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Hey all CoN users! Dante's Inferno from Visceral Games is coming out soon and it looks very tantalizing. Yesterday was the launch date for the Xbox demo and so far the game looks very promising. I was wondering what your thoughts on the game are? What do you think of the literary connection to Dante Alighieri and the mythological beasts from the underworld? Or any questions about the game I could answer as well because I have spent the last week researching the game because of its intoxicating graphics and gameplay. If you are a big fan of this incoming game please post anything related to the game, even your critiques would be welcomed.

i was interested until i played the demo and realized its just a god of war knock off

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Aujourdhui a commence avec toi.

Just because it has similar gameplay just becuase its not fun. Don't base your opinion on a demo. In fact the playability should draw you in because it plays just like another great game. Also the story is unignorable; a man who cheats death and travels through the nine circles hell! How flippin cool can it get! Im not advocating you to buy the game, just don't be so quick in your decision because of one single thing.

I think it looks great. We had to read some of Dante's Inferno in my Latin class in high school. I'm excited.

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Sabin: Kefka! Wait!
Kefka: Wait he says! Do I look like a waiter?

The Divine Comedy, particularly the Inferno portion, sits atop a lofty list as one of my favorite works of poetry of all time. The amount of thought poured into every nuance is nothing short of outstanding, not to mention the insight provided into what exactly eternal damnation might possibly entail in a highly creative manner.

That being said, from what I've seen of the game, it becomes absolutely clear that they've taken many creative liberties and while they do seem to draw characters, settings and a general theme from the source material, this is not meant to be visual accompaniment for the work. Nor should it be, as I don't think such a game would be very fun to play, despite the brilliance of the work.

From what I've seen, it does look very much like a God Of War meets Devil May Cry sort of experience, but with an art style and design that looks absolutely gorgeous, to say the least. I'd pick up this game for that reason alone, to be honest.



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Okay, but there was a goat!

Quote (iamanoob @ 25th December 2009 19:18)

Just because it has similar gameplay just becuase its not fun. Don't base your opinion on a demo. In fact the playability should draw you in because it plays just like another great game. Also the story is unignorable; a man who cheats death and travels through the nine circles hell! How flippin cool can it get! Im not advocating you to buy the game, just don't be so quick in your decision because of one single thing.

im not saying it isn't fun, and i loved the divine comedy. i just dont want to play another god of war game

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Aujourdhui a commence avec toi.

When I heard they were making a game based/inspired by Dante's Divine Comedy's "Hell" part I was seriously hoping for a shudderingly creepy and overpowering horror game.

Having played the demo I don't know what to think. The story in itself is okay, but in context of being "based on Dante's work" it becomes a pile of fertilizer. As to gameplay: I like it, it's functional and immediately reminded me of DMC, maybe with a bit of Onimusha (although only a tiny bit). It currently sits very far away in my "consider to purchase" list, meaning I probably won't.

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"I fell off the mountain of words at around the 10,000ft mark. Tell my family...they owe me money." -Narratorway

"If you retort against this, so help me God I'll shove any part of your anatomy I can find into some other part. Figuratively, of course." - Josh

"We have more, can deliver tuesday." - Del S

Good old CoN

Quote (Dragon_Fire @ 25th December 2009 22:04)

The Divine Comedy, particularly the Inferno portion, sits atop a lofty list as one of my favorite works of poetry of all time. The amount of thought poured into every nuance is nothing short of outstanding, not to mention the insight provided into what exactly eternal damnation might possibly entail in a highly creative manner.

That being said, from what I've seen of the game, it becomes absolutely clear that they've taken many creative liberties and while they do seem to draw characters, settings and a general theme from the source material, this is not meant to be visual accompaniment for the work. Nor should it be, as I don't think such a game would be very fun to play, despite the brilliance of the work.

From what I've seen, it does look very much like a God Of War meets Devil May Cry sort of experience, but with an art style and design that looks absolutely gorgeous, to say the least. I'd pick up this game for that reason alone, to be honest.

In what has become a bit of a worrying trend, the above has been quoted for truth. I'm no longer convinced I want this game, partially simply due to the fact that it seems that a lot of people who have played the demo (I haven't, yet) weren't that impressed. I might still like it, though, as I do love the source material and I have never played a GoW or DMC game to compare it to.

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN? Or perhaps buying a really good looking shirt?

I'm glad I am not the only one interested in this combination of epic poem and video game. R51 I think your interest is like mine; I liked the idea but wasn't sure about the game and I have never played a God of War or Devil May Cry game. The developer diaries on youtube and the demo are what really began my infatuation. The artwork really puts the sin of each circle of hell into the flesh of the enemies which makes the game distrubing but yet interesting.

