Impressions: Dante's Inferno

I've got to admit, for a while I've felt like one of the few somewhat excited for Dante's Inferno...I mean come on these guys did Dead Space!  Who else would you want to recreate Hell then those guys?  Well hopefully this demo will calm some of the fears people have, then again if the biggest complain is "God of War clone lolz"  then I guess that's not really a bad thing is it?

 

The demo started directly at the start of the game and brought you right into the moment where you enter the Hell itself.  Throughout the demo you fight Death, kill some evil demon things and witness your love Beatrice get dragged into Hell...fun!

 

Right off the bat your fighting waves of enemies and even have a tangle with Death.  Within five minutes it becomes very apparent just how well this game is put together from a gameplay standpoint.  Does it have similarities to games like God of War?  Sure.  But that's really a non-issue.  The scythe controls very well and just feels right compared to most hack and slash games.  You've got a pretty wide range of attacks and combos at your disposal as well as some magic that you can use.  The magic spell I learned consisted of firing off Crucifixes at oncoming demons...which was pretty amazing if I do say so myself.

 

Defeating enemies earns you experience which you can use to upgrade your attacks or magic.  The upgrading consists of two "skill trees" if you want to call it that.  One side is "light" while the other is "dark", this goes back to that whole good and evil choice you have in the game.  Where you can choose to set the souls free or...well you know.

 

While the gameplay is great and would easily keep me entertained I did have a few issues with the game.  Graphically Dante's Inferno really doesn't look all that great.  It's hard not to compare it to recent titles but considering that it'll be going up against some major power houses when it releases it'll be tough to over look.  However this is saved by some very stylish comic book-like cutscenes as well as some great audio.

 

I was a bit saddened that we didn't actually get to "see" Hell with our time in the game but I enjoyed the taste we got and look forward to more this Febuary.  Dante's Inferno may take a lot of ideas from games like God of War...but it's doing them right, and Febuary has yet another game that's looking more and more like a must buy.