Launch Primer: Dante's Inferno

10 Comments

Posted February 8, 2010 - By pklepek

Ever find yourself in a situation where all of your friends are talking about the latest and greatest game, and you can't contribute to the conversation because you haven't been paying attention? Solve that problem with our Launch Primers: everything you need to know (except the spoilers) about a game that's about to be released.

Dante's Inferno
PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PSP
MSRP: $59.99 (console), $39.99 (PSP)
ESRB Rating: Mature

All Dante's Inferno Content

Videos | Previews | Screenshot Galleries | News Stories

What kind of game is it?

A modern day beat 'em up. A hack 'n slash. Have you played God of War? You have a pretty good idea of what to expect from Dante's Inferno. Dead Space developer Visceral Games have lifted the best elements of God of War's combat and tossed it into a journey through Hell that's based on the first part of Dante Alighieri's three-part epic poem, The Divine Comedy. Dante must travel through the nine circles of Hell to save his princess from none other than Lucifer.

Who's the developer?

Visceral Games, formerly known as EA Redwood Shores, is same studio within Electronic Arts that developed Dead Space. It's not the same team (they're working on Dead Space 2), but you can definitely tell it's from the same thinktank. They also worked on the internally developed the Wii spin-off, Dead Space: Extraction, both The Godfather games and The Simpsons Game.

What's the story?

Most of the people interested in Dante's Inferno probably aren't that familiar with The Divine Comedy, the 14th century poem that Dante's Inferno draws inspiration from. Visceral Games has lifted the basic story setup -- a man pushing his way through the nine circles of Hell, each one representing a different Christian sin, in pursuit of his love, Beatrice -- and tweaked it. The roles of some characters have been adjusted (i.e. Virgil) and plenty of subplots removed, but the journey to the pit of Hell remains.

What'd we say?

It's impossible to discuss Dante's Inferno without discussing its primary influence, God of War. It caused some controversy in the comments, but I argued it was a massive compliment.

"Is imitation necessarily a bad thing? On one hand, the use of the word suggests imitation is easy. I assume most developers who tried to make a game like Halo, Modern Warfare or World of Warcraft will quickly tell you that's not necessarily the case. Good imitation isn't an easy task. Dante's Inferno is a very well crafted action game, largely because it succeeds at using its inspirations effectively."

See it in action:

Dante's Inferno Gameplay Montage »

Tags: Launch Primer, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Xbox 360

Comments

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DTH666

Love the game, mostly because ive been playing to much GOW, the fighting style is great for me the only problem for me though is when i get to ride the beast same buttons to press gets really annoying but other than that this game almost complets me until i get GOW3 ha then hell will break loose, i love saying this line when i get rid of the demons, Vaya con Dios lol

Posted: February 17, 2010 11:46 PM | Reply | Report

+1 thumbs up thumbs down

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C.J._65

This game looks pretty good thinking about getting sometime this week.

Posted: February 11, 2010 9:57 AM | Reply | Report

+2 thumbs up thumbs down

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Str84twenty

Can someone please tell me what day the Gaming X10 event is going to be on?

Posted: February 9, 2010 3:37 AM | Reply | Report

+1 thumbs up thumbs down

1 Reply
fpsjoe

@ Warden626 lol RTS for The Jungle, clean up slaughter houses. But I see where your coming from. I would like to see The Odyssey, even though that is basically about on the same line as God of War but that would be sweet. Play as Odysseus and start off at the Trojan War and you have to work your way back home to Ithaca and you have to fight against the giant cyclops and other beats along the way, that would be awesome.

Posted: February 8, 2010 9:29 PM | Reply | Report

+2 thumbs up thumbs down

2 Replies
Warden626

Personally I hope this is just the first in a long line of video games based off of classical written works. I want my open world sandbox version of The Sun Also Rises. Where is my A Raisin in the Sun RTS? Why hasn't anyone started to develop an FPS based on Slaughterhouse-Five?

Posted: February 8, 2010 8:12 PM | Reply | Report

+2 thumbs up thumbs down

1 Reply
PiercingNoize

Actually I'm a lot more intrested in this game than in bioshock 2. But alas, I pre-bought bioshock 2.

Posted: February 8, 2010 6:58 PM | Reply | Report

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gambitjuggalo

im renting it tomorrow and maybe playing through it twice depending on the achievements.

Posted: February 8, 2010 6:50 PM | Reply | Report

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1 Reply
Cathartic Denoument

@Patrick Klepek:

Hey Patrick; do you guys have any news on the Death Edition for Dante's Inferno?
I read on their FaceBook page that people in Europe were receiving a "Death Edition"; and I came across THIS link (I believe on Twitter, from the @DanteTeam) :

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/ 12/13/europe-getting-dantes-in ferno-death-edition-includes-p layabl/

**[if the link doesn't work, take out any spaces that may have been added after I clicked "post"]

..that says that the "Death Edition" contains a DLC code for a playable skin of Isaac Clarke from Dead Space.

I was wondering if this is to go on retail here in the U.S. (and for the XBox 360) as well (at hopefully a later time), as I've never heard any news about it for stateside.
And I REALLY want to get the Death Edition because of said DLC code, as I'm a fan of Dead Space as well. [Long Live Visceral Games!]
I just hope that its not Europe-exclusive, and that I'd have to have it imported or something. (<_>)

Posted: February 8, 2010 6:48 PM | Reply | Report

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2 Replies
PiercingNoize

Yeah, this is a rental game. It's not bad though, I enjoyed it.

Posted: February 8, 2010 6:05 PM | Reply | Report

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ScrubsMcGrubs

This game looks good and I want to try it out but there's no rental places around here.

Oh well, Bioshock 2 tomorrow.

Posted: February 8, 2010 5:33 PM | Reply | Report

+2 thumbs up thumbs down

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