Following on the tails of Darksiders and Bayonetta, EA puts up its new hack & slash IP, Dante's Inferno, hoping to get a new IP going and to get into the very well-liked God of War market. You play as Dante, a crusader who defeats death and descends into Hell to save his now-dead wife, Beatrice. While named and based on the epic poem Divine Comedy, specifically the first part, Inferno, which details the nine levels of Hell, the story itself has nothing to do with the poem. But, Alighieri's descriptions of Hell and the creatures and tortures therein are brought to life in many respects and you can tell the care taken in injecting anything possible from the Divine Comedy into the game to bring one of the most famous poems to life.
Your primary weapons in the game are Death's scythe and Beatrice's cross. The scythe operates as your unholy weapon in the game, able to perform light but large distance hits or heavy and shorter hits. You start off with some very basic attacks, as is normal for these type of games, but as your holy level increases - based on your ability to punish certain opponents and famous persons you encounter while traversing Hell - new moves, combos, and other abilities are unlocked and can be purchased with the souls you collect.
Beatrice's cross is your holy weapon and is your primary ranged weapon as well as your number one tool for racking up some large combos, which is important for increasing the souls you collect from slain foes (during my one time through I got up to a 500 and something combo, but there is a Trophy for getting up to 666 in a single combo - good luck!). Similar to Death's scythe, Beatrice's cross can improve in power, learning new moves, combos, and other abilities as you unlock Holy levels, which is done by absolving your enemies and others.
Both the scythe and the cross have up to seven levels that can be unlocked, but don't expect to do this on the first time through the game unless you focus on one over the other. There are five magic abilities that you can learn throughout gameplay and they can be leveled from either the scythe's unholy line or the cross's holy line. Overall, there are a lot of options for gameplay and improving your character throughout, enough to give you reason to play through the game twice just to max out everything.
The last element of the game that allows you to customize your character is from relics. Throughout the game from defeating some bosses but primarily from finding gargoyles, you can obtain relics. Relics are items that can provide a bonus to various skills, how many souls you collect, reduce damage you take, and even prevent opponents from interrupting some of your attacks.
Overall, EA has delivered on a robust and very customizable character leveling system that shouldn't disappoint most hack and slash fans, though they do lack in only having two weapons with which to perform your attacks. More weapons would lead to not only more of a reason to level up with more playthroughs, but also have made combat less repetitive.
The gameplay won't be new to anyone who's played God of War or a similar game, in fact it really doesn't do anything new in this regard. You encounter a group of enemies in an area that won't let you bypass it until you kill them all, and you do so using your combos. There are various boss fights that primarily equate to either opponents who have a 'you can't block me and I can attack through all of your attacks' mode or large creatures with the typical memorized actions followed up by some QTEs.
QTEs, let's talk about them a bit. We all know that QTEs are a part of these type of game, it's to be expected. The problem with Dante's Inferno is that there's no excuse for many of the ways that they implement them. The unnecessary need to punch the circle button a lot when opening a door or refueling your health/mana, which could have the exact same effect as just holding a button down and does nothing but stress one's thumb and wrists unnecessarily. Even worse, though, are QTEs that result in immediate death if you don't get them right, and in a few locations they are completely unexpected. This late in the life of these type of games, it's sad to see these type of mistakes being made.
One of the most confusing elements of the gameplay is in the quasi-platform focus, utilizing pools of writhing humanoids that result in instant death if you fall in, traversing multiple ropes that can easily result in missing one and falling immediately to your death. Even worse is the camera control, resulting in many situations where they purposefully make it hard for you to discern where to jump or how far to jump without falling to your death.
Now, none of that would be too bad if it wasn't for the method in which EA chose to save your progress in the game. Essentially, you can save at statues throughout Hell and that's it. If you happen to leave a save point, traverse some platform situations, fine a hidden area where you can obtain a new relic, souls, or otherwise, and then die immediately afterward? You'd have to waste your time doing all of that over again, rather than the game auto-saving when you find these hidden items.
For EA's fist step into the world of hack and slash, it's definitely a sloppy one but still enjoyable. There are moments that made me wonder why EA would let a game let this out with such notable flaws, but they quickly pass and you're back into hacking up denizens of Hell with a ridiculous scythe and a holy cross. The game ends quicker than I thought it would, but definitely opens up the game for starting completely anew - even sans scythe and cross - with the next element of Alighieri's poem, Purgatorio.
If you are a huge fan of hack and slash and have the money to spend, you will likely enjoy Dante's Inferno. If you're like most gamers and only want to buy the good stuff at full price, wait on this title to drop to the $20-30 mark. It'll make for a good day or two of gameplay.
There are good video game protagonists, and there are bad video game protagonists.
I disagree that max is unlikable. Chloe is infinitely more unlikable in my opinion.
Abby was absolute trash protagonist in every way..
Tidus was so meh to me..
On villain side, the one i didn’t like wa Micah, because they wanted him to be that way and it was brilliant👍🏽
Both are horrible, granted Chloe is infinitely worse, it feels like Chloe is just fanservice for people who too over the edge and wasn't written to be a character that makes sense
Ye I was expecting her too. Guess they actually played the game. Unlike you and whoever agrees.
