Now, before I begin, a disclaimer. I will try not to spoil anything major, and anything I feel I must mention will be put in tags. Also, this is the first time I've done a review for a video game, so, since I'm not very well-versed in the art of video game critiquing, I request that you please bear with my lack of experience. Now, for my style, I am a fan of Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw's style of review (His reviews brought me to this site, and I would wager a great deal that I'm not the only one), by which I mean I enjoy sarcasm, cynicism, and good old fashioned wit. However, I tend to be a fair bit kinder to video games than Yahtzee, and, since this is a written (or typed, I guess) review, a lack of punctuation would just make this look sloppy, not to mention I must keep the Grammar Nazis at bay the best I can. Also, when I mention controls, I am using the Xbox 360 buttons. For PS3 users, Y = triangle, B = circle, X = square, and A = cross.
For each game, I will talk about the following categories.
Story
Gameplay/Fun
Characters/Dialogue
Controls
Camera/Lighting
Art/Graphics
Sounds/Sound Effects/Music
Voice Acting
Replayability
I will also touch on what I consider to be unique qualities of the game (In the case of "Dante's Inferno" I will touch on "Shock Factor", "Difficulty Curve", and "Level Variety".)
Alright, here goes nothing.
Story:
Alright, first of is the story. While, honestly, you can't really say much about the story of a game based on one of the great epic poems in history, it has to be done. And, they did take a lot of poetic license with the story (which is understandable), so I guess there is something to look at.
Basically, the story is as follows: You're Dante, who, instead of being the 1300s former soldier/politician-turned-poet, is a Crusader from the 1100s. As you can see in the demo (so this isn't a spoiler) You start off fighting random Arabs in the City of Acre and get a nice, curvy knife in the back from some hooded guy. Then, Death comes and says basically, "Yeah, remember that part about this fight being holy? Yeah, that was a load of crock. Time to go to Hell, buddy." Unsurprisingly Dante is not a big fan of this idea, and you start wailing the ever-lasting crap out of Death, take his scythe, then rip him in half while he is begging for mercy (Which irked me a bit. Why in the Hell (lol) is Death a sniveling pussy when it's time for him to face the old chopping block? Shouldn't he be mocking me and saying how I will never make it or something?)
So, now you head back to your home, and, surprise, your girl (Beatrice) is dead...and topless, for some reason. Suddenly, you see her soul (which is naked, but, since in the original poem all souls are naked, I'm not going to harp on this fact), she says something about you betraying her, and then good old Satan shows up. He laughs at you, takes her, and then all Hell breaks loose, literally. You fight some baddies, head to a church, take a holy cross, fight more crap, go down to the gates of Hell, bust it open and then fall down into Limbo. Here's where the demo/intro ends and the real game begins. You fight your way through the 9 Circles of Hell, each with their own unique challenges and styles, on your way to get Beatrice, kick the Prince of Darkness' ass, and look good doing it. Not much to complain about the story, they had to make it more exciting than the original poem, and I thought they did a good job with it.
Gameplay/Fun:
Overall, I found the gameplay and such to be very enjoyable. It was a fast-paced battle through Hell, and it was very engrossing. However, as many other critics have pointed out, the gameplay is still unoriginal. You could have put Kratos in there instead of Dante, and switched out the baddies for the baddies from God of War, and you would have had God of War having you battle through Tartarus instead of Dante battling through Hell. Still, God of War is a highly praised game, and having a similar game mechanism isn't necessarily a really bad thing. Still, it is a minor drawback since it shows a lack of originality on the designers/programmers' parts, which is odd, considering how imaginative the game is at certain points. One thing that was definitely a plus was the fun level. This wasn't a game that bored me. It was challenging, yet fair.
