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Dante's Inferno
PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PSP
MSRP: $59.99 (console), $39.99 (PSP)
ESRB Rating: Mature

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What kind of game is it?

A modern day beat 'em up. A hack 'n slash. Have you played God of War? You have a pretty good idea of what to expect from Dante's Inferno. Dead Space developer Visceral Games have lifted the best elements of God of War's combat and tossed it into a journey through Hell that's based on the first part of Dante Alighieri's three-part epic poem, The Divine Comedy. Dante must travel through the nine circles of Hell to save his princess from none other than Lucifer.

Who's the developer?

Visceral Games, formerly known as EA Redwood Shores, is same studio within Electronic Arts that developed Dead Space. It's not the same team (they're working on Dead Space 2), but you can definitely tell it's from the same thinktank. They also worked on the internally developed the Wii spin-off, Dead Space: Extraction, both The Godfather games and The Simpsons Game.



What's the story?

Most of the people interested in Dante's Inferno probably aren't that familiar with The Divine Comedy, the 14th century poem that Dante's Inferno draws inspiration from. Visceral Games has lifted the basic story setup -- a man pushing his way through the nine circles of Hell, each one representing a different Christian sin, in pursuit of his love, Beatrice -- and tweaked it. The roles of some characters have been adjusted (i.e. Virgil) and plenty of subplots removed, but the journey to the pit of Hell remains.

What'd we say?

It's impossible to discuss Dante's Inferno without discussing its primary influence, God of War. It caused some controversy in the comments, but I argued it was a massive compliment.

"Is imitation necessarily a bad thing? On one hand, the use of the word suggests imitation is easy. I assume most developers who tried to make a game like Halo, Modern Warfare or World of Warcraft will quickly tell you that's not necessarily the case. Good imitation isn't an easy task. Dante's Inferno is a very well crafted action game, largely because it succeeds at using its inspirations effectively."

See it in action:








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