One of the first games I got for my PS3 was Dante’s Inferno. Now I know many of you may want to hurl abuse at me, but I genuinely loved this game. I actually enjoyed it so much I went and bought the actual book on Dante’s Inferno and read the whole book through straight after playing it.
This game had a very easy and limited storyline. You were Dante and you were going through the seven gates of hell in order to retrieve your wife Beatrice. You had a guide called Virgil who let you know exactly what each gate meant and what part of hell you were descending into. He also told you exactly what types of people (i.e. murderers) were sent to which stages of hell.
The best part of this game for me was the fact that they took real people from history from the same time period and put them in hell for you to either punish or absolve. For instance, they used certain people who had been hung for being a witch. You would (hopefully) make the choice to absolve them and send them to heaven, because witches were often innocent women dammed by their town or village before death. This was a great little side quest in the game that for me was actually quite meaningful and very fun.
Aside from that, each gate of hell got harder to survive and battle through. Each gate also had a giant boss battle at the very end. Some of these were incredibly hard. I found Medusa quite hard to kill and outsmart. Every gate was also covered in blood and limbs and all things gory. I love a good bit of gore and blood so, needless to say, I was in my element.
When it came to Virgil, he was annoying and great at the same time. He was great because he had so much information to give and you would gain little helpful clues if you listened carefully, but he was irritating because he never shut up. He also never helped you out physically (which may have had something to do with the fact he was a ghost). But, overall, you do grow to like him. He also helps you to recall memories you had with your wife Beatrice to keep you going.
So, aside from the characters and bosses, the powers you could obtain and use were pretty awesome! You had a choice of holy powers and unholy powers. You could shoot giant crosses into the air or in front of you to kill all types of flying animals and any other predators. You could also claim the reaper’s scythe for yourself, which was my favourite weapon. It can extend really far distances which allowed you to hit everyone, both near and far from you. It was incredibly handy and by far the best weapon in the whole game. For all your powers and weapons, you could then upgrade them to be more powerful and devastating.
Finally, Dante’s Inferno had an online mode that nobody ever seemed to play. I really don’t understand why they didn’t as I had a great time playing the online features. Each online level was basically a ring you had to survive by either killing a certain amount of demons or simply staying alive until the time ran out. My favourite online round had to be the round in which you had to fight against 100 rounds of the toughest demons in the game. Some of these rounds had up to 70 monsters in a round alone. Needless to say, there was no leaving the chair for a while once you began the fight.
So with all that said and done, if you like a bit of blood and gore with a huge range of combat mixed in then this is the game for you. This game is also for the book nerds who have read Dante’s Inferno as it is very close to the real thing.