Characters/Dialogue:
Now, I thought the game did very well with the characters. From Dante's flashbacks to his confrontation with Lucifer, his character developed nicely from a mostly unknown person into a very complex, troubled man. The enemies were very intriguing as well, especially Lucifer, but since when is the Devil not intriguing? The love interest, Beatrice, had a very interesting character development along the way as well. Much of the dialogue can't be criticized because a lot of it is from the original poem. The original stuff wasn't that bad, the writers for the game did their job well. The dialogue coming from the souls of the damned that were being punished was especially well done. There were times where I actually felt bad for them for a while, before reminding myself that they are merely programmed, pixelated animations.
Controls:
The controls were, like the gameplay, mostly based on GoW's controls. "X" and "Y" for melee attacks, "B" for ranged attack, "A" for jumping, left bumper + attack button for magic, left trigger + attack button for combo, etc. Nonetheless, the controls were easy to get accustomed to and I found myself using various attack combos with ease. Personally, I preferred to use the ranged "holy cross" attacks, as I found them to be effective while keeping me at a distance from my adversaries. Quick-time events were common in the game, much like God of War, although there were some events that were basically button-mashing practice, like using health and mana fountains. I did find the "punish-absolve" quick time to be simple to master, although, again, sometimes they were simply just button-mashing. Absolving demons was funny when it went into button-mashing, it made me feel like one of those Baptist preachers.
Camera:
This was one aspect of the game that pissed the Hell out of me (ba-dum-tish). The camera is fixed the entire game, and moves only as programmed. You cannot control it manually. This is often a very annoying flaw. For example, when I'm jumping on platforms, every once and a while, the camera decides to be a complete ass and give me a side-view perspective, forcing me to make one of the "leap-of-faith" jumps. This may be a game where you are fighting Satan with the powers of God, but, that doesn't mean that I want to jump randomly and have faith that it will go according to plan. Additionally, there were times when I just wanted to look around at take in the sights, but, unfortunately, the Camera Nazi said "No scenic view for you".
Art/Graphics:
Now here's where the game was stellar. The graphics were good, but, then again, what game doesn't have good graphics these days? The artwork, however, was stunning. It was all very imaginative, detailed, and wonderfully grotesque. Everything was given a very distinct, disgusting look, and it was awesome (That's why the fixed camera pissed me off so much. I wanted to see as much cool stuff as possible). From the demons to the minions, it all worked well. The scenery was simply stunning, and mostly followed the poem very, very accurately. This game definitely had some imaginative designers and artists working on it, and they really deserve applause for this game. It was truly the game's brightest aspect, and it really affected the overall experience. In short, it kicked ass.
Sounds/Sound Effects/Music:
The music was your standard ominous chanting w/orchestra, so nothing to really comment on there, unless you want me to go into detail about Movement No. 2 of the 3rd Concerto or something (I didn't think so). Sound effects were also standard: Slashing/grinding sounds with the scythe, sparkly, magical sounds with the cross, bad guys went "grr", Dante went "grr", nothing interesting there. The background sounds, however, were definitely noteworthy. Every few seconds, you would hear another poor soul scream violently in suffering, and it really added to the effect. When you were in a room with a number of damned souls, their combined mourning and yells really brought the creepy factor to the game.
Voice Acting:
I thought the voice acting was mostly good, especially on the part of Lucifer's voice actor (He had the smug sneering spite of the Devil down perfectly) The other voice actors/actresses, specificially Dante's and Beatrice's, had their parts nailed down pretty well. Some of the accents on the damned were not something I thought the voice of the soul in question would sound like: A number of souls didn't have an accent that would fit the area where they resided on Earth. Still, it was one of the better aspects of the game.
Replayability:
As of now, unless you are going to try the harder difficulties, once you beat the game, all you have is the Gates of Hell arena, where you just fight a stream of enemies. So, there isn't much replayability to the game, however, from what I have heard about the "Trials of St. Lucia" DLC that will be coming soon, the game will get a cooperative mode and, something that will really improve the game, a level-editor. Once that comes out, this game will definitely be a real treat, but for now, it's really just a "one-and-done" type of game.
