This review is a little overdue my lovelies, I’ve been watching Red Letter Media all day so I had to stick that in there.  This review is going to be a little different, I am reviewing both ‘Dante’s Inferno – The Game’ and ‘Dante’s Inferno – An Animated Epic.’

The Game

Let’s start with the game shall we.  There was some controversy surrounding this game before it was even out.  First off you had lots of people shouting about them taking an epic literary tale and turning it into a hyper-active button masher game.  Then there was their E3 stunt, it was where people would take pics of themselves committing one of the sins from the game and sending it in for prizes.  Lastly there was the Superbowl commercial.  Initially the tag-line was ‘Go to Hell.’  CBS had a shit fit and it got changed.  Personally ‘Go to Hell’ was more effective.  Safe to say I had heard a lot about this game before I ever turned it on.

The story is different from the original epic poem, kind of.  The basic principles are there throughout.  We have Hell and all of the different levels that Dante journeys through in his original story and is even guided by Virgil, the great poet, down further and further into Hell.  The ideas of Hell as presented in the poem are all here, there are even specific people Dante mentioned in the poem in the game itself.  Where things start to diverge is the character of Dante and his reasons for going to Hell in the first place.

The real guts of the character of Dante are revealed in a series of flashbacks to his various different sins, he has a lot.  In fact, Dante is kind of douche-tard in this game.  Regardless, he was busy killing some heathens in the Crusades and decided to high-tail it back home to be with his beloved Beatrice.  Unfortunately when he gets there she has been murdered, and her boob is out.  That is a pretty common theme, there is a lot of nudity in this game, like seriously a lot.  A lot of it is really disturbing too, there is a point where killer babies crawl out of a giant boob.  Back to the story.  Poor Dante’s love is dead but she is floating on up to Heaven, but wait, BUM BUM BUM.  The Devil himself appears and carries her down to Hell.  Dante being a friggin’ bad ass chases his ass down to Hell.  I don’t want to give away anymore of the story than this.  It’s actually pretty good, very engrossing and dramatic at points.  Also, Dante kicks all kinds of ass.

That leads me to the points I really liked about this game.  It is hella fun when it gets going.  It is button smashing at its best.  The fighting is where the game shines and don’t worry, there will be a lot of it.  Like seriously tons of it.  This game isn’t trying to be realistic at all.  Go nuts with crazy combos that use your reaper scythe to its fullest, chopping things in half and such.  There are some nice features with the combat, you gain souls in which you can by new abilities, and some monsters you can choose to Punish or Absolve, that gives you access to other abilities.  It is very satisfying to smash your scythe into the ground, knocking like five demons in the air, and then juggling them until you chop them in half.  If that sounds fun, you are in the right place.  Also, the boss battles are a lot of fun.  Some of the bosses are gigantic and has some creative parts to play them.  Check out some gameplay footage to see what I am saying, there is some true scale to this game.

Where this game stands out though is the art direction.  This is not a happy game, as it shouldn’t be, I mean you are in Hell after all.  The levels are cleverly designed full of crazy nightmarish architecture and monsters.  Another high point is the music, sfx and voice acting.  All of which are top-notch and really get you into what is happening.  Then I have my problems with this game.  It does tons of things right to get you into the game and then has several things to take you right out of it.  The ‘puzzles’ in the game are maddening.  I quoted ‘puzzles’ because they aren’t really puzzles, more just jumping in which you die if you are a millimeter off.  That’s not fun to me, that is really annoying.  Also, the final battle is a giant pain-in-the-ass.  It is just ridiculous, I eventually had to drop the difficulty level after like two hours of trying to get through it.  Again not fun or challenging, just annoying.  So my final verdict:

Rent It

This game is just worth a rental.  It is a lot of fun but definitely can be aggravating.  Also, I don’t see a lot of replayability.  So get through it and call it a day, you will have fun getting there.  Check out the game’s trailer and after that check out my thoughts on the movie.

The Movie

I don’t need to rehash a lot of things from the game review to this.  ‘Dante’s Inferno: An Animated Epic’ follows along with the story of the game.  Certain elements have been changed, of course, to fit the run time.  For the most part it is faithful where it needs to be.  Which works pretty well, because again, unlike some people I enjoyed this take on Dante’s tale.  Sure it isn’t in keeping with the original spirit of it, but it is one fun ride.

That really sums up the movie as a whole, it is one fun trip.  It isn’t particularly deep and won’t necessarily stick with you a long time after you see it.  I would suggest, however, after you watch it but in something happy because it is kind of a downer as a whole.  Again, it is about Hell, so that makes sense.

Most of the voice actors from the game reprise their roles and across the board the acting is pretty top-notch.  The dialogue does get a little repetitive over time, mostly Dante screaming at demons and asking Virgil ‘WTF man.’  When it needs to, it gets better, but those moments are at times far apart.  The animation is pretty fantastic, at points at least.  This is another anime directed by several different people.  These movies have been cropping up lately, from the great ‘Batman: Gotham Knight’ to the oh-so-crappy ‘Halo: Legends.’  When it works, it works, when it doesn’t it falls a little flat.  I think the beginning few levels of Hell were by far the best and some of the animation quality dipped as it progressed.  I know some people will have a hard time getting into this because it is one single story done in a multitude of styles.  At one point Dante looks pretty anorexic and then in others he is all Hulked out.  Personally, this didn’t bother me because the narrative kept me going.  Again though, they opened with their best.

All in all I really enjoyed this movie.  It is uneven at points, but when it shines, boy does it shine.

Rent It

In full disclosure, I bought this movie.  I think for most people I would say just rent it.  Unless you are really into these types of movies, you probably won’t want to watch it multiple times.

See you on the other side – Derek