three headed worm (not the dog for some reason) to small babies with strange knives for hands. One would have wished for some restraint at points though, particularly when you find yourself in the Lust level of Hell.
Game Play
When it comes to game play, Dante’s has pretty much what you would expect of it. The classic heavy and light attack buttons mean that this game can be a button basher or the more skilled players can attempt to put some combos together with a combination of the two. The fact that there are only two weapons in the whole game should really be a hindrance, but it isn’t – that fact is that Death’s scythe can provide you with a huge amount of fun hacking down Hell’s minions. A unique aspect to the game is the use of a grab attack to absolve or punish the souls of Hell. Absolve them to become more holy, thereby improving your ranged attack – punish them and you’ll become unholy, making your scythe more powerful. These attacks are great fun, and mean that you can take on hordes of the minions without being overwhelmed. The right analogue stick means that you can take evasive action, leaving the camera view fixed, but there are very few points in the game where this has a negative effect on the game play.
Graphics
The graphics range from wonderful to poor. The opening video, displaying some of Dante’s trips into the Crusades, are wonderful, as is the same with most visual fills throughout. However, some of the special effects are poor (Beatrice’s bed dematerialising from Lust for example) and the minions look bizarre, almost comical at the best of times, but Hell itself is portrayed beautifully imaginatively, and, best of all, without constraint.
Score
Scores a solid 8.2 / 10 with me!