Thoughts About Dante’s Inferno [The Xbox 360 Game]

The bullet point for the story reads, “Based on the literally classic” when what is should have read was “Based extremely loosely on the pale shadow of Dante Allegro’s masterpiece”. In fact, aside from the character names Dante and Virgil, and the some of the imagery of the circles of hells, there really is no connection between the epic poem and the game. This is not to take away anything about the game itself; to the contrary I rather enjoyed it.

Taking them helm as Dante, the game starts you off being killed. Upon learning that his beloved wife has been condemned to hell, because of a broken vow, Dante crosses swords with the Grimm Reapers himself, destroying him and commandeering his scythe for his new weapon. He then proceeds to descend into the 9 circles of hell (with a combat style very reminiscent of Devil May Cry in search of his lost love in an attempts to absolve her soul.

Infernal isn’t a perfect game. The combat starts to grow repetitive about half way through the game, the few scripted cut sense slow the action to a crawl, and the few puzzles mixed into the game feel out of place. This shouldn’t be a deterrent, as the game more than makes up for these short comings with interesting environments and characters to interact with, as well as collectible objects scattered through the realms of hell just begging to be found.

And even though the narrative of the story is a far cry from the original poem, enough elements are present that could goad a new audience to the classic work. This is never a bad thing.

It took me just under 11 hours to complete the game, and I really enjoyed my time. However; the final game scene before the credits started to roll flashed a “to be continued”… which confuses me. Once you’ve gone through the circles of hell, where else could you possibly go? I would give Dante’s Infernal a well received 8/10.