Is there ever too much of a good thing? If you enjoy something very much, wouldn’t you like to have more of that something, thereby increasing your enjoyment? Why would anyone ever turn down something that they know they’ll enjoy? Why would anyone say they hate something because it is the same as something that they love? These are some, but not all, of the questions I hope to answer or at least ponder in my Dante’s Inferno review.

As I’m sure all of you know, oh loyal readers, Dante’s Inferno is a God of War clone. It has almost the exact same combo system, the exact same enemies, the exact same platforming, the exact same controls, the exact same everything. Many people have stated that, “Dante’s Inferno copies God of War in every way possible.” (Gamer.nl) But is that a bad thing? Did people complain that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare were pretty much the same game? That MW2 was merely a glorified expansion pack? Or the same can be said about Halo 3: ODST. Or how about Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2? It is a proven fact that, at least in the gaming community, cloning can be a wonderful thing.

I’m just gonna put the whole “clone” thing behind us. Well, let me quote one more gaming mag here. “People do not play games because they break new ground. People play games because they are fun.” (Official Playstation Magazine) That is from their review of God of War. And it really is true. I mean, don’t get me wrong. Games that can be incredibly groundbreaking do intrigue me. But it’s games like this, no matter how original they are, that I talk about with my friends all day long. So if game clones are at least fun, and clones of games that I like anyways, I’m sure to enjoy them at least slightly.

And in the dust we leave the whole cloning thing.

Dante’s Inferno is a great game. It contains all of the qualifiers modern gamers use to classify “great games.” It has a great story, great characters, great gameplay, great visuals, and a great challenge. The story, as most of you know, is the tale of a man descending through the 9 circles of Hell. Dante is an awesome lead character. He seems so vulnerable and fragile. Throughout the game, we learn of all the sins Dante has committed, and we as the player must fight our way through Hell to earn forgiveness and redemption. You also get to encounter some truly great boss (NSFW big scary boobies) characters in this game.

The fighting mechanics in this game are truly great, with an awesome combo system and a very interesting leveling-up experience tree. There are so many choices for things you can make your Dante into; everyone will have a different experience fighting through the Inferno. The route I went, I tried to go as holier-than-thou as possible, meaning that I absolved most of my enemies rather than punishing them. This creates an interesting dynamic because you can level up both the holy and evil paths, thus creating a character than can start to absolve an enemy with his giant cross, then rethink his decision and cut off the enemies head. It’s just a grand ol’ time indeed.

The difficulty of this game was in no way too easy or too hard. It was pretty much just right for me. I sometimes died more than a couple times fighting a boss or doing some crazy platforming stuff, but other than that I had no real trouble. On the Hard difficulty setting, the enemies made some fights quite a struggle, but the simple yet elegant combat system really shone through on these sections.

One last point I’d like to cover talking about this game is the art direction. I have to hand it to Visceral Games. The Hell that they created in this game is something I will undoubtedly think of for years to come. Each circle of hell had such an amazing look and feel. I was worried when I first heard about this game that it would just turn into a 10-hour lava level. But Visceral pulled out all the stops and took so much time and put so much intricate detail into their vision of Hell. I mean, the groundwork was laid 700 years ago, but the developers really helped bring Dante’s hellish vision to life.

And that’s really all I have to say about Dante’s Inferno. For the 12 or some odd hours I put into it, I had a complete blast. Before I played the game I was a complete nay-sayer, touting the greatness of God of War and shunning this as a dupe for people dumb enough to buy into EA’s ploy for more money. But I was dead wrong. Sure, it’s pretty damn similar to God of War, but who cares? Video games are made for people to have fun! So do yourself a favor and go rent this bad boy. It’s one hell of a ride.

P.S. Is this not one of the coolest game trailers you’ve seen in forever?