Dante’s inferno is a game where the hook of the story is essential to survive its gaming elements and mechanics
Can the 9 stages of hell be fearsome and interesting?  Unfortunately, not really.

Presentation:

The tracery of Dante is the cause of all problems leading his wife Beatrice to hell, and from there, the road to saving his wife is brutal. Your goal as Dante is to save Beatrice from her path.

The mix of animated, CGI and in-game cut-scenes gives the game something unique, but the in-game cut-scenes are not pretty! The animated sequences on the other hand have a lot of fascinating direction and design with some gruesome violence and sex. Also the animated segments give you flashbacks about what happened with the people and events that were inflicted with death and sent to hell. The CGI segments look really good and detailed, its usually to give points to the main story and characters, brutal detail to the blood and really good animations. The big difference to the game is the choosing between the “holy” and “unholy” path regarding actual gameplay mechanics and also narrative decisions that you will make.

Visuals:

The game looks decent, most areas are not as sharp as they could have been, the gore is there but its not enough, especially since the game is trying to convey violence, even if some of the finishing moves do have brutal decapitations. The variety in the environments is there, but not all the environments are interesting or unique, same goes for the enemies, most of them are just dull to fight or to look at, most of the attacks that are available are great to look at, especially the air attacks.

Sound:

The voice-acting in the game is good but not great, the main character Dante couldn’t been more standard and rough, sure, the actions that happen should evoke something from a character, but its too much standard, the background music is not doing anything to the game, its just there, and its not good, it takes out any small vibe and atmosphere feel that the game have. Weapons and attacks sounds good, but Dante’s reactions could have been more varied.

Gameplay:

As a 3rd person action game with platforming and RPG elements, the game is varied with its challenges, but most of the gameplay is very dull, the action itself feature quite a lot of combos, attacks and healing upgrades that changes the game quite a lot, but sadly the problem is more with the enemies and bosses the game throws at you, the action set pieces are weak and sometimes not well thought out, the big bosses are boring to fight, the quick timed parts are small which is good, and they are fun to do at the most part since its basically larger than life actions that you wont be able to do yourself, also the big beast segments are awkward to handle. The platforming and rappelling mechanics are awkward aswell, it works well, but its not obvious at points where or what you need to do, also the animation transition with some of the puzzles and jumps are weird, the puzzles are boring with no fun or challenging elements besides one or two. The RPG elements are shown with the combat and sparring or saving sinners, the right thing to do is to go through the entire game with one decision in mind, meaning being evil or savior throughout the game, since you get holy or unholy EXP “souls” that open your upgrading options with the choices you made, evolving in exp works simple and easy, but i have to say, the entire element of holy and unholy works well regarding what combos\attacks you will get (there are two tablets, one is for each, and basically when you evolve yourself with that side, you will get up to 7 levels and get more unlocks in that tablet).

Replay Value:

The game is quite short, its around 6-8 hours, if you have any interest to go through the game twice to have both sides and get different upgrades, it will add value obviously, but for one play through it is quite short.

Pros and cons:

Pros:

Great attacks and combos to unlock and use, the variety is not fully there, but its enough to use each attack against different opponents.

Really gorgeous CGI cut-scenes, interesting animated  cut-scenes as well.

Cons:

Boring enemies and boss fights.

Lackluster story and characters.

Dull music that takes you out of the immersion, if its even there.

The in-game cut-scenes are not impressive to look at, same for the actual script.

Scoring:

Presentation:

6 The biggest aspect that i have disappointment with, the premise and the narrative seemed so intriguing at first, but the actual story and characters are just boring.

Visuals:

7  The inconsistency with the sharpness, detail and the design can be a disappointment, since there are a lot of really neat areas with some well thought out design.

Sound:

6 The voice-overs are good besides Dante and some minor characters that appear,  also the lackluster music  can be  problem, but the weapons sound great.

Gameplay:

7.5 The actual gameplay is good, but the control scheme is hard to get used to, and some of the animations are weird to play with, especially the rappelling one, the RPG elements combined with the holy and unholy decisions are a unique design to give variety to a potential second run. 

Replay Value:
5.5 The game is short, sure how much can you stretch a 9 levels? i guess not enough, playing a second run could potentially be good, but only if you will like the mechanics and set-pieces.

Conclusion:

Dante’s Inferno fails with what the narrative and presentation that it seemed to have, the gameplay is known to the genre with some interesting ideas, but because the story is so boring, its just not good, since it was the big hook for me, despite that, if the love for the action genre is there, its a decent game to experience, but sadly for my view, it was the lack of an interesting story.

Final Score:

7