A lot of us aren't really sure how to take Dante's Inferno, and many gamers have dismissed it as EA's God of War knockoff.

True, the game does draw heavy inspiration from a famous piece of literature, like GoW does with Greek mythology (okay, so that's LOOSE inspiration), but a closed demo with Visceral Games shines new light on Dante's Inferno, renewing our interests.

The game looks... well, hard to describe Hell as "beautiful," but a lot of work went into the overall design of this game. Gameplay looks decent, but its biggest draw are its ties to The Divine Comedy. To their credit, Visceral Games is trying to keep the character designs close to the original descriptions in the epic poem (with the exception of Dante), just with a more gruesome touch.

We touch up on familiar names like Phlegyas, Minos, and Virgil.

Past experiences demand that we approach Dante's Inferno with skepticism, despite Visceral Games' (formerly known as EA Redwood Shores) impressive track record. We couldn't resist checking it out at this year's E3, when offered a closed demo by EA.

Here's some background information. Dante, the hero of the game and epic poem The Divine Comedy by Dante Aligheri, has prevented Death from taking his beloved Beatrice. But after driving Death away and looting his scythe, Beatrice still winds up getting sucked into Hell. Being the sensible action hero who thinks more with his muscles and man-bits than brains, Dante goes after her. Yes, he dives into Hell in order to save his lady-friend, who is easily seduced by Lucifer. They say the Devil is a handsome fellow, and all.

Once in Hell, you meet Virgil in Limbo. In contrast to the poem, Dante doesn't actually follow the guy around. Instead, Virgil just appears every so often and speaking to him is optional. He just sort of floats around narrating our hero's tale. Poor Virgil, his job must really suck.

As Dante travels through each circle of Hell, Beatrice's spirit remains beyond his grasp. Meanwhile, he has to face his own sins at every stage, like he's stuck within his personal Hell while traveling through Lucifer's domain.

RabidChinaGirl via neoseeker.com »