A lot of people like to toss around the phrase "God of War Clone" but if a game stands on its own merits, wouldn't that just be more of a good thing? Dante's Inferno wasn't exactly an original title, in fact it's based off of one of the oldest stories in recorded history, but it still has plenty of content to sink your teeth into. It's full of fascinating lore and ridiculously grotesque demons through a realm that is not very savory. Hell really looks like Hell, all the way down to the levels you have to go through. All of them are based off of the sins that humans are guilty of. Dante himself is a bit of a "simp" but his heart is in the right place.
Dante is a bit of a badass in some instances, though. He starts off as a soldier in the crusades and ends up dying by some random soldier stabbing him in the back. After dying in such an embarrassing way, though, he automatically owns Death himself and steals his scythe. This scythe is the main weapon you have throughout the rest of the game and you have an entire array of others in your arsenal with which to use. After a lot of upgrades, the shining cross you use as a projectile becomes a little broken and overly powerful, but that plays into a nice power fantasy. There are combinations and different skills you can use to either condemn souls to hell for powerups or forgive souls to help you in the long run. Dante becomes a bit of a divine entity in and of himself because of his enormous power by the end of it.
This is barely even scratching the surface, as the minions of hell are vast and really nasty. This is especially true when you arrive in the Lust Level of Hell, where it's quite easy to become scaroused. The main villain of lust is definitely not for the prudish at heart. She is a sight to behold and if you find yourself finding the Rule 34 for this particular demon, be sure to check into nice pricey therapy because something is AWESOMELY wrong with your brain.
The mechanics to battle the forces of Hell are also quite vast. This includes being able to take control of huge beasts with which to stomp and smash your enemies before cooking them with fire breath. The boss battles and mini-bosses do get a little heavy with the Quick Time Events, but that's not a huge element of surprise. It's just a passing annoyance to get to some awesome kills. There's even a giant head at the gates of Hell that look after all of the new souls, you end up ripping his head off of the boat over the River Styx before just throwing him in.
Compare this to God of War all you want, this game still goes hard and is good in its own right. If you play this game first, you'd probably never know it was popularly considered a knockoff. The game goes hard and it does not censor itself for anyone. The cutscenes and the girlfriend are all very NSFW and in the most glorious ways. It can be disgusting at times, especially if you don't want to see demon babies coming at you. You know, they just called them the unbaptized babies that died in infancy and called it a day. There are all kinds of unsettling things like this in the game, it's really just a matter of getting used to it.
Some of the puzzles are a little tedious. The puzzles aren't hard to figure out, it's just moving everything into place can be seen as a bit of a waste of time, especially when you're just in it to killing the minions with your powerful scythe! Along with the puzzles, there are plenty of platforming sections that are also a tiny bit annoying at times. This is especially true when you are on a timer and the platform continuously falls out from under you. Fire traps and low levels of healing fountains can be a bit of an issue, especially in the middle sections of the game. With the Holy abilities, you can heal yourself through combat and that does sort of get the power fantasy broken elements ramped up. By the end of the game, you're just sort of skating through the minions with very little effort.
The whole time, you're just looking for your girlfriend, with whom you were unfaithful. She dies and ends up resenting you throughout your journey through Hell. If I'm being completely honest, she becomes sort of a noncharacter as time goes on and her whinging starts to make me skip the cutscenes. The fact that Satan becomes especially interested in her is a bit farfetched. Out of all of the boss battles, Satan's is a bit disappointing, but I won't spoil too much. The game is still a good six or seven hours of bloody tearing through demons without the need to be Doomguy. Dante and Doomguy would be an interesting teamup to take down Hell itself. The demons will keep coming, though, so there is plenty to grind through. Virtua Dismemberment!
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