Pre-Play: Dante's Inferno (PS3)

With the demo out now on Playstation 3, later to follow on Xbox 360, I figured I would make it our very first "Pre-Play" feature. Pre-Play is our impressions of a game before release or full review.

Dante's Inferno, based on the first part of Dante's Divine Comedy starts out simple enough, placing you in the armor covered soles of Dante, the game's main protagonist. Your goal as Dante is revealed through the story cut scenes explaining that Dante must find redemption for his soul, if he is to escape the depths of hell and save his beloved wife Beatrice from a marriage to Lucifer in an attempt to dethrone God.

Gameplay, borrows very much from God of War, and seems to bring a bit more of an art style to its combat system. For instance, when grabbing enemies, you must first decide to "Punish" or "Absolve" their soul by either performing a final visceral blow, or praying for them before sending them to their maker. This being the game's morality system in motion. You can choose to walk a forgiving path, or destroy those in your journey to save your lover from the depths of hell.

Another key aspect of the game is its upgrade system, which acts as a bullet point ladder, allowing the player to upgrade Holy or Unholy weapon combos, grabs, counters, and deadly finishing moves. Unfortunately, the Holy upgrades were locked for the demo, so any impressions of those will have to be put into the final review of the game.

The demo takes Dante to a city overtake by the Crusade, to a graveyard on death's doorstep, to finally the first circle of hell, where demons and monsters alike will try and end Dante's quest to free his love.

Final Thoughts: There have been many comparisons of this game to God of War, and in truth, it is very much like it. I thought Dante's Inferno was a very interesting tale and the art style pushes the boundaries of what is allowed in games. This game has its own style of story telling and its gameplay is very addicting and fast paced. So far, Dante's Inferno is shaping up to be a very good adaptation of the Divine comedy as far as videogame interpretations go. All in all, Dante's Inferno looks to be if anything, a unique title, and an interesting attempt at an action/adventure game.

Title: Dante's Inferno
Platforms: Playstation 3, Xbox 360, PSP
Release Date: February 9th, 2010
ESRB: M (17+)