Although it takes less than 6 hours to complete, those hours feel like a drag
Then I found myself with nothing to play (having just completed Mass Effect 2), so I decided to rent Dante's Inferno. After all, I thought, I'd played the demo and the game seemed like it had potential. It couldn't be all that bad, I reasoned. I was wrong.
Technically, Dante's Inferno should be a great game. The graphics are top notch, the characters and environments nicely detailed, great lighting effects, epic source material, and solid combat. But this shameless God Of War clone just doesn't quite work.
So, in the interests of being concise, I'll list the good and bad...
The Good:
1. Accessible pick-up-and-play combat system
2. Great character and enemy animations
3. Detailed environments with great lighting effects
4. Excellent cinematic cutscenes
5. Precise control system
The Bad:
1. Uninteresting protagonist
2. Convoluted, mediocre story told in muddled, confusing flashbacks - honestly by the end I couldn't have cared less that Dante was unfaithful to Beatrice, or whether he saved her soul.
3. limited colour palette - you'll see a lot of black, grey, red and yellow, and not much else
4. Environments are too samey
5. Only one weapon to use throughout the entire game
6. Bosses are way too easy
7. Dante's voice acting is pretty crap
8. Game becomes very repetitive towards the end.
9. Quick time events are overused
10. The 'absolve' minigame becomes extremely tiresome given how often you'll need to do it.
I think the main problem was the story. Whilst The Divine Comedy is obviously a great classic, I don't think it's good source material for a video game - unless they did the whole thing, ie, Inferno, Purgatory and Paradiso. Just the journey through hell is too limited (hence the samey environments and short length of the game).
Anyway, I honestly can't recommend this to anyone, it's just too dull. But if you're a God Of War-starved 360 owner (like me) and simply must try the game, rent it.