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Chronicles

RyuBlitz has 18 chronicles

  1. RyuBlitz Review: Dante's Inferno

    Player Chronicle -- Posted on Feb 23 2010

    By: Zach Ellsbury
    February 16, 2010

    “Abandon all hope, all ye who enter here.”

    Dante’s Inferno, the latest action-adventure release from Visceral Games, is intense, beautiful, and controversial. Inspired by the 14th Century poet Dante Alighieri’s classic poem Inferno, this game follows Dante in his trek through the 9 circles of Hell as he tries to rescue the beautiful and innocent Beatrice, whose soul has been claimed by Lucifer himself. With smooth combat, a variety of intricate puzzles, and a stunning landscape, Dante’s Inferno provides an exciting and intriguing adventure through the depths of Hell.

    Graphics
    Through and through, this game looks great. Every circle lends itself well to the punishments depicted in the Inferno, with subtle notions of the hell the other inhabitants are enduring. Character models are very well-detailed, and the design of the sin-inspired enemies are true to their elements.

    The implementation of the graphics is possibly what stands out most in this game, however. This game has almost no load time whatsoever. As you progress through the game, everything is loaded in the background, or masked by relevant cutscenes. This grants an unusually fluid transition from circle to circle as the player progresses, keeping the player in the heat of the moment at every turn.

    Gameplay
    The gameplay in Dante’s Inferno is smooth, responsive, and generally sensible. General movement is very fluid and responsive, and Hell’s many obstacles are simple to navigate. (Staying out of danger in the process, however, is another story.) My only gripe with the game, though, is with the frequent use of button-mashing quick-time events. Some of the QTE are very well done; instances such as the fight against Minos or the final scenario with Cleopatra seem very theatrical, and make you feel like you really did just take down one of the guardians of Hell. However, there are many other occasions where if you want to heal, open a door, or punish/absolve an enemy, you’ll have to mash the B button as fast as you can. While the system seems intriguing at first, it can get a bit old by the end of the playthrough.

    The game’s combat system more than makes up for this shortcoming, though. With Death’s Scythe, a Holy Cross, and a battery of magic and combos at your disposal, there are plenty of ways to dispose of the oncoming demons. Basic attacks and combos are extremely simple to use, and the different combos flow together like a work of art. The dodging and countering systems are very simple to learn, but take a bit of effort to perfect. Once you can use them, though, the game’s combat becomes very entertaining, if not a bit easy. For this reason, if you are looking for a challenge, definitely play on the highest difficulties.

    Controversy
    As entertaining as this game may be, it is definitely designed and intended for a mature audience. From the beginning, there is a large amount of nudity and other controversial concepts. If slashing through an immense horde of unbaptized babies doesn’t faze you at least once, there might be something wrong with you.

    Rankings
    Graphics: 10/10
    Gameplay: 9.5/10
    Story: 9/10
    Difficulty: Low/Medium
    Full Gamerscore Time: 12-15 hours

    Overall, this is an amazing game to behold. With fluid combat, interesting puzzles, and astounding graphics, you will find yourself quickly losing track of time as you battle through the circles of Hell. If you aren’t put off by a bit of nudity or other mature topics in a game, then I highly recommend that you buy this game.



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Chronicle Comments

RyuBlitz has 3 comment s on this chronicle.

  1. Silent Bob Silent Bob
    Posted On Feb 25 2010

    I'm with Ryu on loving this game. I've played through it three times now (but not yet on the hardest difficulty). I got all 1000/1000 on my very last playthrough - there was a coin I missed the first couple times, and I finally figured out the jump to get to the shade on the level with the rotating wooden cogs.

    Some of the puzzles were mindbending, especially the transporter mirrors level. The game mixed up straight combat with puzzle solving and exploration (for collectibles) so that you were always waiting to see what the next circle of hell had waiting for you.

    My first playthrough I maxed out the Holy Path, so naturally I went the other way the second time around. Holy actually has more powerful unlockable abilities, and cross attacks (with the right combination of relics) are necessary for challenges later in the game.

    Other than the unbaptized babies with knife arms you have to kill, probably the only really controversial things you'll see are in the Lust realm. I won't spoil the surprises - some of them have to be seen to be believed.

    The levels are all pretty unique until you get to the eighth circle, which has ten circles within it, all with different challenges to face. A couple of them took a few tries to pass, including the Stay in the Air for 8 Seconds. Some people had problems with the 100-combo challenge, but it's really a no-brainer if you have the relics equipped that don't interrupt your cross attacks if you get hit couple with the one that increases the window for chaining a combo. This was the only part of the game that seemed tedious at all, and the only reason I'd knock it down a 1/2 grade or so.

    The single most frustrating part for me was a room where you jump up to a ledge, throw a lever, then jump back down and throw another lever, racing back to get back up the ledge before a huge spiked platform crashes down upon you. It literally took me an hour on the first playthrough to get past this. Once I figured out the timing, it seemed silly it took me that long to get through it.

    The facial animation for Lucifer in a certain cutscene at the end of the game is probably the BEST I've ever seen in a game.

    I'm not one to take too much stock in reviews, so to see lots of magazines giving this only 7 or 8 out of 10 seemed a bit harsh. I had an absolute BLAST playing this (obviously - why else would I finish it 3 times?). This is the most fun I've had with a game since Bayonetta.

  2. BEN BEN
    Posted On Feb 24 2010

    Nudity and other mature topics? Count me in! haha.

    Seriously though, great review and I also appreciate your insight on these video game reviews. I'm kind of surprise to see such high marks, but I know you wouldn't just throw out 10/10 ratings, so I guess this is a pretty sick game.

    Like ZMaine said, I also wish we had more content like this from you, but I suppose I like new technology/development within the community even more Wink

  3. ZMaine ZMaine
    Posted On Feb 23 2010

    Nice review. I hope to see more reviews from you in the future.