As you pop up the videogame adaptation of Dante’s Inferno into your console and relishing in its action-heavy genre, you feel a bit guilty as you’re woven into the classic tale of a man trying to find redemption and goes on a quest killing and blessing the damned of the underworld to save his one true love Beatrice (who is usually topless, by the way) from its depths. The nine circles of Hell is rendered in a disgusting and grueling visage, with phallic-shaped walls in the Lust circle, gold smelting liquid in the Greed circle, and the bile, tongues, and guts texture on the Gluttony circle.

Gag in disgust over beating up that demonic baby while the cries of unborn children act as ambience if you must, but you can’t fault Visceral Games for running their creative license all over and threads on its “M” rating and creating a place you don’t want to get stuck in. Personally, the setting loses a little steam right after the Circle of Greed; how many brimstone and lava textures and props can one plaster for a few of the other circles?

Once the initial shock value wears off, however, all you have is a decent God of War clone that neither enhances nor condemns its inspiration. It succeeds at being competent and acts as a nice 10-hour filler if you’re already sick of either Darksiders or Bayonetta.

Yes, I know that referring to “that other game”  is too easy, but it is. From the combos to even the controls (Right Analog stick to dodge, Left Trigger/L2 to block, and so forth), it’s really hard for Dante’s Inferno to escape that much maligned comparison. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, however. Controlling the hero is easy, and pulling off attacks while dodging or countering can be pulled off even by the most graceless of button mashing-players. The Quick Time Events presented (a template for all action games, like it or not) have a lenient window of input, and even flubbing these let you start back at the beginning of that specific segment. The game runs at a nice 60 frames per second with no signs of slowdown, and the load times for deaths are short and almost non-existent.

Some people might complain that there are only two weapons available (the cross and the scythe) with a number of spells tossed in. Personally, I would much rather have just two well thought-out weapons from the get-go that you can upgrade than have a number of weapons and just use two (or even one) of them from start to finish. Your scythe has good reach and the cross is a good ranged weapon for pesky aerial creatures. Said weapons can be powered-up with the Holy/Unholy system. Whenever you initiate a Quick Time Event kill on an enemy or come across a Damned soul (usually based after historical characters like Pontius Pilate and Attila the Hun), you can either absolve or punish them. Absolving gets you Holy points for your cross and some of your magic attacks, while punishing them nets you Unholy points which power up your scythe combos and bolster your offensive tactics.

While you can delve onto both, you only can max out one or the other on your first playthrough. I went for the Holy route while dabbling a little with Unholy to uncover the basic Scythe combos, but only because I’m a cheap b*st*rd who loves maximizing his Cross abilities and use Divine Shield while also get more green souls from my Cross kills. If you’re more offense-heavy, the Unholy path makes your scythe slashes powerful while also being able to get mana from your kills.

Another feature that spices up the game is the inclusion of relics. These items can be equipped to bolster Dante’s combat abilities; some of them can be leveled up to Level 3 to maximize their effectiveness, be it letting you absorb a bit of damage or stretching the counter window which makes countering attacks easier. As far as effectiveness goes, they do make a difference in your survival in your hero’s personal hell.

I won’t question much on its repetitious flow (kill things, solve simple puzzles, rinse, repeat) because that’s the staple element of a majority of these action games that born out from the likes of Devil May Cry and “that other game”. I will, however, question on the lack of imagination on the boss fights. Compared to the theatrics of Bayonetta’s bosses and the puzzle element of Darksiders’ boss fights, Dante’s “epic” fight against his cross-wielding fatass blob of a father and Cleopatra’s lover fall a bit short. They’re not horrible, but not inspiring to say the least. Let’s not even get to the length of the final boss fight, which tests your patience more than your skill. Again, be thankful that there are at least checkpoints in-between boss fights.

At least the fights with the normal enemies have a good balance of fun and difficulty; some enemies like the Heretic Circle priests can’t be harmed by the Cross when they have their purple barriers on them, while some of them like the Lust female demons and Greed mace-swingers require good countering skills to defeat. On that note, the camera does get a bit wonky whenever you approach certain parts of a level and obscures your view in a chaotic battlefield.

Dante’s Inferno is definitely guilty of the sin of borderline plagiarism, but at the same time it is a guilty pleasure on its own. Whether you are morbidly fascinated by the developer’s interpretation of the source material, or whether you happen to find its action template derivative yet entertaining, you will at least remember something from taking this hellish trip to Visceral Games’ demented minds. Still, its one cardinal sin is not being much more than it already is.

Verdict: Try It!

P.S: On a related note, there are actually a lot of achievements one can get from playing the game on the default difficulty setting on the first go. This is an incentive for those with a little bit of achievement/trophy whoring inside of them.

P.P.S: If you decide to buy it, keep in mind that there’s going to be a new mode called The Trials of St. Lucia available in April. Think of the mode as the co-op option in Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, only with a new combat editor menu and satanic babies.