In the Making of God of War featurette on the God of War game, game director David Jaffe uses the word “brutal” frequently, citing the adjective as a driving force behind the development of the now-legendary first installment of the God of War franchise. It can only be imagined that, in development meetings for Dante’s Inferno, a God of War clone if I’ve ever seen one, that the phrase “more brutaler” was used with even more frequently. Proof? The opening scene features Dante sewing a red cloth cross into his chest and it just goes from there.
“Artistic purity” aside, there’s nothing wrong with being a clone, if it’s done well, and Dante’s is done well. It’s cut-scenes are some of the most highly-rendered of this generation, the environments are beyond highly detailed, and the weapon upgrade system makes progress feel immediate. In short, it’s fun to play and, if you can stomach it, killer to look at. It’s as if the dev team knew they were making a clone of one of the greatest games of all time and thought “if you can’t beat’em, be bigger and grosser.”
All this being said, the game is very similar to God of War on a number of fronts.
-female frontal nudity within the first 30 min of game play, and plenty of it. Apparently, the soul of Beatrice can’t wear a shirt.
-barriers to keep you in a battle areas
-collecting “soul orbs” to buy weapon upgrades
-Green is for health restoration, purple is magic (mana).
- Angry protagonist on a quest for redemption.
-Context-sensitive kills.
And while God of War didn’t fall short, there are a few differences that make some dramatic differences in game play.
-The combo counter is more forgiving than GoW, making you feel like you’re really good at stringing together those combos.
-Every health regeneration fountain requires a quick time button mash that will undoubtedly get tiresome, though does at the feeling of arduosness in the journey. Even powering up is a struggle.
-Souls seem to come a little faster and unlock new combos that are at least somewhat similar to GoW. In the short demo, I upgraded four times.
-Nice touches in the context sensitive kills, like pushing the analog sticks in opposite directions to rip an enemy in half.
-Combat feels a little faster, though possibly creating slightly less control.
And, of course, there are a few drawbacks, though they certainly don’t ruin the game.
-refractory period after an evade move is extremely irratating.
-backstory told in animation sequences reminiscent of mid-90s “edgy” animation like Aeon Flux. Lots of thin scratchy lines.
-The context cues are small and at the very top of the screen, making them difficult to catch and enjoy the mini-cut scene.
-Ridiculous projectile weapon “Beatrice’s cross” lets you shoot white crosses through the air!
-God of War always challenged the player to find the to the next part of the map and, thankfully, it wasn’t necessary to worry about falling off ledges unless it was a platforming section. Edges are dangerous in Dante and can come at any moment, such as the scene within the church and Dante’s descending into hell.
Though it doesn’t seem to have a huge bearing on how the game goes, the “absolve” or “punish” option when grabbing opponents does add an another gameplay variable. Choose one of the two and you’ll make progress in filling up your “holy” and “unholy” meters, thus unlocking upgrades for the cross and scythe respectively. Masquerading as a moral choice (at least in the demo), it seems that players will absolve as many as they punish to keep both weapons powerful.
Say what you will about the licenses with story and unoriginality of the game play, Dante’s Inferno is definitely going to be more “____-er” than just about anything else. Will it stand up against the release of God of War III the following month? We’ll have to see. At the very least, it’ll have to tide over the GoW-less 360 owners.
Tags: 360, boobs, dante, dante's inferno, david jaffe, god of war, god of war 3, god of war III, playstation, sony
