Has some good moments, but their covered by stupid design choices, uneven difficulty and generally uninspired.
I never really looked forward to Dante's Inferno. It looked too much like God of War and the demo didn't really set me on fire. Journeying through hell does sound appealing though, so even though I didn't look forward to it, I.... borrowed it. Hell no am I going to spend money on it, if it isn't good. It's supposed to be better than God of War, so we'll compare that game to this game.
Story
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The story follows Dante, a general crusader who despite his beliefs (he's Christian), he has committed an untold number of crimes during the Third Crusade. After apparently being killed, he ends up fighting the Grim Reaper, which he survives for some reason. After that, it's back home to his wife (Beatrice), whom he finds dead along with his father. Turns out Lucifer has come and drags Beatrice to hell, leaving Dante to literally go to hell to rescue her.
This is apparently based on the poem called "Inferno", which I've never read, but it doesn't matter, because they probably took a lot of liberties with it, and only used the names. That doesn't change that the story is bad. Everything just moves by so fast, no explanation and Dante just acts like it's normal, like when he's entering hell, where he just uses a special cross on a special way and there he go, he enters hell, and he doesn't even react to it all. Overall the story is on speed, there's no character development, some things in it doesn't make sense, the ending has a cliffhanger and it's just another forgettable pile of douche.
4.0
Gameplay
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I want to skip this, because it's like God of War, but I can't really get around it. It's a big hack 'n slash, with some puzzles and platform elements mixed into it, very much like God of War. Your goal is to keep moving forward. Yea the game is very linear, no branching paths, unless you want secrets, but on the other hand, it does lead to some (very few) cool set-pieces. While attacking is very much like God of War, at least the upgrade system isn't ripped-off, but the more you play, the more you wish they developers would also have copied the upgrading system.
See, Dante has a holy and a unholy bar and both can be upgraded by either absolving or punishing enemies. How you do that? By grabbing enemies.... well some of them. The small enemies you can grab and punish or absolve, and get points for their respective bar. It gets a bit repetitive and it's ultimately a cheap move, because it can clear out an entire room, slowly but easily. It's a good thing then, that you're thrown against enemies who can't be punished/absolved that easily. Some require you to hurt them enough times in order to grab them and then the punish/absolve business, while some can't be punished/absolved (ok, going to call this p/a now) at all. There are other ways, like finding some of the damned and p/a them. The damned are basically souls who have done something to get to hell, and you can decide if you want to punish or absolve them.
An ok-ish idea and it works a bit... or so you think. Going the Holy or Unholy, it doesn't matter; the game and the ending will always be the same, which is a bit of a missed opportunity. That's far from the only problems the game has. The game's puzzles aren't bad, but they require a bit of luck, sometimes requiring you to lift a switch that opens a door or activates some other thing briefly, so you can go through. Sounds like old news, but you barely have enough time to get over there and go through the freakin' thing, so often you die when you're trying to move on, just because the timer's too short.
The combat also has some stupid issues, in that it's very hard at times. Often you're introduced to a new enemy, fight against him, and then it puts lot of enemies at you. Why do I complain about this? Because most enemies can take a good chunk of your health and they take several dozen hits to kill. And there's nothing you can do about this, because you can't upgrade your standard weapon, though you can upgrade your throwing crosses, which you can throw forever, because they don't use magic, a well needed addition and it's just lovely to throw. Doesn't help the combat at all, that it has quick-time events (again, very original...). Unfortunately, the on screen placements are poor and it's hard to actually make out what button you're supposed to press at times, though it's even worse when it wants you to move the analog stick in a certain way, the game is very bad at telling you this, which means you often have to retry them several times.
The game get's repetitive the more you play the game. While you gain more magic, you don't gain more weapons, and there aren't a lot of variation in enemies either. Sure there's different kind of enemies you'll be fighting, but their far and few between, and most of the time you'll be fighting against the same enemies. There are moments where you get to control a big monster, but the controls here are sluggish and slow.
The worst thing about the game is, that it's basically wasting your time. Apart from one particular plot twist, the game sometimes tries everything to make sure you spend more time on the game. Enemies respawn a lot, push you over cliffs and puzzles that requires a bit of luck to complete, and makes the game even more repetitive. The worst offender (and the worst design choice of the year) is the last level. Before you can go to the final cut-scene and final part before the final boss, you have to go through rooms and complete challenges, which include "kill enemies without magic", etc. I wish I was joking about this, but it's true, the game makes you go through this, before you can advance. It comes out of nowhere and it doesn't fit the game at all.
Heh, I almost forgot to mention it's portrait of hell, which it does rather well.... for an hour. The problem is, that the game introduces hell, hellish (surprisingly?) with lots of screaming and pain. But it never really goes beyond the whole screaming part. Everywhere you go, people are always screaming, it gets really annoying and you'll wish they'd do something about it. Another problem is the violence and gore, which is just over the top at times. We have enemies that can kill you by puking and taking a dump on you, monsters using their private parts as weapons, and one boss even has monsters coming out of her breasts. It's over the top, and a bit desperate, almost as if the developers are doing this, just because they can, and there are female breasts in almost every cut-scene too.
It's not an entirely bad game though, some of the moments are indeed epic and good, and there are times when the games actually enjoyable, and the boss fights (apart from the final one) aren't that bad. It's just a shame that stupid design flaws and difficulty issues continues to plague the game, throughout it's healthy 8-10 hour completion time (which is actually longer than God of War). You can collect relics (remember to talk to Vergil!), find people to p/a, or just play through the Gates of Hell, so there's a little bit of replay value here.
5.5
Graphics
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The game doesn't look bad, but it isn't the prettiest game out there either. The characters don't have a lot of detail, nor have good facial animations and the cut-scenes can make some parts look like it's from a Playstation 2 game. However the game does run very smoothly and the environments are the visual highlight in the entire game. Hell might be annoying, but it's at least appealing to look at.
8.0
Sound
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The music desperately tries to make Dante's voyage through hell epic, and while it's not bad, the music does sound a bit desperate to make things epic at times, but some of it isn't too bad. The voice acting is good though, and the dialogue is actually well written, though it's not going to win any awards. At least the slight environmental sounds makes it sound like you really are in hell, even though you'll be tempted to mute the TV, to save yourself from the endless screams.
8.0
Overall
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Dante's Inferno isn't a bad game, it does has some good moments, but their all covered by stupid design choices. It's uninspiring, difficult for the wrong reason, and the game's worst crime, is to litterally waste your time. It's worth a rental at least, but it's not worth $60. They should be used on God of War instead.