Dante's Inferno Review

An interesting, but common phrase as a punch line, isn’t it? How many times have you heard or seen Go to Hell just this week? Odds are you’ve heard it a lot, whether from hearing someone saying it, television, or the Dante’s Inferno advertisements that are swarming around the Web right now. Ever since the game was announced, it has brought the excitement, cruelty, and controversy of the Christian Hell into the world of gamers.

Dante’s Inferno started to have criticisms during E3 last year when EA Games showed it off and there was a riot outside of E3 all weekend, full of Christian activists protesting against the game’s development. They were spouting things, such as Hell is not a Game! And Cheat Codes can’t Save your Soul! It was all over the gaming news in the coming weeks until, of course, EA confirmed that it was staged. That’s right, EA paid a bunch of actors to act like a mob of ****ed off Christians.

The game hit the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 back in February, and now has released on the PSP in both Europe and North America as of last Thursday. It was one of the rare releases that Europe actually got before North America did. But does the action-filled adventure of Dante transfer over to the PSP with epic brutality or does the portability render the experience useless? It’s a little bit of both, depending on what side you take for certain parts of this PSP port.


This game is big, and when I saw big, I mean big like God of War big. The transference from PS3/360 to PSP goes over very well. And in reality, it didn’t really “transfer” from the consoles to the PSP at all. It was developed by a separate company, and the only things that transferred over from the console versions were the cut scenes.

The game looks beautiful. Well, about as beautiful as Hell is going to get on this portable gaming system. The environments look near flawless, and your hunt for jagged edges within the environments isn’t going to come up with very much.

Now, if you really want to find jagged edges in this game, then your character models are where to find them. As you are running around with Dante, you’ll notice some jagged edges around him and some of his enemies. More so with him, because he is relatively lit up with his armor and scythe compared to the dark demons of hell. Aside from that, I couldn’t find many jagged line’s much of anywhere.

This envision of hell is very intense and graphic. If there is one M-Rated game that minors should never play from the content of the game, it’s this one. This game will show you why people never want to end up in Hell. It is brutal and will have you sick to your stomach at the sight of some of the minions that are running after you. One are in particular is the circle for Gluttony. The entire level is a physical manifestation of every sense of the word and will disgust you every step of the way. With that said, this game is NOT for those with a weak stomach, but how well they envisioned each element in each circle contributes to the feel that you really are in Hell.

The environments also have some things in them for you to pay attention to. Some areas could have a lava-filed waterfall in the background, or giant hell monsters walking around and occasionally spitting fire at you. It was well done and isn’t just a pre-rendered background image or anything like that. There’s a lot of movement going on.

One last thing I’ll mention are the cut scenes. They are magnificent. Why are they magnificent? They are because they are taken right out of the PS3/360 version of the game. That’s right. Every single cut scene is a pre rendered scene with next-gen HD graphics. It makes the cut scenes a lot more enjoyable and the higher graphics don’t slow them down one bit.


The sound effects for this version are exceptional. You can hear your scythe being repelled by a shield with a large metal clanging noise, or a large explosion when you use some of your Cross-Powers to blow your enemies away. The effects were well done and come through very well on the system.

Music was composed by Gary Schymann. If you follow PSP game soundtracks at all, you will recognize him as the man who composed all of the music for last year’s Resistance: Retribution, which I believe he did a magnificent job on. He also did a great job with this game. Once you boot it up, you’ll already hear epic, pounding chorus music to get you hyped up. Then you look and notice you’re only at the screen showing the company’s name? It’s epic and only gets better from there on. The music was very well done and is the same quality as the consoles.


Wait a minute? Is this a God of War title? The gameplay of Dante’s Inferno closely resembles that of God of War. Many people call it “God of War May Cry”, due to the use of the character’s Dante and Virgil, whom are what Devil May Cry’s Dante’s and Virgil’s names came from. Now that the brief DMC history lesson is over, let’s carry on…

This game plays just like a God of War game. Heck, even a lot of the combos are the same button combinations as combos from God of War games. That’s because there were some God of War developers involved with Dante’s Inferno, and it was meant to be just like it, but for Christian Mythology. The only difference is that Dante only has two primary weapons, the Scythe and his Cross, whereas Kratos normally has around 3 main weapons in God of War titles (excluding Chains of Olympus, where he has two). He also has magic he learns as he travels through the game, which uses up a Mana Gauge, which is shown with your health gauge.

