Well first off it’s a little different than the original poem by Dante Alighieri & I’d like to get those little differences out of the way before I go into too much detail. In the game you play Dante himself & you are on a quest to rescue your beloved Beatrice from the clutches of Satan himself. Of course there are a lot of little differences & a few big ones but it’s a video game so these changes are there for a reason. Virgil for example is in the game but he appears at the gates of hell instead of the forest, this was a little surprising to even me but it didn’t take away from the game in any way. A lot of the quotes from the poem are there & pop up regularly along with the characters mentioned in the poem, some of these include Charon & king Mino’s. so its clear the story has been changed around a little but is the game itself any good?
Actually yes it is, its already one of my favourite games so far this year. The game starts off in the holy land where after fierce battling with the enemy you are eventually slain, death himself promptly arrives to take your soul to the underworld but Dante refuses to give up to the grim reaper without a fight. After slaying death you return home to find your beloved has been murdered & your betrayal while you were away has damned her soul to the underworld. Dante then goes on an epic quest through the nine circles of hell in the hope to save Beatrice’s soul. The game does a great job of portraying the many stages of hell through fantastic visuals, often disturbingly brilliant but then it is hell after all. As you would imagine the first few circles such as limbo/lust & gluttony are easy enough but the following ones are a different story.
The environments themselves are populated with a healthy amount of demons & monsters that will have you hacking & slashing your way forward. The enemies that do pop up range from your stereotypical demon with horns on its head to the bladed un-baptized evil babies. Along the way you will encounter far stronger enemies like Cleopatra, king Mino’s & many others, depending on what difficulty you play the game on these should pose a sufficient challenge to gamers. To help you fight the forces of darkness Dante is equipped with a whole host of weapons, these include the holy cross which lets you absolve or punish souls with a quick blast, then there is deaths scythe which is great from performing devastating blows on even the fiercest of monsters.
Included in Dante’s bag of tricks is the ability to use magic, normally I don’t like magic in games but for this one I make the exception. In order to upgrade your magic you must use skill points which come from absolving of punishing souls, punishing a soul provides more skill for your darker magic while absolving a soul of its sins gives you skill points to use on your good magic, it sounds simple enough & that’s because it is in fact the system works so well you will quickly be unlocking all kinds of powers. There are also quite a few puzzles scattered around the game & secret passages, in addition to this special objects such as relics car also be collected but there are not always so easy to find.
Whether your beliefs or not impact on your want to play the game I say give it a try, it can be very brutal at times but then there is a reason for it getting such an adult rating & even though it didn’t stick entirely to the original poem it was extremely entertaining well worth the wait. I’m giving Dante’s Inferno a much deserved 9 out of 10, I’m taking a point off because the game could have been a little longer in places - the developers have recently announced that there are already 2 downloadable packs soon to be released. These include Dark Forest & Trials of St. Lucia, Dark Forest will be a prologue level while St. Lucia will not only add a new playable character but also cooperative multiplayer game play & a game-editor while will allow players to create their own maps. Trials of St. Lucia is due to be released on the 29th of April.
Well first off it’s a little different than the original poem by Dante Alighieri & I’d like to get those little differences out of the way before I go into too much detail. In the game you play Dante himself & you are on a quest to rescue your beloved Beatrice from the clutches of Satan himself. Of course there are a lot of little differences & a few big ones but it’s a video game so these changes are there for a reason. Virgil for example is in the game but he appears at the gates of hell instead of the forest, this was a little surprising to even me but it didn’t take away from the game in any way. A lot of the quotes from the poem are there & pop up regularly along with the characters mentioned in the poem, some of these include Charon & king Mino’s. so its clear the story has been changed around a little but is the game itself any good?
Actually yes it is, its already one of my favourite games so far this year. The game starts off in the holy land where after fierce battling with the enemy you are eventually slain, death himself promptly arrives to take your soul to the underworld but Dante refuses to give up to the grim reaper without a fight. After slaying death you return home to find your beloved has been murdered & your betrayal while you were away has damned her soul to the underworld. Dante then goes on an epic quest through the nine circles of hell in the hope to save Beatrice’s soul. The game does a great job of portraying the many stages of hell through fantastic visuals, often disturbingly brilliant but then it is hell after all. As you would imagine the first few circles such as limbo/lust & gluttony are easy enough but the following ones are a different story.
The environments themselves are populated with a healthy amount of demons & monsters that will have you hacking & slashing your way forward. The enemies that do pop up range from your stereotypical demon with horns on its head to the bladed un-baptized evil babies. Along the way you will encounter far stronger enemies like Cleopatra, king Mino’s & many others, depending on what difficulty you play the game on these should pose a sufficient challenge to gamers. To help you fight the forces of darkness Dante is equipped with a whole host of weapons, these include the holy cross which lets you absolve or punish souls with a quick blast, then there is deaths scythe which is great from performing devastating blows on even the fiercest of monsters.
Included in Dante’s bag of tricks is the ability to use magic, normally I don’t like magic in games but for this one I make the exception. In order to upgrade your magic you must use skill points which come from absolving of punishing souls, punishing a soul provides more skill for your darker magic while absolving a soul of its sins gives you skill points to use on your good magic, it sounds simple enough & that’s because it is in fact the system works so well you will quickly be unlocking all kinds of powers. There are also quite a few puzzles scattered around the game & secret passages, in addition to this special objects such as relics car also be collected but there are not always so easy to find.
Whether your beliefs or not impact on your want to play the game I say give it a try, it can be very brutal at times but then there is a reason for it getting such an adult rating & even though it didn’t stick entirely to the original poem it was extremely entertaining well worth the wait. I’m giving Dante’s Inferno a much deserved 9 out of 10, I’m taking a point off because the game could have been a little longer in places - the developers have recently announced that there are already 2 downloadable packs soon to be released. These include Dark Forest & Trials of St. Lucia, Dark Forest will be a prologue level while St. Lucia will not only add a new playable character but also cooperative multiplayer game play & a game-editor while will allow players to create their own maps. Trials of St. Lucia is due to be released on the 29th of April.
