Dante's Inferno

The Good
The art design is terrifyingly beautiful. From the landscapes to the design of the creatures in the game, it's clear that a lot of Tender Love and Care went into the art design.

The controls themselves aren't too bad, serving the purpose while Dante is running, jumping, slashing, etc. They could be smoother, but they never really get in the way either.

The length of the game isn't too bad either, I clocked in around 10 hours, which isn't bad for a hack-n-slash action game such as this one.

The most debatable plus to Dante's Inferno is the nudity. It COULD have been used to enhance a mature story but nudity is really only used in Dante's Inferno for shock value or visual appearance only (the Lust Circle of Hell portrayed in Dante's Inferno). Still, it's nice to see them try to advance a part of video games that is considered taboo.

The Bad
The story is pretty much a gutting of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. The mature and sophisticated story was replaced with a typical video game/God of War formula. Brute Neanderthal warrior must rescue the love of his life (if you call a mild physical attraction a good enough reason to rescue somebody from Hell, but whatever) from the clutches of an evil one-dimensional villain who has no motives except to be an A whole. Seriously, you can't butcher something any more without being a short-tempered assassin at a blind amputee convention.

"Blah" pretty much sums up the gameplay. It's not bad, but it's not good, either. It's like the developers made a really good gameplay test demo, but stopped right there. Dante has a scythe and a holy-cross-laser-beam thing, both of which you can upgrade with holy and unholy points, but instead of each weapon having two halves which might have worked, the scythe is unholy and the cross is holy. (DUH) The thing is while the scythe is more visually satisfying to use, the cross is more effective because you can spam it as a long-range projectile and never get hurt. So, basically it comes down to if you would rather watch paint dry or beat up handicapped orphans, your choice. The puzzle are brain-dead easy (moving the box on the platform type of stuff), and the platforming either doesn't work because the camera is PMS-ing or it's just way too easy, like if there were no enemies in Super Mario Bros 2.

The Bottom Line
If you like weird and beautiful art design, Dante's Inferno is up your dark and very unusual alley. If you can enjoy the Raisin Bran gameplay and the paper-thin story line, I would recommend at least renting Dante's Inferno to see what the deal is. Have fun in hell.