Poetry in Motion

At the turn of the Fourteenth century, Italian poet Dante Alighieri composed his literary masterpiece, The Divine Comedy. Alighieri's writing provided the standard for the modern depiction of the biblical realms of Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, and has largely shaped humanity's perception of the Christian afterlife. Now, seven hundred years later, Dante's writing finally comes to life on-screen in the (loosely) inspired hack-and-slash game Dante's Inferno, which shares a lot of themes with The Divine Comedy's first part, Inferno. At first glance, fans of Alighieri's writing might be upset at the lack of consistency the game shares with the poems; aside from a few names and the description of Hell itself, the game bears little resemblance to its source material. However, common sense tells us that Dante's largely observational adventure in the poems wouldn't translate well into an entertaining game.



A returning veteran of the Third Crusade, Dante returns home to find his beloved Beatrice murdered. The disembodied soul of Lucifer appears and, speaking of a deal, carries Beatrice's soul with him into Hell. Dante proceeds to rip open the gates of Hell and follow the pair into the Nine Rings of the Inferno. By design, the rings of Hell portray both aurally and visually the sins of life, display the perpetrators of these sins and their torment in the afterlife, and reflect the themes of each individual transgression against God: souls condemned to Lust fly in a perpetual windstorm separated from satisfying their carnal desires, souls condemned to Greed suffer depraved from what was wont in life, etc. As Dante travels deeper into the Inferno, he comes face to face with people from his own life and, by extension, his own sins. Through this process, it becomes apparent that Dante more closely resembles a titular anti-hero than the preconceived "righteous warrior." The main theme of the game is redemption: Dante's singular goal was to absolve Beatrice's soul from the punishment for his sins, but as the narrative is developed, an interesting question is proposed to the audience: who is the one being redeemed?



Visceral Games has never been a studio to let down in regards to detailed environments, and Dante's Inferno is no exception. Each Ring of Hell has unique art styles, color schemes, and enemy types which really bring out the tone and direness of the locale. The graphics don't seem too terribly dated by modern standards at all, and the animations are fluid and visually pleasing. The soundtrack may feel a little repetitive by the end of the game, but it serves its purpose of providing a despairing overtone to the game's multitude of demon encounters. The fixed camera angles work well for the most part, but can be annoying on some of the trickier jumps and tougher fights.



Basic combat in Dante's Inferno is dynamically simplistic given the nature of the game and the genre it belongs to, and very rarely reaches the depth that other hack-and-slash games achieve. It's often cited as a God of War clone in regards to its control disposition and combat flow, but having never played God of War myself, I can't attest. Throughout his journey through Hell, Dante utilizes two powerful weapons to cut through the demon armies that stand between him and Beatrice: Death's Scythe, which he stole from Death himself, and Beatrice's Cross, which was given to him at the beginning of his journey. The scythe is majorly used for melee and close combat techniques and the cross for ranged fighting, but learning more advanced skills allows you to switch up this dichotomy later on. The game utilizes a standard light/heavy attack system that's pretty common in similar games with two face buttons allocated to scythe wielding and one to cross attacks. Once unlocked, holding LT/L2 and attacking will perform a Focus Attack, which is basically an alternative form of the standard attack that keeps the attack's general properties. Pressing RT/R2 will launch a grabbing attack that both grants immunity frames and allows you to instantly kill low level enemies. It's also used to execute tougher enemies once their health has been brought below a certain threshold. Pressing LB/L1 brings up Dante's Magic wheel, which allows players to select from a variety of combat buffs and offensive techniques at the cost of some of Dante's mana. The combat is fast-paced and enjoyable, but I feel it does little to incentivize combo diversity or alternative strategy. Move balance is horrendously lacking, as you can easily beat the vast majority of the game by upgrading and spamming cross attacks. Most of the advanced enemies can be easily stunlocked and spammed until defeated with high power focus moves (including the final boss). I also would have liked to see a stronger aerial game, as most of the game's enemies and Dante's attacks are based on the ground.



