Console exclusives are a bitch aren’t they? You really want to play God of War, but you don’t own a Playstation 3. What’s a gamer to do? Well, there’s always Visceral Game’s Dante’s Inferno, which plays and feels almost identical to Sony’s Greek Mythology action franchise – oh except the innovation and heart.  Make no mistake about it, Dante’s Inferno is a fun and fast paced action title, but it all just feels so uninspired.

Dante’s Inferno is based on Inferno, the first book of Dante Alighieri’s classic epic; the Divine Comedy. Well, let’s clarify that – the game is based on the book as if Michael Bay had just downed a case of red-bull after an all-night Vegas binge.  With most adaption games, it helps to read the source material – but here, even the most well-read scholars will have a tough time following along. For the sake of Dante’s Inferno, you’ll play as the titular character, in an attempt to free the love of his life Beatrice from the devil, who is once again trying to challenge God’s thrown. Oh that wacky devil.

So what does that mean gameplay wise? You’ll be cutting off heads, slicing torsos and otherwise eviscerating some of hell’s most unfriendly beings. In truth, the combat is fun and satisfying; you’re never going to be without a horde of enemies to take on.  What’s cool is just how imaginative the game is in its first few hours. Dante’s actual descent into hell is quite the visual feast, and the developers stick to the theme well, full of wonderfully imagined enemies themed after the seven deadly sins (diseased prostitutes represent lust and horribly obese creatures for gluttony).  The first few times these creatures pop-up, it’s an experience, but when they start showing up over and over again, it gets horribly repetitive; and can someone please tell me why these themed monsters are popping up in other circles of hell? Why am I fighting the lust prostitutes outside of the lust area?

"... goes from imaginative world to predictable, repetitive adventure incredibly too quickly."

There’s the kicker, Dante’s Inferno goes from imaginative world to predictable, repetitive adventure incredibly too quickly. Yes, you’ll learn new attacks and techniques to help your quest but it won’t be long before you figure out that the core of Dante’s quest boils down to a dressed-up hack and slash. Enter room, clear room in a bloody fashion, enter next room.  For every enemy you dispose of you’ll be awarded souls (sort of like the red and green orbs from God of War) that can be used to unlock new powers and attacks. The coolest thing about this system is that you’ll be able to divide these souls into two categories – holy and unholy, which lets you diversify your attacks a bit. It’s not much, but it does break the repetition a bit.

A good portion of the combat is built upon a series of quicktime events. I couldn’t help but feel like visceral games over indulged a bit here. Forgive me for the comparisons, but I always felt like the God of War series maintained a decent ratio of core combat to quicktime events. Here, I couldn’t help but feel like the mechanic was used even when it wasn’t needed. Why can’t I just slash that guy; why must I go through a 2 minute button mashing fest?

That’s not the only problem with the combat either – in fact far from it. When you execute a combo, there’s absolutely no way to break it until it’s done, which poses an obvious problem when you’re surrounded by enemies attacking you from everywhere on screen. There were countless times when I took on an obsessive amount of damage due to not being able to attack an enemy because I was still focused on an enemy I’ve already beaten just because of a canned animation. Oh, and don’t even get me started on the broken aiming system associated with your projectile weaponry – it’s almost impossible to take out a specific enemy in a crowded room.

"...be forced to go through a gory, paint by numbers action title with nothing much to offer."

Perhaps the biggest sin (see what I did there?) Visceral Games committed with Dante’s Inferno was seemingly giving up on the story halfway through.  After the first few hours you’re done with imaginative worlds, interesting characters and combat. Instead, you’re going to be forced to go through a gory, paint by numbers action title with nothing much to offer.  If you’re a huge fan of the combat, you may enjoy the latter half of the game but I found myself wishing it would end.

With no online suite and a progressively thinning experience – Dante’s Inferno is a disappointment. Yes, it’s fun and the combat is rewarding, but it feels like half of a game. Fans of the God of War series, and those without a PS3 to enjoy the franchise should find much to like here, but for everyone else – not so much.