Why Dante’s Inferno Is Missed Potential

By: Michael Carusi | March 1st, 2010

Though I never had the chance to review Dante’s Inferno, that wasn’t going to stop me from actually playing it.  The opinions I’d heard prior to playing it ran both ends of the love-hate spectrum: Some people thought it belonged in heaven, some people wanted to cast it down to the ninth circle of hell to join Lucifer.  As a result I didn’t have too much of an impression heading into the game.  My verdict would be that it’s solid and plays decently enough, but it runs out of momentum and it could have been a lot more.

First, let me hang a disclaimer over this pseudo-review: Yes, I will be comparing Dante’s Inferno to God of War.  The fact is, God of War hits a few significant notes that Dante’s Inferno missed, which is why Dante’s Inferno can never be anything more than decent.  What do I mean by this?  Read on.

The first problem is with Dante.  To the game’s credit I like the reimagining of Dante as a character, and his back story is fairly interesting.  Unfortunately, the writers fell into the familiar trap of trying to make him too sympathetic despite being a testosterone loaded juggernaut.  In God of War Kratos has a tragic past but it doesn’t wholly define his exploits or his brutality.  Because of Kratos’ bloodlust his few vulnerable moments regarding his family only seemed more authentic, since they eventually flared up his rage even further.  This helped us accept that Kratos was indeed human, but it took a backseat to his merciless nature.

In Dante’s Inferno the problem is that in between viscerally murdering demons in more ways than I could begin to count, the writers expect us to see Dante as a tragic, sympathetic character first and a psychopath second.  They try a little too hard at making him seem like a nice guy.  It’s sort of like Dominic from Gears of War 2 when he started going on about his wife Maria.  With Dominic’s steroid-beefed form and colossal chin did you take any of those talks seriously?  At the very least I imagine it was relatively hard to do.

This also feels like a cheap shot, but Dante’s face has an uncanny valley look to it whenever he speaks.  His mouth opens and closes mechanically and there’s no expressiveness on his face at all.  I expect more than a blank cardboard look when Dante is confronting the lord of darkness who made Dante watch as he and Beatrice engaged in a rather creepily intense make out session.

I know a lot of reviews touched on this already, but after a very atmospheric and immersive first half, Dante’s Inferno quickly starts to lose steam.  The early circles of Hell were extremely creative and actually made me a little nauseous in a few situations, but repetition and boredom reared their ugly heads in the second half.  One of the circles is a series of shamelessly repeated tasks, and later circles have this bizarre tendency to take place in smaller, closed-in areas.  It’s like the dev team just ran out of time or money.  It’s odd to see this from a talented studio like Visceral Games, which has brought us immersive titles like Dead Space.

I’m going to go the extra mile and say even the early circles of Hell didn’t utilize enough juicy material from its source text.  I’ll spare everyone the details (read a book, people) but the Divine Comedy could have been put to fantastic use in terms of level design and creative atmosphere, and it seems like a real missed opportunity.

Thus we come to the final problem: Lucifer is, as a character, simply not intimidating.  Part of it is the design.  I guess the idea behind him was to show him as an older, decayed figure, but the effect backfires to the point where it’s just hard to take him seriously.  They also over-designed him; that is to say, the artists seemed to try a little too hard to make him look evil.  The hooves, the antlers, and the decayed face almost make him look silly during the final cutscene.  His voice actor fell into the same trap of trying as hard as possible to sound evil and the result being just overdoing it.  I actually chuckled when Lucifer said “I am so sick of you!”, and I don’t think that was the effect the writers were going for.

What made Zeus such a compelling character in God of War II was the sense of power and command he always had whenever you saw him.  His design was simple but significant, and it was easy to see him as an intimidating antagonist.  Even little details like his eyes having no pupils went a look way in making Zeus look very much like a deity.  Similarly, his voice had a resonating tone behind it, like the voice of someone used to giving commands, orders, or judgments.  Lucifer’s voice actor just seemed a little lost in what he wanted Lucifer to be.

So just to recap, Dante’s Inferno isn’t bad.  It plays well enough and the early circles of Hell are fantastically designed.  It feels like a sleek car that roared to life but only had about a third of a tank of gas and didn’t get the maintenance it needed.  I wouldn’t say there’s something wrong with copying a good game in order to make another good game, but what got copied from God of War was the solid gameplay mechanics alone.  Copying atmosphere, presence, and believability can’t be done nearly as easily.