The game closes off arenas to give you waves of enemies, just like God of War games and you can obtain Magic, Health, and Souls from defeating them, like in God of War games. The only difference is that Souls are known as Experience in God of War. They are used to buy upgrades, and the Souls are used for the same thing in Dante’s Inferno. There is also one other thing to defeating enemies. You can choose to either Punish or Absolve them. Punishing an enemy kills them and gives you Unholy points, which contributes to how many Unholy Upgrades you can access. Absolving enemies rewards them and they come into you, giving you Holy Points, which are for Holy Upgrades. You can also absolve wandering souls you encounter as you journey through hell. These people have brief descriptions of why they ended up where they ended up. You can always choose which one to do to them, Punish or Absolve, and it really doesn’t do anything other than giving you Holy/Unholy points.

Upgrades for Dante are split into two categories: Holy and Unholy. Upgrades do a number of things. Some give you new abilities and combos for you Scythe and Cross, while some upgrade your magic, and some increase your Mana and Health gauges. One other thing is Holy/Unholy Levels. When you get Holy/Unholy points from Punishing or Absolving enemies, they add to a total, which is like an experience gauge, and you can level up Holy and Unholy all the way up to Lv. 7. Leveling up powers up your weapons and gives you access to more abilities, so you’ll want to Punish/Absolve as many enemies as you can to get stronger.

There are fountains and statues around Hell that work in the same way as save points and chests in God of War. Beatrice Statues are save points and there are a number of different colored fountains. Green fountains restore health, Purple fountains restore Mana, and Red fountains give you souls. Another interactive thing you’ll see often is Virgil. Talking with him twice every time you see him will net you a few extra souls. It won’t be much, but it’s better than nothing.

One last thing about gameplay are the Judas Coins. These look like regular fountains, but are hidden in places you may not find very easily. Judas coins are hidden items that give you bonuses when you collect enough of them (5 nets you a bonus). There are 30 in total, so it’s worth it to seek them out as you play.

The lifespan is pretty decent. If you run through the Classic difficulty (The easiest), you could probably finish the game in around 6 hours, and it would likely take you an extra few hours for the higher difficulties. It’s not incredibly long, but also not incredibly short, making it a nice experience that progresses itself well.

All in all, Dante’s Inferno takes the gameplay formula from God of War and makes its own personalized adjustments to it to distinguish it as its own. It’s not groundbreaking, but it keeps the fun there, while giving you a few new things to mess around with as you battle your way through the minions of Hell.


The story for this game is based on a 13th Century poem, written by Dante Alighieri, titled Inferno, part of The Divine Comedy. It is based on a member of the Third Crusade, just after the Crusader Knights take the city of Acre. Dante nearly gets killed in battle, but after a grueling fight with Death himself, travels home to his lovely Beatrice. However, he comes home finding his father dead and Beatrice being dragged into Hell by Lucifer, right before his eyes. He then pursues them, determined to win the love of his life back from Lucifer’s grasp. As he travels through hell, he will have to face his own personal sins while pursuing the captive Beatrice.

The story is very good and well told. During each circle of hell, there are phases that shows Dante’s past in an anime-like sequence. The symbolic part of this is that it shows how Dante has commit sins for nearly every one of the 9 circles of Hell. Is the story going to bring a tear to your eyes? No. Of course not, but it will keep your attention throughout the entire tale, anticipating how it all will end. It also sets the stage for a second game, which would be based on Dante’s second poem, Pugatory.


Dante’s Inferno is a single-player experience, so there is no multiplayer. I cannot score this section because of the lack of multiplayer.


One thing I want to talk about before I finish are the unlockables. As far as the unlockables are concerned, this is where people sway against the PSP version of Dante’s Inferno. Along with the Judas Coins, the console versions of the game had Relics you could collect as you went through the game. And as far as “After you Beat the Game” content, the console versions had two extra playing modes.

These three factors are not present in the PSP version of the game, as well as a few of the upgrades. Why? Well, it’s because there wasn’t enough space for them on the UMD. As it is, the game is over 1700 Megs, meaning that there was less than 100 Megabytes left after the game was on there, which is far too little to add extra game modes with.

What the PSP version kept, aside from the Judas coins is New Game+, which allows you to carry your upgrades with you for another play through the game. The PSP version also has an exclusive unlockable, which is a Motion Comic Book, depicting part of Dante’s life, specifically his relationship with Beatrice. This lack of modes and a few upgrades have made many people hate the PSP version of the game, just because the console versions have those features. The core of the game is still here, but not a few extra things that aren’t necessarily mandatory for the game, just for some extra replay value.


Dante’s Inferno PSP may not have all of the content of its console brothers, but it is still one hell of a ride (pun intended). If you don’t have the consoles or want this game to be portable, you’re getting a great package with this game. All of the exciting and intense visions of Hell are alive and well in this portable version of the game. While it is well known that it would be a slightly better experience on the PS3 or 360, this stick packs a good punch.

DANG! this is an amazing review! I might check this game out.