Death is coming for you? Just kick the shit out of him!

About two weeks ago, the demo of Dante’s Inferno became available to download for Xbox 360. When I saw the first trailer of Dante’s Inferno, the game immediately got my attention. So how does the demo stand out for me? Let’s find out!

The demo supposedly starts from the very beginning of the game when Dante is fighting in the city of Acre. Dante is almost immediately killed by an assassin and that’s when Death himself appears before him and tells Dante that he has been sentenced to eternal damnation! But Dante yells “Screw that!” and starts to fight him. The fight itself is pretty easy, you just dodge and shield yourself from Death’s attacks and hack him to bits. Dante then steals his scythe and kills him (Can you really kill Death?).

Dante then returns to his home, only to find that his lover Beatrice has been murdered. Beatrice is then dragged to hell and Dante begins his journey to save Beatrice.

Hack and slash your way through hordes of enemies!

The gameplay consists of you controlling Dante as he hacks and slash his way through hordes of enemies. Dante’s has two weapons: Death’s Scythe and a cross that he gets in the middle of the demo. Death’s Scythe can be used to deal powerful melee attacks and the cross is more like a ranged weapon that shoots out holy energy. I prefer to use the scythe because it pretty much destroys everyone around you. Near the end of the demo, you also get one magic spell which was some sort of powerful dash that knockbacks your enemies.

The game also has a “talent system”. As you kill enemies, you gain souls. You can use these souls to purchase different combo moves for your weapons. This purchase system seems quite nice as you get more powerful moves, but there seems to be some combo moves that require you to do some different button combinations.  Different button combination moves are not my thing, I just prefer to hack and slash my way through enemies.

Purchase powerful moves with souls!

The demo itself mainly consists of fighting with little platforming thrown into it, which seemed fluent enough. By the way, if you like quick time events, you will find plenty of it in Dante’s Inferno. Finishing moves, surviving boss attacks, even regenerating health requires you to tap the B button! While Dante’s Inferno’s QTEs are not “RAAAAGE!” worthy, they do give me some mild annoyance.

As far as the graphics go, the cutscenes look beautiful, especially the smoke effects, and the game itself runs smoothly even though you might be surrounded by 20 enemies and you are spamming large combo moves that fill the screen with blinding white light.

Overall, I did enjoy hacking and slashing my way through hordes and hordes of Hell’s minions and I really liked the vehicle part during the near end of the demo when you gain control of one of the gigantic beasts that the demons ride upon. I really hope that there are some awesome vehicle parts in the full version of the game.

Roar!

I am probably going to buy this game when it comes out as it really kept me interested. If you like 3rd person hack and slash games, such as God of War, then I do recommend this game for you.

Dante’s Inferno is scheduled to be released for both Xbox 360 and PS3 on February 9th in North America and February 12th in Europe.