Shock Factor:
In the developers' diaries, the developers said this game was going to be twisted, grotesque, and downright wrong. They delivered on that promise, and the places and things you see are sometimes just unbelievably fucked up. Now, most of it, while disgusting, didn't really make me feel that shocked, but one thing did.
Otherwise, the rest of the stuff was disturbing but in a way that made the game better.
Level Variety:
From Limbo to the 9th circle, every level was uniquely and interestingly designed so as to reflect the sins of those held in each respect circle.
In summary, I thought that Dante's Inferno did a pretty good job for a God of War clone. It really excelled in art, level variety, characters, story, voice acting, and shock factor, and was pretty good when it came to gameplay and controls. However, a very annoying fixed camera, a poorly designed level, a relatively short game (8 hours or so) and lack of replayability and gameplay originality keeps this from being an incredible game. So now the big question: Is it worth buying if you have the money?
My advice: BUY THE GAME. Yes, this game is definitely worth the buy, especially since the future DLC should eliminate the lack of replayability problem. The flaws of the game are not that big of a deal (except for that worthless camera), and the game is a fun, action-packed adventure through Hell. I would have bought it, but, alas, I must keep an eye on my finances, and now is not the time to buy a $60 game.
For each game, I will talk about the following categories.
Story
Gameplay/Fun
Characters/Dialogue
Controls
Camera/Lighting
Art/Graphics
Sounds/Sound Effects/Music
Voice Acting
Replayability
I will also touch on what I consider to be unique qualities of the game (In the case of "Dante's Inferno" I will touch on "Shock Factor", "Difficulty Curve", and "Level Variety".)
Alright, here goes nothing.
Story:
Alright, first of is the story. While, honestly, you can't really say much about the story of a game based on one of the great epic poems in history, it has to be done. And, they did take a lot of poetic license with the story (which is understandable), so I guess there is something to look at.
Basically, the story is as follows: You're Dante, who, instead of being the 1300s former soldier/politician-turned-poet, is a Crusader from the 1100s. As you can see in the demo (so this isn't a spoiler) You start off fighting random Arabs in the City of Acre and get a nice, curvy knife in the back from some hooded guy. Then, Death comes and says basically, "Yeah, remember that part about this fight being holy? Yeah, that was a load of crock. Time to go to Hell, buddy." Unsurprisingly Dante is not a big fan of this idea, and you start wailing the ever-lasting crap out of Death, take his scythe, then rip him in half while he is begging for mercy (Which irked me a bit. Why in the Hell (lol) is Death a sniveling pussy when it's time for him to face the old chopping block? Shouldn't he be mocking me and saying how I will never make it or something?)
Okay, okay, you're not a pussy! You just came off a little pathetic, that's all!
So, now you head back to your home, and, surprise, your girl (Beatrice) is dead...and topless, for some reason. Suddenly, you see her soul (which is naked, but, since in the original poem all souls are naked, I'm not going to harp on this fact), she says something about you betraying her, and then good old Satan shows up. He laughs at you, takes her, and then all Hell breaks loose, literally. You fight some baddies, head to a church, take a holy cross, fight more crap, go down to the gates of Hell, bust it open and then fall down into Limbo. Here's where the demo/intro ends and the real game begins. You fight your way through the 9 Circles of Hell, each with their own unique challenges and styles, on your way to get Beatrice, kick the Prince of Darkness' ass, and look good doing it. Not much to complain about the story, they had to make it more exciting than the original poem, and I thought they did a good job with it.
Gameplay/Fun:
Overall, I found the gameplay and such to be very enjoyable. It was a fast-paced battle through Hell, and it was very engrossing. However, as many other critics have pointed out, the gameplay is still unoriginal. You could have put Kratos in there instead of Dante, and switched out the baddies for the baddies from God of War, and you would have had God of War having you battle through Tartarus instead of Dante battling through Hell. Still, God of War is a highly praised game, and having a similar game mechanism isn't necessarily a really bad thing. Still, it is a minor drawback since it shows a lack of originality on the designers/programmers' parts, which is odd, considering how imaginative the game is at certain points. One thing that was definitely a plus was the fun level. This wasn't a game that bored me. It was challenging, yet fair.
