Hands On: Dante's Inferno

Anyone who’s seen gameplay videos of Dante’s Inferno has drawn comparisons with God of War but yesterday when I actually sat down to play a preview of the game I was shocked at how similar both games are (in fact I even joked that it was only a matter of time before Sony sued EA).

In Dante’s Inferno you play as Dante, a veteran Crusader who musttraverse the nine circles of Hell to free his love, Beatrice before Lucifer can forcibly marry her allowing him to break free from hell. We were only able to play a fraction of the game but I was told that the game’s pretty authentic when it comes to portraying the source material that by the way is one of Dante’s epic poems, Divine Comedy.

Like I mentioned earlier the game plays exactly like God of War. It’s a third person hack and slash game that oscillates between all out action and platforming. The game employs a fixed camera that basically positions itself at optimum locations throughout the level to give you the best view possible. It works for most of the time but can get stuck at times and is a bit of a bitch when it comes to platforming. Combat consists of taking on waves of diverse grotesque enemies interspersed with mini bosses that can be dispatched using over the top context sensitive moves.

I don’t know how many weapons would be present in the final game but in the demo I got to wield Dante’s scythe that I was told would be upgradable. You had light attacks, heavy attacks and mixing them up unleashed some wicked looking combos. I even got to take control of the game’s version of a Minataur allowing me to dispatch enemies with ease merely by swatting them with my gigantic arms. From then on I had to make it out of there before at least half the level crumbled around me. And finally I was confronted by one of the game’s bosses that once again seemed ripped straight out of God of War. Dodge attacks, slash away at health bar and finish him off using QTEs seemed like the order of the day. It wasn’t revolutionary by any means but it was fun.

And this is what Dante’s Inferno felt like at the end of the day – mindless fun thoroughly inspired by God of War. Thankfully the game’s pretty high on the production values and even though this was just preview code, it looked and played really well. I only hope the game has more tricks up its sleeve not burying itself as a God of War clone.

Either way we’ll come to know how it all plays out when Dante’sInferno releases for the Xbox360 and PS3 in February 2010.