A game that totally mimics God of War series but not at its finest quality
The story of the game is inspired from Divine Comedy, masterpiece literature by Dante Alighieri. Although only the name of the characters and settings are taken from that literature. The rest of the story is all made up.
As soon as you start the game you will jump right into the action. The gameplay is absolutely similar to God of War series. Swift attacks, charge attacks, launching enemies into the air, grabbing and executing the enemies. Killing enemies will give you souls to upgrade your character by increasing health, magic and learning deadly combos. The only difference is that you can use your cross to fire spiritual projectiles to your foes from great distance. You will have to use your scythe and cross to fight your way. The other new game element is to judge your foes. After dealing enough damage to your enemies you can either execute or absolve them. Executing will give you unholy souls which upgrades your scythe and absolving will give you holy souls that will upgrade your cross. But in the end if you execute and absolve enemies with equal amount your weapons will reach its maximum level.
The enemies in the game are not that so unique to each other. The enemies have really cheap AI and to cover that mistake they have really high hit points plus really high attack powers. Even the weakest enemies takes long time to be killed even if you are at the maximum level. Another factor that makes them difficult to be killed is your attack range. Whenever you are attacking with your scythe you have to be in a specific range to deal damage. If you are to close, your blade won't hit your foe which is quite annoying. Sometimes slicing your enemies takes time from them to react. If you perform 3-hit combo, the enemy will stand still then after a while they will react and get the damage. So these bugs will annoy you till the end of the game. You will die a lot in this game due to this problem.
Boss fights are not that so memorable. One dodge, few attacks, one dodge, few attacks and so on. It isn't that so interactive in fighting them.
Puzzles in the game are very cheap. There was not even a single moment where I got stuck. Adding those meaningless puzzles quietly ruins the game. The only fun and challenging parts are the platforming stages. You will jump from wall to wall, swing on the ropes, use your scythe as grappling hook, grab on poles on more. Those will keep you entertained.
When it comes to graphics it is so poor. The game is a port from consoles versions which means that the character models, textures, visual effects and sound effects are downgraded to fit the PSP's performance. It should have been refined and revamped for PSP's standard in order to look unique. Even blood effects are missing from the game. You can only see blood after killing your enemies.
The stages looks huge and detailed but after a while you will notice that somewhat they are reused later in the game. The game has a very dark hue color that you must play the game at full brightness.
After finishing the game, you will only unlock a part of Dante's Inferno comic book, another classic from Dead Space devs. Other than that, the game is bland after finishing it. No costumes, no arena fight challenges, no bonuses etc. So it is better to rent rather than buying it.
Overall it is a satisfactory hack and slash game. It is a game that can be improved in many ways. At least the game is not only released for home consoles.
Pros:
- Loads of varied combos and moves
- Endless fights against nasty looking enemies
- Useful power ups for your adventure
- Some great platforming sequences
- Interesting visuals
Cons:
- Ugly looking visuals and terrible sound effects
- Annoying soundtrack
- The enemies can make you go mad
- Better-than-nothing boss fights
- Cheap puzzles
- No bonuses upon completing the game
- Very annoying bugs and glitches
- Large chunk of the game is ripped-off from God of War games that it losses it potential quality