As twisted as hell

This God of War replica is strong on kitsch but weak on gameplay and plot.

If the woman you loved got dragged into the very depths of hell, would you sit in a corner and mope about it? Even our protagonist Dante wouldn't. In fact, he is so brave, he defeats Death a.k.a the Grim Reaper, takes his scythe and dives into hell to save his beloved Beatrice.

This is the basic premise of developer Visceral games' last action title, Dante's Inferno.

Inside Lucifer's den
The game's plot ain't great, but you have to give it to the level designers for making the game resemble hell itself! Every level and its inhabitants are sick, perverted manifestations of certain sins. So in the level of 'Lust', you'll come across grotesque women who attack you while in 'Gluttony' you'll face obese monsters whose sole aim in life is to devour you.

Grand aesthetics
It's obvious how "inspired" this game is by God of War and it loses marks for originality. You spam away at a key for opening doors or absorbing health; you finish off opponents in some awesome, over-the-top finishing moves, and you spend half the game platforming across the nine gates of hell.

While every level boasts of certain unique enemies, there are generic villains too. Still, combat is enjoyable and owning hell's minions never gets boring.

Poor gameplay
There were times during the game when you feel the devils really lost all sense of direction and put in some annoying stuff there just to artificially increase its length.

What we like

Solid visuals

Hell's rendition is great

Enjoyable combat

What we don't

Feels a bit too much like God of War

Platforming is bad

Can get pretty tedious

Verdict
The level design on Dante's Inferno is phenomenal and visuals are rock solid. If Visceral Games spent just as much time on developing the gameplay as they did on creating hell, we could have had a game worth competing with God of War. But sadly we don't!

tech2.in.com