Well, although it's extremely loose at best, Devil May Cry is an allegory to Inferno. Dante is guided through hell by Trish (Beatrice = bay-uh-TREECH-ay) and encounters Vergil. I've played all of the DMC and God of War games, and I like most of them a lot. But I'm not interested in this one. And not just because of the completely tasteless marketing campaign for it.

Honestly, the more I look at this game, the less impressed I am with it. It's trying to be edgy and create shock value without taking the action into account. The demo is pretty lame. Basically it's a God of War clone that's less fun and doesn't take advantage of strong source material. Some decent ideas, poor execution. If you like this kind of game, I'd look to Bayonetta.

This post has been edited by laszlow on 27th December 2009 04:32

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this is a blog mostly about comics and videogames
END SPOILER

I played through the demo today. Frankly, I'm not nearly as interested as I once was. The whole genre has never really attracted me, honestly, and the main thing that did attract me about DI was the source material.

Maybe the demo doesn't do the creepier, more hellish parts of the game justice, as the demo appears to take you only as far as the gate to Styx (I assume). But what I did see was a bit bland, and while really pretty, it just felt like a cheap interpretation of the source. What really kind of put me off was the fact that Beatrice is, in every scene, represented as at least partially nude - it seems like a sophomoric way to get shock or titillation from a game that shouldn't need it.

The game IS pretty, though, it really is. The heraldic tapestry style of illustration in some of the cutscenes is a fantastic choice, and the graphics really do look good. I just don't think that's enough to keep me interested, certainly not enough to think about getting the game at full price.

My wife happened to be in the room while I was playing through the demo, and she was even less impressed. I'm not surprised that the violence and gore turned her off, and the pointless nudity probably didn't help either. What I think was most telling about my experience with the DI demo is that I honestly couldn't justify either of those things to her. If that's the case, is it really a well-made game at all?

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN? Or perhaps buying a really good looking shirt?

A friend lent me the game and I beat it yesterday.
I have to say, that on the way through the Nine Circles of Hell there came up a few things that I fell absolutely in love with: the detailed design of the Circles, Vergil's spoken narratives taken straight from the Divine Comedy, some level and puzzle designs themsleves.
A special mention goes to Lucifer's great speech ("I stood alongside my fellow Angels!") which was totally predictably, but so well spoken and narrated, that it remains my favourite scene in the entire game.

I liked the "27 shades of the Inferno" - basically people who appeared in the Circles that Dante Alighieri assigned them to, that you could either punish or absolve, the choice of which I usually left to my knowledge of the character and how much I liked or disliked them. This led to an amusing scene when I entered the 5th circle and was about to face the sin of Wrath, and I said to myself "Dang, I probably won't like ANYONE here enough to absolve them.". First damned I meet? Boudica - one of my favourite rebellion leaders ever.

Some factors annoyed me, with my eternal foe, the automatic camera angle coming in first. With monsters that signal a light-speed attack by doing a pirouette this became really frustrating. I'm also not one to usually complain about graphics, but I regularly found myself asking "Is this really a PS3 game?"
Also, once I toned down the game from "Hellish" to "Zealot" (a sin of a gamer in itself, changing difficulty mid-game) after trying to get through a battle where the camera hated me more than usual for about four or five hours I found that the gap between difficulty levels is rather broad. Suddenly grab attacks from enemies dealt no damage before their QTEs and I could survive umpteen slices from a Seductress instead of three. Basically I could stop worrying about surviving and I could focus on killing instead. This made me wonder what "Infernal" difficulty is like, basic minions one-hit-kill you? And "Classic"? Do the monsters paint big target-marks on their bodies and ask you to slice them quickly so you can get to Lucifer ASAP?

The plot was okay, nothing new, nothing special, nothing bad. Plot twist at the end was so text-book I saw it coming from the very beginning.

The game had a lot of potential, but failed to live up to it fully. It's an okay hack'n'slasher, has an aesthetic and protagonist that appeal to me more in their respective roles than those of God of War (Kratos disgusts me and I find Dante Alighieri's Hell much more interesting thanwhat God of War took from Greek mythology) and I find a man stadning up to the forces of Hell a bit more believable than a man defeating Greel Gods, but that's just me.

To sum it up, if you have the chance, then play it, it's a fun time for a while, that is until the camera starts pissing you off.

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"I fell off the mountain of words at around the 10,000ft mark. Tell my family...they owe me money." -Narratorway

"If you retort against this, so help me God I'll shove any part of your anatomy I can find into some other part. Figuratively, of course." - Josh

"We have more, can deliver tuesday." - Del S

Good old CoN