Dante’s Inferno

DANTE’S INFERNO
EA (XBOX 360, PS3, PSP)
Rating:

The game developers have made plenty of changes to Dante Alighieri’s story. The poet has been transformed into a crusader who fights with a scythe, a cross, and magic spells. The ethereal Beatrice he must rescue is now Lucifer’s mistress. It’s probably causing the real Dante to roll over in his grave. Then again, maybe after all those years he spent in exile, he’s flattered.

Rocks: This action adventure title has the best game environments we’ve ever seen, courtesy of Wayne Barlowe, who designed cinematic creatures for Hellboy II and Avatar. There are a lot of boobs; unfortunately, they’re mostly on creepy creatures like Cleopatra—whom Dante ends up on top of at one point—but tits are tits. It’s extremely bloody and visceral. You can create your own levels and enemies with the downloadable Trials of St. Lucia expansion.

Flops: The game borrows heavily from God of War on everything from the weapon mechanics to the on-screen button prompts. Dante purists—assuming any of them are gamers—won’t be pleased to find out that the poet is capable of saving or punishing some of the souls he comes across in the seven circles of Hell. The right analog stick’s camera control has been replaced with the ability to make quick evasion moves, but the environment is exacting: In many loca ti ons, moves have to be completed in an exact sequence or Dante dies; repeating the scene over again becomes tedious very quickly.