Aside from combat, Dante's Inferno also challenges players with a good amount of puzzles and navigational sequences to figure out. Puzzles vary in method and nature- some require precise jumping and timing, some require players to move objects around, and some are simply platforming activities- but most of them are well designed and avoid repeating the same mechanic or gimmick. Sometimes puzzles are even worked into the combat, tasking players to fight with certain restraints and handicaps. The platforming segments of the game are pretty basic, but the detailed environments help the game manage to avoid the typical tedium of platforming itself.



Upgrading Dante on his journey isn't simply a matter of mindlessly grinding Souls (experience) and purchasing skills. From the upgrade menu, players are presented with two branching skill trees: one Holy and the other, Unholy. The Holy tree focuses mainly on Dante's cross abilities and powerful defensive and curative magic, while the Unholy tree puts a larger emphasis on Dante's scythe abilities and chaotic offensive magic. While purchasing individual skill nodes on the skill tree cost Souls gained from defeated enemies, each tier of the skill tree is locked until that Holy or Unholy level is achieved through accruing Holy and Unholy experience points. There are two ways to gain Holy and Unholy experience. The first way is by choosing to punish or absolve defeated enemies in battle by grabbing them with RT/R2, which results in quick and easy yet relatively few experience points. The second method is by choosing to punish or absolve the Damned Shades that reside in Hell. These shades are recognizable historical figures that have been subjected to the tortures of Hell for their sins. Choosing to punish or absolve these shades will result in a heft amount of Holy or Unholy experience. Additionally, choosing to absolve them will allow you to "collect their sins" in a short minigame that pays out with a massive amount of regular souls. What I enjoyed most about Dante's Inferno's experience system is that it gives players the opportunity to choose which skills they want to develop first. If you want that badass new scythe attack, you can invest in the Unholy tree and completely neglect the Holy one until you get it. If you think a particular shade was a scumbag in life and needs to be punished, you can make up for the lack of Holy experience by absolving enemies in combat. There's more than enough experience in a playthrough to allow players the mobility to specifically design their character builds.



Also present is a system of equipable relics that modify very specific aspects of Dante's abilities. Relics are found in a collectible fashion throughout the game and vary tremendously in usage and effect: some provide damage increases, others extend the duration of the combo count, and others yet reduce or negate incoming stagger values. Some relics can be leveled up through usage, increasing their effectiveness. By default, Dante can equip two relics, but up to two additional slots can be purchased through the skill tree. The relic system provides players with a vital tool to fine-tune playstyles in order to meet certain requirements or overcome the game's many challenges and really affords players the opportunity to rely on more than just raw skills to fall back on during some of the game's most grueling segments.



Aside from a fantastic single player story, Dante's Inferno offers little post completion. Redemption mode is basically a NG+ that lets players keep skills and relics from a previous playthrough, but it doesn't offer any alternate content or new, stronger enemies. There's a timed wave-based arena mode that players can access through the main menu, but it has little depth and is more of a chore to play than any actual fun. Once you finish the game, there's little more to do than collect relics, max out Dante's skills, and clear the game again at higher difficulties. It's because of this absence of post game content that Dante's Inferno's seems sorely lacking in replayability, and players looking for content beyond the game's main body won't find what they're looking for there.



Making a game out of one of literature's most renowned pieces is no routine occurrence, and yet Visceral's work with Alighieri's masterpiece exceeded most of the expectations I had going into it. The only place I really felt was lacking was the depth of the combat system, or perhaps the absence of it, but other than that, Dante's journey through hell captured every minute emotion one would expect of such an adventure. When a game can make you truly feel despair and anguish by just putting you through its motions, the result is an experience that ought not to be missed. Add to that character build and development systems that congeal smoothly and you'll find yourself an empowering and thought-provoking voyage appealing to hardcore gamers and Alighieri fans alike.

Rating: 7

Product Release: Dante's Inferno (US, 02/09/10)