Let's Go To Hell: A Look at Dante's Inferno

{sidebar id=3}{sidebar id=1}While at GameX, in Philadelphia PA, The AbleGamers crew had the chance to play the demo of Dante's Inferno. The game is published by Electronic Arts and is being developed by Visceral Games and is being released for the PS3, Xbox 360, and the PSP. Obviously, the game is loosely based on the first part of Dante Alighieri's epic Divine Comedy.

Loosely, of course, because not as many people want to control a poet lost in the woods who takes a guided tour of Hell. Instead, this Dante is a veteran crusader whose wife is murdered and dragged to the Underworld by Death, who Dante steals the scythe from.

Mark Barlet and I got the chance to sit down with EA HQ's Dennis Yu, who told us that they wanted to make a game based on a story that people would know, and despite the changes needed to make it into a high-action adventure game, people familiar with the original work will find many elements recognizable.

In fact, scholars were brought in for production to help EA with the translation and interpretation of the text. According to Yu, while making convention and expo rounds, educators have come up to them and told them how cool the game is in terms of sticking to the work.

From what I know about the original Inferno and the demo of the game, EA succeeded in, as Yu put it, "making Hell as unparadise as possible." They were going for a "dark tone," and they reached that incredibly well.

Now before we go on, it needs to be made clear that this game's rating is still pending. After playing it, we suspect that it will end up being rated M for mature. That said, the rest of our story is rated at least T for teen.

The demo puts the player in the second circle of the game, for those familiar with the poem, that would be the circle for lust. Now, in the poem, Lust is a massive swirling vortex of wind, tossing the lustful damned to and fro for all eternity. The game, while keeping the endless hurricane motif, puts the player inside of a massive tower where his bride, Beatrice, is being held captive. He has to fight through demonic women with tentacle-like objects that burst forth from their crotch and emerge from portals that look like discolored, detailed vaginae. In fact, the vagina and the penis are major themes in the level, from enemies to architecture. The level ends with a battle against a giant, topless, purple-gray Cleopatra.

The controls, frankly, are a bit generic. Heavy attack, light attack, jump, and projectiles, which are holy crosses. It's been compared to the God of War series in combat style as well. The attacks look cool, and they feel nice when you do them, but it gets repetitive. Then again, there is the possibility that I just wasn't doing it right. I had some issues with the camera as well, as things I needed were sometimes out of view.

My biggest complaint with the demo was that it was my least favorite kind of demo. If I may, I'd like to compare it to the Bayonetta demo, also present at GameX. In that demo, controls were explained, paths were set out, and even a bit of handholding was present, the game guiding you in what to press, where to go, and what to do so you can have an idea of how the game works. EA, however, just puts you in the middle of the tower and sends some female demons after you. After you figure out the controls and kill them, you're presented with a puzzle to get to the next level of the stage and no explanation on what to do. And when you do that, you're presented with an even harder puzzle, utilizing levers that resemble a bit too closely the healing stations in the level. Luckily I played this on a Friday, when the expo was low on crowds, but I'd have hated to sit there wasting time in frustration while other people wanted to play.

In terms of accessibility, while we have not been able to do a deep dive into the game, there are subtitles for the game, and as far as we can see, no major audio cues. The colors of the game, at least the lust level, keep a kind of murky brown and gray look. The controls can't be operated with one hand for sure, and as of now, the button functions can't be mapped in any way but the default. However, Yu did point out that the game isn't out yet or finished, and these things aren't off the table.

I feel that maybe I've torn down the game a bit more than it deserves, because it does have its great points. The graphics are great. A wonderful mix of detail, flow, and horrible viscera. It runs at a smooth 60 frames per second. You can see a little bit of it in the lust level, but other levels have very active, moving backgrounds. And despite what I said about the combat being generic, it's still fun. Not to mention that the marketing and controversy for the game has already reached epic points. The first stage, Limbo, puts Dante against evil babies, essentially. Killing enough of them unlocks the Bad Nanny achievement, which has set the International Nanny Association on edge. And then there's been the Sin to Win where people wishing to enter needed to commit 'acts of lust' with Comic-Con 'booth babes.' This was later apologized for and clarified as meaning 'have your picture taken with' as opposed to anything dirtier. Game critics have been mailed unsolicited Greed checks for $200 (please note that we did not get one of those, did you lose our address?), games press have been sent into rages with Rickrolling crates. All in all, the promotional aspects have been fantastic.

In summary, the game looks like a fun romp through Hell for fans of running around and slashing things to bits. It comes out on February 9^th, 2010. The 9 obviously referring to the Nine Circles and all. Not sure what the February symbolizes though.