Dante's Inferno

Dante's Inferno for {PLAT} is a dynamic action game focused on singleplayer mode. The title was inspired by the works of Dante Alighieri, a fourteenth-century writer. The game was developed by a division of Electronic Arts that previously created the great survival horror game Dead Space.

Plot

The {PLAT} version of Dante’s Inferno is a very light adaptation of the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. Like in the original book, the protagonist of the game is a man who enters hell in search of his beloved Beatrice. The game focuses on elements that weren’t present in the book – a brutal and dynamic combat. At the beginning of the game, the protagonist defeats the death and uses its scythe in further combat. Despite the differences, the game was designed based on descriptions of circles of hells and their inhabitants. The story is told by Virgil.

Mechanics

The protagonist can use various spectacular and simple-to-use attacks. The players are tasked with getting through hordes of enemies. From time to time, there are stronger monsters to kill and the final opponent is Lucifer, the king of hell. Controls and many gameplay mechanics are similar to ones known from God of War series. The players can perform combo attacks, use various weapons (like a crossbow and a cross), artifacts, powers (like Lust Storm and Suicide Fruit) and finish enemies in a spectacular and blood-filled way.

Frequently during the combat, the players participate in quick time events that enable them to perform interesting stunts (like climbing the back of a giant beast) by pressing the buttons appearing on the screen. The enemies that are defeated leave glowing orbs of health and energy. These can be used to heal wounds and regenerate power required for performing magic attacks. Although the game is combat-focused, the players will also frequently jump, climb, use levers and mechanics, and destroy obstacles. The souls of the damned are important as well – they can be saved or punished. The former is harder, as it activates an additional minigame, but it guarantees greater reward that can be used for increasing the strength of the protagonist.

Technical aspects

The graphics of Dante’s Inferno for {PLAT} are worth mentioning. The designers attempted to recreate the descriptions of hell written by Alighieri. During the adventure the players are exploring nine circles of hell – each of them is unique and features many terrifying locations. For example, Limbo, the first circle, is a place filled with lost souls that are bound to eternal agony. Further levels are even darker. The locations are filled with weird monsters and enemies co-designed by Wayne Barlowe who previously worked on movies like Blade, Harry Potter, and Hellboy.

Last updated on 19 June 2009