First impressions: Dante's Inferno

I've spend the morning playing some more Mass Effect 2, writing up a review of Dark Void, trying to chase down a USB extension cable for an Xbox 360 wireless network adapter, and playing some of Dante's Inferno.

I've also had a look at the new Xbox Insider menu on Xbox Live, which offers tips such as Xbox 101 (how to enable and disable notification), some combat advice for Mass Effect 2, and fans' tips for the Superbowl.

Yesterday, Aeneas asked for some first impression on Dante's Inferno and so after playing for a couple of hours, I've decided to give you some. This isn't a final review, remember, just my take on the game so far. There might be some spoiler information involved but I'll try to keep it to a minimum.

The game tells the tale of knight Dante as he descends through the nine rings of hell searching for the soul of his slain love, Beatrice. As he does so he comes across all manner of beasts, such as horned minotaur-like creatures, flaming corpses, and babies with blades for arms. Yes, babies with blades for arms. There's just something not right about that!

As I said yesterday, I'm still sticking with my assertion that Dante's Inferno is a God of War clone, mainly because, well, it borrows so much from that game (Darksiders, too, is guilty of borrowing elements from other games.)

Dante starts out with an axe but soon ends up with Death's scythe, and by collecting souls he can upgrade his attacks, which start out with light and heavy moves, but he can launch enemies into the air, grab enemies and smash them into the ground and impale them on his scythe.

Dante can also do finishing moves to the larger foes. I'm playing the PlayStation 3 version and when a large beast is close to death, you pull R2 then follow the on-screen prompts, pressing the appropriate triangle, X, square or circle button, at the right time, to finish it off. 

He can also absolve or punish the beings that he comes across, and in the case of literary figures that he'll come across during his journey - I came across Pontius Pilate and Orpheus this morning - it means either ripping them in half to pay for their foul deeds or freeing them from their torment.

Now, I've never been to Hell on a holiday but developer Visceral Games have created a game world that I wouldn't like to visit during my Summer holidays. There's plenty of fire and brimstone and it seems to be a gruesome place, rather than overly scary. Screams echo all around, the walls that Dante climbs up and down are filled with tormented souls, and in a couple of occasions I saw soul "waterfalls" - dozens of souls just cascading down a rock face like a waterfall.

Early on, one of the huge monsters that Dante comes across is Hell's mythical ferryman, Charon, a huge head with fiery eyes merged with the huge barge that ferries the lost and damned across the river Acheron. I have just met King Minos, the blind judge, jury and executioner of Hell who judges the damned and sends them off - gruesomely - to their final destination.

So that's my impressions so far - again, please remember, it's not a review. My journey into Hell so far has been an entertaining experience, but I just can't shake that niggling voice in the back of my head that keeps saying "that was just like in God of War 2".

What do you plan to play over the weekend?

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