The combat delivers exactly what fans of the genre would want, but the plot, level design, and puzzles don't match up.
One of my biggest personal qualms with this game was the major changes to Dante and the storyline. Dante's story of redemption in this game has been completely revamped, which is not a good thing for people seeking a faithful adaptation. Dante's wife Beatrice (which wasn't his wife in the original story) makes a deal with Satan to bring Dante back alive if he doesn't cheat on her. Of course he does, hence his quest for redemption. He sets out to save her (he didn't in the original story; it was the other way around) and enters the Nine Circles of Hell to do so. Virgil, great poet of Rome and author of The Aeneid, is his guide, though he only appears at certain points and his lines are somewhat altered. More fluff is added to the story as Dante has to deal with the rest of his family on the way to Beatrice. The background story sees Dante as a soldier of the Crusades and a killing machine. That part is all insanity; Dante fought in wars, but his Divine Comedy self was far from the typical epic warrior. In fact, he faints at multiple times throughout the real story.
The gameplay is incredibly reminiscent of that seen in God of War. The base combat is virtually identical and most of the buttons carry out the same actions. Waves of monsters charge Dante, and usually after a moderate period of button-mashing, he is free to move on. Early on, the monster models are wicked. From enormous, vile-spewing monsters perfectly serving the role of gluttonous beasts to unbaptized, arm-sword babies attacking in swarms in Limbo, the monsters in the first third of the game are very well-thought out. Unfortunately, more wizards, armored knight monsters, and generic winged beasts densely populate the second half of the game, serving a big letdown. One entertaining, early change to the gameplay is taking control of a monstrous beast and destroying his fellow baddies with his arms, legs, and flame. Some solid platforming segments with this type of beast present themselves later in the game as well. Even with a little extra gameplay variety, Dante's Inferno doesn't really mix it up enough. The fighting gets fairly repetitive as the game continues, and some of the fights are too drawn out. There are some big boss fights tossed in there, but only a handful are worth mentioning, and these are just a matter of learning the boss's moves and trying again until you win.
Of course, being too similar to God of War, Dante has Kratos's health bar and magic bar. He also collects souls the same way Kratos collects orbs and uses them to, unsurprisingly, receive upgrades. Dante's upgrades are split into Holy and Unholy though; unlike in The Divine Comedy, he actually gets to punish or absolve the souls of the people in Hell. Choosing to absolve someone results in a quick minigame that gets easy with practice. He collects Holy and Unholy points accordingly, which allow him to unlock higher-level upgrades. The only other real difference is the addition of Relics, which allow Dante to receive even more bonuses. Fighting with magic is nothing you haven't seen in God of War, but another ability Dante has is his Cross, which he uses to shoot enemies from afar. With some upgrades, this can be one hell of an overpowering weapon. Along that line, besides the previously mentioned bosses, the game is way too easy. Some very cheap, annoying deaths (like slipping too easily when next to an edge, floor pieces randomly falling underneath you, or a plant late in the game that drops a poison that kills you unless you're way further out of its range than you should need to be) serve to balance that, but after a few tries even in those areas, you should be able to get past without any more trouble. It wouldn't be a GoW clone without some bad hit-detection, so that's tossed in as well. The puzzles are either outrageously easy or you've seen them many times before (like in.. GoW). There is some average platforming, mostly seen when descending from Circle to Circle, but again, the majority is derivative of other games. There are some bad moments too, like when bad camera angles keep you from being able to tell exactly where/how far you should jump, resulting in more cheap deaths.
More impressive was the game's graphics. There were some very good textures throughout the game with some incredible lighting effects in certain areas. I love what they did with the shading in certain areas, making the levels really dark and gritty. Characters, bosses, and monsters (as I've said) look brilliant. Dante himself looks spectacular; I'm very happy to say I love what they did with his design. While much of it isn't up to GoWIII or other top-end games, it's still surprisingly good. The art direction in the first third of the game is definitely great; I especially loved what they did with Limbo and Gluttony. After that though, it really starts to lack. The desert area was average, but everything else was mediocre at best. I also wasn't appreciative of how dark certain areas were. For the most part, it's okay (as Hell should be dark), but when you're trying to complete a puzzle or a platforming segment, extremely dark areas can make figuring out what to do a pain. Another little issue I noticed was that while the draw-distance is impressive for the most part, some areas actually have prerendered backgrounds, which shouldn't be necessary. The game did a good job of holding a lot of action on-screen at once (like GoW) without too much trouble, but I did notice some stutters in the frame-rate at various times.
Another underwhelming aspect of Dante's Inferno was its soundtrack. The sound effects in-game, especially from the monsters and outside the tortured souls, was exactly what you would hear if you turned on GoWIII. You can clearly hear the wails of the damned throughout much of the game, but it remains the same from Circle to Circle. If they had added, say, sudden shrieks or agonized calls more often (maybe as you see groups of people being tortured), it really would've added to the game's ambiance, and maybe added more of a horror feeling as well. The voice-acting was the most impressive aspect of this game's audio. Pretty much every character had a quality voice, which immensely helped the otherwise mediocre dialogue. The music was nothing special and a lot of parts just sounded similar to what you'd hear in GoW. It picked up its pace when the action started to speed up and slowed down during the slow descents from each Circle, which is good. The music wasn't really bad; there just weren't any memorable themes, and it didn't help the game's pathetic plot at all. They also should've added some more unique music to each boss, like a nice ending theme that would've better summed up the theme of each Circle.
After a very promising start, Dante's Inferno drops all creativity and becomes a banal God of War clone. The story has absolutely nothing to do with The Divine Comedy and doesn't come close to matching the legendary epic. There is a whole lot of violent, gory action and some amusing boss fights, but if you're looking for a deep gaming experience, you won't find it here. The puzzles and platforming have been seen in many other games dozens of times and other than cheap deaths the game holds little challenge except on the higher difficulties. The music and sound effects could've been much better, though the voice acting was well-done. The entire interface was way too similar to GoW's and really would've benefited from some originality. At the same time, the combat was good regardless of minor problems. The picture of Purgatory at the end was pretty awesome, though I personally don't want to see them make more changes to The Divine Comedy. So, all in all, if you're an Action/Beat-Em-Up fan looking for violence, blood, and good visuals, Dante's Inferno is certainly worth a look. If not, then I don't think this relatively short campaign with a lack of depth outside of combat is worth your time.