Dante's Inferno Hands On Preview
I guess I missed the part where Dante fought off big-titted women and babies with his huge scythe.
Dante's Inferno is two things to me right now, one of which is good and one of which is awful. Basically, it's just God of War, but it's also a travesty of a literary classic.
I fail to see many similarities between the game and Dante's classic work. Beatrice, Dante's lusted after beau, doesn't look quite like anything I thought she was supposed to be, and Dante himself is a fricking templar.
He wields a giant scythe and uses a variety of attacks to combat his enemies. He's got two melee attacks, a ranged holy cross attack, some powerful special attacks, and throws.
I played part of the Lust section at GameX this weekend, which involved Dante fighting what I can only describe as demon women with snake-like appendages coming from their crotch (I feel somewhat awkward writing what my original notes were). I also battles what looked to be minotaurs and babies, both of which could punished or absolved.
The upgrade system in Dante's Inferno features two branching paths: Unholy and Righteous. Oftentimes a choice of "Punish" or "Absolve" will show up on screen while fighting an enemy. Select "Absolve" and you'll free the enemy from their suffering and earn points for the righteous side of things. Select "Punish" and you'll brutally murder the enemy (even the baby) and earn points in the name of unholy righteousness. The game deliberately makes absolving souls more difficult.
While I worked through these hordes, I also solved a basic puzzle or two. They weren't anything out of the ordinary, but they do reveal the limited camera control. While this is obviously an earlier build, there were many instances where the camera would get stuck and you wouldn't be able to see your character on screen.
The final part of the demo involved fighting a colossally big and naked demon woman. This beast featured big nipples that would open up and sprout evil babies that Dante would then slaughter to save his hide. Besides that terrible imagery, the boss battle was a lot of fun and very reminiscent of God of War's epic battles. She even climbed around the scenery before you fought her, which was a staple of God of War's bosses.
And there's the good and the bad part of Dante's Inferno; it's fun, but it just feels like a reskinned version of Sony's God of War series. I'm anxious to see if the finished product can set itself away from God of War, especially with the third game in the popular series scheduled to come out around the same time.
Dante's Inferno is set for a February 2010 release and is being developed by Visceral Games.
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