Dante’s Inferno is a God of War rip off. There, its out of the way already. Frankly, I don’t care & neither should you. Its taking ideas from one of the greatest gaming series ever created & if you’re going to take ideas from anywhere, why not the best?

Right onto this game. If you didn’t know, its based on what is supposedly one of the greatest literary works in History. The Divine Comedy. Now, seeing as though I have never read this poem I'm not even going to try & compare it to that. Or mark it down for being a bastardisation of it because I don’t know if it is & it simply doesn’t bother me.

What I will say though, if they took their inspiration from the poem, I’m very glad they did. Dante’s Inferno’s strongest positives are in the setting, imagery, character designs etc. which is what the poem has given them the inspiration to create. Hell has been perfectly realised. Its disgusting & brutal but very compelling & creates some of the most interesting sights you’ll see in any game.

You play as Dante who gets stabbed in the back near the beginning. Not being ready to die, you then fight Death, steal his scythe & kill him with it. Which is completely brilliant by the way. Anyway something happens & you end up on a quest to save the love of your life from the depths of hell. This obviously means you then have to go through the depths of hell which is made up of nine circles representing the crimes & sins of people. People which are being punished in hell in a state fitting for their crime or sin – whether its from being burned in rivers of boiling blood in Violence, to being eaten by horribly grotesque & fat blob things with extra mouths instead of hands in Gluttony.

Each circle has its own unique theme. Each of them is incredibly well realised (apart from the last couple which I’ll get to later), looks fantastic & has its own little areas to explore & fight their own variant of enemy E.g. women a with penis style tentacle sprouting out of their crotch area in lust (while making orgasmic noises may I add) or big, boulder hands made of gold in Greed. Seeing these is a huge part of the appeal of this game because they are just that interesting & fitting for the setting. Seeing what each of the circles will throw at you is reason enough to carry on playing.

Luckily that isn’t the only reason to keep at it. The combat is very enjoyable & responsive with enough upgradeable combos to keep things interesting. As always in this type of game the countering is hugely satisfying too. It can also be nicely mixed up with magic cross attacks that link nicely into the awesome Scythe combos. Although, its not quite as fluid as ‘that’ other game & its too easy for enemies to attack through your moves breaking up combos. There is a couple of decent kill animations you can perform on enemies. Unfortunately it literally is only a couple you can do this to. & you’ll see each one more often than you’d like before the end.

Added to this is a neat little relic system where you can apply upgradeable collectables 2-3 at a time that give you extra damage boosts or quicker attacks which can be nicely mixed up to give you the upper hand in any fight.

What’s also surprising is the fact there’s actually some nice variety to the gameplay as well. Each ring is separated by surprisingly good platforming & rope swinging sections that have you descending further into hell towards the next ring. It’s a pretty cool idea that works better than it should. Obviously some puzzles are shoe-horned in but to be honest they are insultingly easy. Even if they do break up the action nicely.

The bosses are a bit hit & miss though. They’re all quite imaginable & fun to fight. But there was only the odd one that really stood out & was suitably epic. The first 2 bosses are incredible & hugely satisfying to kill. Then there’s no more really interesting ones until the end boss. But while he’s impressive, he’s also really bloody annoying with loads of cheap shots & tactics. It does fall quite badly hear compared to the ones in the games main rival.

Unfortunately the circles & enemies in general become quite tedious & boring at the end too. The last third of the game just isn’t much cop. The fraud circle in particular is my biggest problem with the game. It literally just turns into a series of arena fights. & there’s a lot of them. Its lazy, boring & obviously just a way of padding out the 6.5 hour game (not including much exploration for collectables). This is then followed up by a short, cheap & really frustrating section before the final boss.

Its such a shame because this last part of the game is so lazy & uninspired that it really does bring the entire package down. Some of the circles are over way too quickly too which is just as disappointing when so much effort has obviously gone into their design.

It’s a really enjoyable game then. Just one that runs out of ideas too quickly.