Characters/Dialogue:
Now, I thought the game did very well with the characters. From Dante's flashbacks to his confrontation with Lucifer, his character developed nicely from a mostly unknown person into a very complex, troubled man. The enemies were very intriguing as well, especially Lucifer, but since when is the Devil not intriguing? The love interest, Beatrice, had a very interesting character development along the way as well. Much of the dialogue can't be criticized because a lot of it is from the original poem. The original stuff wasn't that bad, the writers for the game did their job well. The dialogue coming from the souls of the damned that were being punished was especially well done. There were times where I actually felt bad for them for a while, before reminding myself that they are merely programmed, pixelated animations.
"We moved on with the trusty escort along the edge of the crimson boiling, in which the looping animations were making loud shrieks."
Controls:
The controls were, like the gameplay, mostly based on GoW's controls. "X" and "Y" for melee attacks, "B" for ranged attack, "A" for jumping, left bumper + attack button for magic, left trigger + attack button for combo, etc. Nonetheless, the controls were easy to get accustomed to and I found myself using various attack combos with ease. Personally, I preferred to use the ranged "holy cross" attacks, as I found them to be effective while keeping me at a distance from my adversaries. Quick-time events were common in the game, much like God of War, although there were some events that were basically button-mashing practice, like using health and mana fountains. I did find the "punish-absolve" quick time to be simple to master, although, again, sometimes they were simply just button-mashing. Absolving demons was funny when it went into button-mashing, it made me feel like one of those Baptist preachers.
"Satan, be gone! Come out of there, devil!"
Camera:
This was one aspect of the game that pissed the Hell out of me (ba-dum-tish). The camera is fixed the entire game, and moves only as programmed. You cannot control it manually. This is often a very annoying flaw. For example, when I'm jumping on platforms, every once and a while, the camera decides to be a complete ass and give me a side-view perspective, forcing me to make one of the "leap-of-faith" jumps. This may be a game where you are fighting Satan with the powers of God, but, that doesn't mean that I want to jump randomly and have faith that it will go according to plan. Additionally, there were times when I just wanted to look around at take in the sights, but, unfortunately, the Camera Nazi said "No scenic view for you".
Art/Graphics:
Now here's where the game was stellar. The graphics were good, but, then again, what game doesn't have good graphics these days? The artwork, however, was stunning. It was all very imaginative, detailed, and wonderfully grotesque. Everything was given a very distinct, disgusting look, and it was awesome (That's why the fixed camera pissed me off so much. I wanted to see as much cool stuff as possible). From the demons to the minions, it all worked well. The scenery was simply stunning, and mostly followed the poem very, very accurately. This game definitely had some imaginative designers and artists working on it, and they really deserve applause for this game. It was truly the game's brightest aspect, and it really affected the overall experience. In short, it kicked ass.
It...
...kicked...
...ass. As well as disgusting tits.
Sounds/Sound Effects/Music:
The music was your standard ominous chanting w/orchestra, so nothing to really comment on there, unless you want me to go into detail about Movement No. 2 of the 3rd Concerto or something (I didn't think so). Sound effects were also standard: Slashing/grinding sounds with the scythe, sparkly, magical sounds with the cross, bad guys went "grr", Dante went "grr", nothing interesting there. The background sounds, however, were definitely noteworthy. Every few seconds, you would hear another poor soul scream violently in suffering, and it really added to the effect. When you were in a room with a number of damned souls, their combined mourning and yells really brought the creepy factor to the game.
