Take poet Dante’s well known The Divine Comedy. Add that story to a game. Add a heavily inspired God of War gameplay to it. Mix it all up and you’ll get Dante’s Inferno, the new action game from EA. Despite its resemblance to God of War (a lot) and despite using a somewhat mediocre adaptation of Dante’s Inferno, it’s quite a capable game, with some of the grittiest horror you’ll ever see.

Dante’s Inferno follows your character through the nine circles hell, where you play as Dante, and where you don’t just go through the nine circles of hell, you hack and slash your way through it. One thing you’ll notice from the get go, is just how gory the game is, definitely enough to earn its 18+ rating. Throughout the game, you’ll see torture, lots of blood, despicable creatures, male and female nudity (and not the sexy kind) and a lot of other stuff that simply cannot be described.

So if you’re into that kind of horror, if you find these kinds of images and visuals it entertaining in movies and comics, just go and buy this game. You won’t regret it. For the rest of us, who’d like a bit more substance, you’ll have to look a bit harder to find it. The story is told three different ways, through CGI rendered movies, in-game cut scenes, and finally, through a cartoon-looking animation as well. Gameplay wise, it reminds of God of War. A lot. You’ll be doing the same hack and slash moves, solving the same type of puzzles, and while the gameplay is solid for the most part — if you emulate God of War, it’s bound to be — we’d wish the developer had gone a bit further and added their own twist to it. There’s just little originality to it. What is original thought, is that when you down an enemy, you get a chance to “save them” or punish them, and your choices add to your character’s good or bad side adding points — holy or unholy points — which you can use to upgrade your powers. You can also get “relics”, which add to your powers, for instance, you can have a “mode damage” relic etc., all which add more depth to the game.

Visually, the game looks great, or looks great enough to showcase a massive amount of gore and some really disturbing images. But strictly technically speaking, the game runs smooth and brings a wonderful atmosphere to the title — and atmosphere of hell. Overall, the gameplay seems to be the best and worst from Dante’s Inferno; on one hand, it just works, on the other, it’s not original and is far too simplistic, you basically keep pressing the same button all the time. Visually and technically, it’s a splendid game, but we’d wish the developer had taken more chances and delivered us some gameplay mechanics that stood out.

The Good:
Gory visuals
Decent story
Runs smoothly

The Bad:
Gameplay is too simplistic
Not very original in terms of design
Looks and feels too much like God of War

Overall score: 7/10