Cody Hargreaves takes a trip to Inferno. He barely made it back…

“Forgive me father, for I have sinned. In my weakness I sought comfort in the soft crevices of another woman’s bosom. I did this each day, for thirty-seven years. It was her doing, I swear. I was unable to resist temptation.”

So, do you forgive him? Or should he be sentenced to eternity in the second circle of Inferno, Lust? Such decisions are commonplace in the world of Dante’s Inferno, and they often appear within scenarios just like the one above, though with far less involvement on your part. You could say that it’s one of the more entertaining aspects of the game, but in turn, you would be implying that there are entertaining aspects to the game – and that would be lying. I wonder, in which circle of Inferno would that sin find you spending eternity?

Dante took 'B.Y.O. scythe' a little too seriously

THIS. IS. INFERNO!

In the end, it doesn’t matter. You won’t be making such choices based on whether or not you believe the person in question deserves the punishment for the crime; instead, you’ll be making them based on what style of combat you’d like to enhance most at any given time, as your choice to ‘punish’ or ‘absolve’ the denizens of Inferno is linked directly to your choice to advance either melee or ranged combat. That’s a large part of what’s wrong with Dante’s Inferno. But first, the good stuff. Don’t worry, this won’t take long.

Most of the ‘good’ that Dante’s Inferno has to offer can be found within the first hour of playing it. This is largely a product of the world in which the game has been designed, being loosely based on the magnificent 140,000 line poem The Divine Comedy, written by Dante Alighieri in the 1300s. The locations, characters and environments have not only been re-created in such a way as to evoke awe and wonder as you plough your way through them, but the graphical style will see you leaning closer to the screen for a better look at some of the most impressive visuals we’ve seen in a video game to date.

The combat feels interesting too, in the beginning, utilising a combination of melee ‘Scythe’ and ‘Holy’ ranged attacks; and the choices you’ll be asked to make, not unlike the one used in my introduction (though often far more interesting), actually have you thinking about morality and fate, and what you consider to be criminal or merely unfortunate and forgivable.

He's deadly serious

IT NEVER LASTS…

I was actually quite impressed with Dante's Inferno to start with. That was until I’d reached the ‘five hour itch' mark and realised that nothing had changed. I was still killing the same enemies. I was still killing them in the same environments. I was killing them with the same weapon. The enemies and bosses had subtle differences as the story progressed, as did some of the environments and weapon attacks, too – but by and large after five hours of playing I was still doing the same thing. It just wasn’t fun anymore. Repetitive gameplay. Unimaginative combat. Linear direction.

The bad stuff… well, where do I begin? How about the fact that enemies that can knock you down with a single attack, then repeatedly continue doing it until you’re dead? Or quick-time events that pop up without warning every five minutes, and kill you when you don’t hit them within the 0.2 second window provided? Or puzzles that scale in difficulty depending on the camera angle you’re stuck viewing them in? And don’t even get me started on a morality system that links directly to weapon advancement, effectively removing the moral aspect entirely. It’s almost as though the developers shot themselves in the foot, turning a series of decent game concepts into an entire game. Now that I think about it, what was I expecting? Too much, it seems, as aside from some short-lived eye-candy, Dante’s Inferno delivers very little and ends up being more of a sputtering beach fire than an inferno.

I actually have no idea what is going on in this screen

Interesting Fact:
In the poem The Divine Comedy, protagonist Dante embarks upon a journey through the three levels of the afterlife – Inferno, Paradiso, and Purgatorio – in search of his lover, Beatrice; and as the name implies, Dante’s Inferno focuses on the first part of the tale, and will see you advancing through the nine circles of Inferno.