She's actually not bad. It's the writing itself that is bad overall, but she's fine overall. She's no worse than Miles Morales IMHO. Both thrust into a spotlight and receiving both praise and blame and dealing with it.
Forspoken is a bland game because it's 75% bland, boring, repetitive going through the motions and diversions that add nothing of the value with purposefully gated memory moments that don't feel organic or like you're discovering things but waiting for others to reveal things.
Exactly Chris. Even though I liked the game. I kno u played it. People who actually played it and went thru her dream saw she was a good likeable person who really just acted out due to being alone and unloved. I think your problem is it was open world, I think if it was more linear you may have liked it better.
Oh no she's bad. Very unlikable even before you add on the bad dialogue. The game could have been quite good with a good protagonist
For all the people like synner. Shes actually half white lol. Inferior complexity is a hell of a thing. You'll be ok.
Most of these aren't even that bad. Especially comparing to others like Squall "Whatever" Leonhart, Forspoken's Frey, and the guy from Atomic Heart.
Squall is one of the best developed main FF characters so...
People talk about his "whatever" thing thats at the start of the game, not the character he eventually becomes in the end.
No amount of "character development", (especially the ones that for me feels sudden and undeserved like Squall's), will justify him being a d**k to my girl Quistis. Even if he found the cure for cancer, from that moment on, I would never like him.
The article is about being unlikeable, and he was indeed unlikeable for at least half of the game.
the "watever" is only present in the english localisation.
so your argument doesnt rly ... stand imo.
Good for you that you could enjoy the japanese version. That's not the case for me and the majority of people here, though.
i had to stop reading after the "blatant misogyny" in the Dantes inferno section.
i actually liked Max haha.
the forspoken chick is missing tho
Grab your katana, and slice your way through this list featuring the best hack and slash games the PlayStation 3 had to offer.
Dante's inferno... an excellent GoW inspired game. So sad the sequels will never be.
I recall enjoying it well enough at the time, but it wasn't a patch on God of War 3 which came out around the same time I think.
I own it and fired it up on my PS3 about 6 months ago and time hadn't been particularly kind to it although it still very much nailed the atmosphere and it is a cool as he'll setting and universe.
Dante's Inferno needs the GOW treatment. No cut camera, with a real hellish depiction of the 9 circles and a story as dark and as serious would be amazing.
Still pretty amazing there was a PSP version that was actually pretty good. I remember playing it 10 years ago. I had the PS3 version when it first came out and loved it.
Yup, I remember being blown away with Heavenly Sword. I remember holding out hope that they would go back and add trophy support as a incentive to go back and replay the game, but I don't think they ever did?
I couldn't beat the final boss though! Spent several days trying but eventually gave up, lol. Still enjoyed it though.
heavenly sword was such a short, but amazing game. that game should be prime material to be made into a download only remaster.
I really enjoyed Castlevania, but struggled to get into it again reattempting it a few years back. I still think it does another of things well; story, presentation, level varietily and art style at least. Gameplay maybe has not stood test of time unfortunately which makes it a chore to get through.
Dante's Inferno at 4K 60FPS!
Sad this may never get the sequel it deserves. It's still one of the best GoW clones around.
I would love to revisit my old PS3 games played at a higher framerate and resolution. UC2, TLOU, GOW3, KZ2 & 3, Demon Souls
I know you can with UC2, TLoU and GoW3... just get the PS4 versions. Oh and i think Demon Souls as well.
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100% with u on that one.
Could you imagine a dead space on ps4/x1 and maybe a VR version.
And what about that Star Wars game they cancelled? They must have regretted it after seeing JFO's success.
This company is run by morons.
Yep. :( They care more about current trends than making a truly great game. It was their fault Dead Space 3 didn't do as well as 2 because, against the devs' wishes, they wanted it to have co-op because MuLtIpLaYeR > SiNgLePlAyEr. It's scary that companies like EA have so much influence on the industry.
Did this kind of quickly when I had time earlier today and didn't have as good of a grammar review of it as I wanted.
Just to clarify:
Scythe = Unholy
Cross = Holy
I'll get this game when the price drops. On the other hand, if I don't get it before GoW3, it might not be so interesting anymore. LOL...
Personally, I'm having a lot of fun with this game, and I didn't think it looked bad either. The bosses look awesome! The only issue I had with visuals was that too much of the game seemed to be played with a distant camera view of Dante. It's hard to make a game look good when you spend half the game squinting to see your character. Not a lot of variety visually either, but I figured as much seeing as how the whole game takes place in Hell. One of the coolest things about it was how it gave me a visual perspective of the poem, and it looks a lot like I imagined it in my head.
While this game is a clear rip off of God of War, it isn't a bad game. It deserves better than a 6.5. I'd give it a 7.5 or maybe even an 8.0 myself. I am not calculating in anything for the rip off. Just about every video game, movie, TV show, book, musical CD, or any other form of entertainment these days is more or less a rip off of something else. I've come to expect some level of rip-off. Ideas are dried up!
cgoodno could you give a score to Darksiders and Bayonetta, I just want to see how mine would compare to yours since I played both of them