Voice Acting:
I thought the voice acting was mostly good, especially on the part of Lucifer's voice actor (He had the smug sneering spite of the Devil down perfectly) The other voice actors/actresses, specificially Dante's and Beatrice's, had their parts nailed down pretty well. Some of the accents on the damned were not something I thought the voice of the soul in question would sound like: A number of souls didn't have an accent that would fit the area where they resided on Earth. Still, it was one of the better aspects of the game.
Replayability:
As of now, unless you are going to try the harder difficulties, once you beat the game, all you have is the Gates of Hell arena, where you just fight a stream of enemies. So, there isn't much replayability to the game, however, from what I have heard about the "Trials of St. Lucia" DLC that will be coming soon, the game will get a cooperative mode and, something that will really improve the game, a level-editor. Once that comes out, this game will definitely be a real treat, but for now, it's really just a "one-and-done" type of game.
Shock Factor:
In the developers' diaries, the developers said this game was going to be twisted, grotesque, and downright wrong. They delivered on that promise, and the places and things you see are sometimes just unbelievably fucked up. Now, most of it, while disgusting, didn't really make me feel that shocked, but one thing did.
Having to fight unbaptized babies really was revolting to me, as I have always held a deep, unique hatred towards those that harm children, especially infants, and even seeing children harmed on TV shows, movies, or video games really sickens me. So, having to fight unbaptized infants was a real problem for me. (I dealt with it by just grabbing them and absolving them, so that way I thought, "Well, they've been sent to Heaven, I think") Additionally, this was something the creators shouldn't have taken poetic license with. In the novel, Dante's Inferno, all souls, including those unbaptized children, took on the appearance of themselves at the age of 35, as that was considered the midpoint of life in Dante's time. The creators could have done that and not had to do this shit, but, I guess that's why they call it "shock value".
Otherwise, the rest of the stuff was disturbing but in a way that made the game better.
Level Variety:
From Limbo to the 9th circle, every level was uniquely and interestingly designed so as to reflect the sins of those held in each respect circle.
Limbo was like the entry point, with castles and the like, Lust was basically a big phallus/vagina/breast reference, especially the Big Penis Tower (that's what I called it, anyways), Gluttony was rotting world of human waste and organs, Greed was a gold foundry, Anger was a disgusting marsh, Heresy was a basically a mausoleum that was on fire, Violence went from a river of blood to a rotting forest to burning sands, Fraud (disappointingly) was just a number of arenas, and Cocytus was a cavern of ice. They followed the book pretty well, with the exception of Fraud. Fraud was a huge letdown in all areas of the game: It was basically kill "x" number of guys, do "y" task, or survive for "z" time, and you get to move on. No interesting design, no unique enemies, just a number of arena over a deep crevice (at the bottom is where all the cool stuff is). It was really unfortunate, because they could have done some really cool stuff with Fraud, like snakes (thieves) and unique looking demons to represent all of the Malacoda, instead of just 2 generic archdemons, as well as cool places like a world of crap for the flatterers, and you could watch people get cut in half at Sowers of Discord. It was a really bad penultimate level. The other levels rocked though. The first 5 or so levels were the most varied and were just really intriguing and creative both in design and in enemy types. The other levels (except Fraud) were also unique, but rehashed old enemies, which is unfortunate, but I was okay with that.
In summary, I thought that Dante's Inferno did a pretty good job for a God of War clone. It really excelled in art, level variety, characters, story, voice acting, and shock factor, and was pretty good when it came to gameplay and controls. However, a very annoying fixed camera, a poorly designed level, a relatively short game (8 hours or so) and lack of replayability and gameplay originality keeps this from being an incredible game. So now the big question: Is it worth buying if you have the money?
My advice: BUY THE GAME. Yes, this game is definitely worth the buy, especially since the future DLC should eliminate the lack of replayability problem. The flaws of the game are not that big of a deal (except for that worthless camera), and the game is a fun, action-packed adventure through Hell. I would have bought it, but, alas, I must keep an eye on my finances, and now is not the time to buy a $60 game.
